DAR AL HARB - AUSTRALIA: "UNCOVERED MEAT" & "WHITE CONVICTS" MOSLEM CLERIC RECEIVES SUGGESTIONS TO STAY IN EGYPT

Amusement, anger in Australia over Muslim cleric's 'convict' jibe

SYDNEY : A top Islamic cleric's mockery of the convict ancestry of many white Australians met Friday with a mixture of amusement and anger from the government.

Prime Minister John Howard laughed off the jibe by the controversial Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, but some of his ministers suggested the cleric should leave the country.

Hilali made the comments in an interview on Egyptian television while explaining a controversy he provoked last year by comparing scantily dressed women to "uncovered meat" inviting sexual attack.

He said Australian law guaranteed freedoms to the point of insanity and suggested that Muslims had a greater claim to the country than the descendants of the British settlers.

"The Anglo-Saxons arrived in Australia in shackles. We (Muslims) came as free people. We bought our own tickets. We are entitled to Australia more than they are," he said.

Howard dismissed the jibe. "I think it will bring a wry smile to the face of Australians who don't actually feel the least bit offended that many of our ancestors came here as convicts.

"It's almost a badge of honour for many Australians," he told reporters.

...

Egyptian-born Hilali also accused his non-Islamic countrymen of being liars.

"They are the biggest liars, the western people, especially the English people," he said.

And he claimed Australia's courts were racist for sentencing an Islamic gang-rape leader to 55 years in prison.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone told national radio that if the cleric did not like Australia, he did not have to return to the country from his trip to Egypt.

She said her office had received a large number of calls from people who were outraged by the reported comments.

Federal opposition leader Kevin Rudd also suggested the cleric remain in Egypt, adding: "Sheikh Hilali increasingly strikes me as being several sandwiches short of a picnic."

The executive director of a Muslim community group, the Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations, said the comments did not represent the views of the majority of the Muslim community.

"I would like to reiterate to all Australians, including our people of Anglo-Saxon heritage, that there is no substance to the idea that Muslims have more of a right to Australia than the early settlers," Kuranda Seyit said in a statement.

"We are all just shell-shocked. Muslims just want to get along and be a part of the nation, not as outsiders whom others only see with disdain," he said.

Seyit said he was saddened the mufti had made more divisive comments and suggested he should be forced to retire early.


Pertinent Links:

1) Amusement, anger in Australia over Muslim cleric's 'convict' jibe