Back To The Future

Like the movie, the more you consider the attitudes of people indoctrinated under the precepts of Islam, the more you can see where these individuals are trying to return. This Australian news item further illustrates the 7th century mindset of Islam.

The nation's most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don't wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned "meat" that attracts voracious animals.

There is room for debate here, is the key ingredient the abandoned meat or the voracious animal? Chicken or the egg? But no matter, Australia's most senior cleric, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali , hits bottom and keeps right on digging.

[...]brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years".

I wish we had some judges like that in the USA. There are far too few judges who are willing to lower the boom on men who brutalize women in this fashion. The Sheik's comments were made in response to a series of brutal gang rapes in Sydney where at least six woman (actually teenagers) were attacked by a group of Lebanese immigrants. The rapist ring leader, Bilal Skaf, was originally sentenced to 55 years in prison. This was reduced after an appeal.

In the religious address on adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?

Cats? What about dogs and flies? If you are looking for an appropriate metaphor for rapists, I believe "cats" falls somewhat below the horizon. My problem is that this nutcase who represents the worshippers of Allah throughout Australia, refers to women as inanimate pieces of flesh, possessing no will, no soul. Simply receptacles for whomever comes strolling by. Mohammed had at least sixteen wives. Perhaps this attitude is infectious.

"It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa)."

Leave it to a fruitcake muslim cleric to rate an saucy look and lack of a headdress as more effective than a gun, a knife or closed fist in committing a crime. In all fairness the cleric, once the storm of criticism had reached a peak, backtracked like crazy, saying that in all circumstances a man must control himself. But the damage was done. One muslim woman said she was

"disgusted and offended" by sheik Hilali's comments. "I find it very offensive that a man who considers himself as a mufti, a leader of Australia's Muslims, can give comment that lacks intelligence and common sense."

This was said by Ms. Iktimal Hage-Ali , a Muslim advisor who has forsaken the wearing of the traditional headscarf (hijab). Ms. Hage-Ali also stated that:

[...] the Islamic headdress was not a "tool" worn to prevent rape and sexual harassment. "It's a symbol that readily identifies you as being Muslim, but just because you don't wear the headscarf doesn't mean that you're considered fresh meat for sale,"

That about sums it up. The Sheik's initial remarks were perhaps the most revealing about his attitudes towards women. Judging by the status of women in many muslim nations, it appears that this attitude is pretty dominant among muslim men.