AUSTRALIA: ***UPDATE***WOMEN ARE TO BLAME FOR RAPE***UPDATE***

Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali expressed the Islamic point of view that women are to blame for being raped, he has set of a whirlwind of condemnation from Australians.

In order to appease/lessen the whirlwind it appears that Sheik al-Hilali is going to take a 3 month break from preaching:

No more sermons for Muslim cleric

SHEIK Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, the Muslim leader at the centre of a storm over comments blaming women for rape, will be giving no more sermons for several months at Lakemba mosque, senior Muslims said.

But no further action is to be taken against Australia's top Muslim cleric for likening scantily-dressed women to uncovered meat and saying they're responsible for sexual attacks.

...

Sheik al-Hilali also tendered an apology:

Muslim cleric in Australia apologizes for comparing women to 'uncovered meat'

SYDNEY: Australia's most senior Islamic cleric issued an apology Thursday after triggering outrage for describing scantily clad women without headscarves as "uncovered meat" inviting sexual attack. The comments were condemned by other Muslim leaders and Prime Minister John Howard, while the government's sex discrimination commissioner said he should be deported.

"I unreservedly apologize to any woman who is offended by my comments," the cleric, Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, said after a backlash from politicians, community leaders and the Muslim community.

"I had only intended to protect women's honor, something lost in the Australian presentation of my talk," he said.

Hilali made the comments in a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers last month in which he criticized women who "sway suggestively," wear make-up and no hijab or Islamic headscarf, Australian media reported.

"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?" he asked. "The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."

Howard said the comments were "appalling and reprehensible," adding: "The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous."

Obviously Sheik al-Halili felt the need to have a woman "uncovered meat" to come to his defense, because voila, we have his daughter "uncovered meat" defending him:

Daughter defends Muslim cleric

THE daughter of besieged Muslim cleric Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly said his comments have been misinterpreted and the media should "leave him alone".

Asma al-Hilaly said her father comments implying that immodestly dressed women invite sexual attacks were not his own words.

She said the offending quote, likening women to uncovered meat tempting cats to eat it, was offered to a group of old men as a way urging them, to teach their daughters to be modest.

"All I'm saying is that what he said was (taken) out of context," Ms al-Hilaly told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"Leave him alone. He is a sick man.

"He was in a house of God. He was only preaching to a group of old men. And his only concern was for them to keep their daughters modest.

"It all got out of context, blown out of proportion out of something little. Move on."

Ms al-Hilaly said her father was misinterpreted by unfair translation of the sermon.

"He was not inviting people to rape (women). That's the thing that was out of context," she said.

"He was just teaching women to be modest."

Sheik al-Hilaly outraged Muslim community leaders and federal and state politicians with his comments, made during a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month.

Excerpts from a recording of the 17-minute sermon appeared in The Australian newspaper yesterday.

The Sheik alluded to rapes in 2000 in which four women were separately gang-raped by young Muslim men, including Bilal Skaf, who received a 55-year jail sentence, later reduced.

He said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and inappropriate clothes, "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years", The Australian reported.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the 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," the sheik asked.

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (head scarf), no problem would have occurred."

Whose words were they Ms. al-Hilali?!?

No one said he was inviting men to rape women, he was providing an EXCUSE FOR MEN THAT HAVE RAPED WOMEN and that MAY RAPE WOMEN IN THE FUTURE...

My original post concerning this story:

Muslim leader blames women for sex attacks