The Religion Of 'Love And Tolerance' Strikes Again

Australia's most prominent Islamic cleric Sheik al-Hilali won't resign for suggesting that women who don't wear head scarves invite rape, saying he would only leave his post "after we clean the world of the White House first." His words drew cheers and applause from supporters. al-Hilali, 65, is an Egyptian-born Sunni and the top cleric at Sydney's largest mosque, and is considered the most senior Islamic leader by many Muslims in Australia and New Zealand.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?," he said. "The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab [Muslim head scarf], no problem would have occurred."

The president of Sydney's Lakemba Mosque Association said al-Hilali "provided us with an unequivocal apology" for his comments. An al-Hilali supporter said comments were misinterpreted in the same way Pope Benedict XVI was misunderstood after giving a speech last month quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor who linked Islam and violence. He said al-Hilali was quoting an ancient scholar called al-Rafihi. "They weren't his words; he was quoting an ancient scholar and that's exactly what happened with the pope," he said.

al-Hilali also faced pressure from within Australia's Muslim community. A spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria state said the sheik should resign. He has been banned from giving sermons for two or three months by the governing association of his Sydney mosque. Prime Minister John Howard warned that Australian Muslims could be perceived as supporting al-Hilali's views if he remained a religious leader. "If it is not resolved, then unfortunately people will run around saying: 'Well, the reason they didn't get rid of him is because secretly some of them support his views,'" Howard said.

The controversy comes amid tense relations between Australia's estimated 300,000 Muslims and the rest of the roughly 20 million of mostly Christian background. Last December, the nation was gripped by riots that often pitted gangs of white youths against youths of Middle Eastern decent.

al-Hilali is a staunch critic of Australia's alliance with the U.S. in the Iraq war. In 2004, he was criticized for saying that the September 11 attacks were "God's work against the oppressors," though he later said he did not mean he supported the attacks or terrorism.