Psycho4Bud
10-27-2006, 06:00 PM
Australiaâ??s most senior Islamic cleric has defiantly refused to resign over remarks comparing unveiled women to uncovered meat, saying that he would only step down when the White House was "cleaned" out.
Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, who caused outrage by suggesting that women who chose not to cover themselves invited rape, was instead suspended from preaching for two to three months by the board of Sydneyâ??s Lakemba Mosque Association.
But the ban has been deemed an insufficient response by critics - including John Howard, the countryâ??s Prime Minister - who have called for the clericâ??s resignation and urged the Muslim community to act decisively to repudiate his assertions.
Asked today if he would step down, the cleric, who was welcoming worshippers to Friday prayers at the mosque, responded with a verbal assault on the US President, saying: "After we clean the world of the White House first".
His spokesman said later that the cleric was making the point that George Bushâ??s foreign policy and invasion of Iraq were more deserving of criticism than a sermon. "He says heâ??s just a frail old cleric, not the President of the United States, and the media should not be so pedantic about his words," Keysar Trad said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2424864,00.html
Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, who caused outrage by suggesting that women who chose not to cover themselves invited rape, was instead suspended from preaching for two to three months by the board of Sydneyâ??s Lakemba Mosque Association.
But the ban has been deemed an insufficient response by critics - including John Howard, the countryâ??s Prime Minister - who have called for the clericâ??s resignation and urged the Muslim community to act decisively to repudiate his assertions.
Asked today if he would step down, the cleric, who was welcoming worshippers to Friday prayers at the mosque, responded with a verbal assault on the US President, saying: "After we clean the world of the White House first".
His spokesman said later that the cleric was making the point that George Bushâ??s foreign policy and invasion of Iraq were more deserving of criticism than a sermon. "He says heâ??s just a frail old cleric, not the President of the United States, and the media should not be so pedantic about his words," Keysar Trad said.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2424864,00.html