Catmeat Sheikh Replaced with Bin Laden Supporter
While you were sleeping, Australia’s Islamic community was replacing the Australian Mufti, “catmeat sheikh” Taj Al-Din Al-Hilali.
With another raving Dark Ages fanatic, naturally.
Waleed Aly means it:
“If you defend your country you are doing Jihad so we’ll do Jihad for Australia, to defend Australia.”
OUTGOING Islamic leader Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali did a bad job and embarrassed Australia’s Muslims, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
Sheik Hilali stood down from the position of Mufti of Australia yesterday.
The move followed a series of controversial remarks by the Muslim leader in the past year.
“I have to say I think that Sheik Hilali has done a very bad job as the leader of the Islamic community,” Mr Downer said on Sky News.
“I know many Muslims who have been embarrassed by him and have felt he hasn’t done Islamic Australia any good at all. Him standing down and a new mufti taking over, it has to be a step forward.”
* Downer must be living in another universe. He must be talking about those elusive ‘moderate Muslims’ – those that resemble something between Bigfoot and the Yeti
The former mufti’s spokesman, Keysar Trad, said Sheik Hilali stepped down because of constant government pressure, with Prime Minister John Howard and Mr Downer telling the Muslim community for six months to find a new mufti.
Mr Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said there had been veiled threats to withdraw government funding from Muslim communities and some government ministers had threatened not to attend events if the sheik was there.
* Its all about the jiziya, right Keysar?
Sheik Hilali sparked outrage by describing scantily clad women as “uncovered meat” and joking about notorious gang rapes by young Muslim men.
He also said Muslims had more right to be in Australia than people brought to the country in chains as convicts.
“They are playing the man and not the ball. If something can be misinterpreted or carry ambiguity, they will go for the worst possible spin, so the mufti has decided to step down and let someone else take the pressure.”
He said the council of imams also had appeared to bow to pressure because it did not insist that the sheik continue in his role as mufti.
“Under normal circumstances they would say, `no way’ and insist he continue as mufti and not step aside,” Mr Trad said.
He described the new mufti, Sheik Fehmi El-Imam, as “a very nice man”.
“It appears the media likes him and people in the Muslim community like him.”
Mr Trad rejected calls for the position of mufti to be abandoned altogether, saying such demands came from people ignorant of the religion.
“The position of mufti is not like the Pope,” Mr Trad said.
“The mufti takes it upon himself to find answers to difficult theological questions. These people calling for the position to be scrapped are acting out of vested interests or gross misunderstanding of the significance of this position.”
* Why should we care?
Australia’s imams elected 79-year-old Sheik Imam to the role when Sheik Hilali said he would not seek re-election.
Today, Sheik Imam defended his predecessor, saying Sheik Hilali was misunderstood.
In his first press conference, Sheik Imam said the Australian media should be more open-minded.
Al-Hilali, you see, like so many other Islamic spokesmen, and like the core Islamic texts, is simply operating at another level. Mere infidels can’t understand him, or the Qur’an, or anything else Islamic. When they call for jihad against infidels, when al-Hilali says women are to blame if they are raped, their words don’t mean what they appear to mean. When the Qur’an says a man may beat his disobedient wife, it doesn’t really mean what it appears to mean. It is all just so complex, you see. So easily misunderstood. When al-Hilali’s words are reported, it is the media’s fault. Not his. When someone writes about what the Qur’an actually says, he does it because he hates Islam and Muslims. Got it now?
He said his predecessor of 18 years did more good than he was given credit for.
“Maybe sometimes you may let your tongue go too far,” Sheik Imam said in Melbourne.
“I know that, but still, maybe he didn’t mean to harm others but the way he put it sometimes didn’t sound to others as pleasant as you want it.”
The new Mufti said the public should remember Sheik Hilali travelled to Iraq “in the midst of battle” to help free kidnapped Australian businessman Douglas Wood.
* Hilali travelled, that’s correct.
But never ‘in the heat of battle’- and nothing, absolutely NOTHING he did helped Douglas Wood in his predicament.
Hold your BS, mufti…
He called for greater co-operation between the Muslim community and the media.
“I want it to be a good relationship all the way, sometimes people say `we don’t like media’ I say let us like media … and let us like each other, let us know how to live with each other, how to handle each other, how to deal with each other.”
* What he wants is censorship and NO criticism of Islam in the media, simple really.
On the defensive…Australia’s new Mufti, Sheik Fehmi Naji el-Imam refuses to accept Osama bin Laden was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the US. / The Daily Telegraph
Sheik Imam has been described as a gentle soul who will not be as high-profile as his predecessor.
Director of the Islamic Council of Victoria Waleed Aly said Sheik Imam was widely respected.
“He is a very gentle soul,” Mr Aly said on ABC radio.
“He’s been around as an imam in Australia for some 50-odd years, he has got an Order of Australia, he is very widely respected and highly regarded in Victoria.
“He wants to ensure that Muslims and non-Muslim Australians are pulling in the same direction and that there’s a convivial relationship between the two.
“I think what you will find is someone who is slightly less high-profile in the role than previously.”
Sheik imam came to Australia from Lebanon in 1951 and is senior imam at the Preston Mosque.
He was elected Mufti for a two-year term.
Minders today barred him from answering questions about his views on the Iraq war but when quizzed about Jihad (holy war), the Muslim leader was more forthcoming.
He said the Muslim community would declare Jihad to defend Australia if the country was under attack.
“If you defend your country you are doing Jihad so we’ll do Jihad for Australia, to defend Australia.”
* Ahem. Nobody asked the mufti to defend Australia. But interesting:
Who would the Muslim community fight for, if Indonesia, a Muslim nation, invaded us tomorrow?
*
I am guessing they would’t fight for Australia against Indonesia or any other muslim entity. As I understand things the koran wouldn’t allow it.
“…let us know how to live with each other, how to handle each other, how to deal with each other.â€
Is it just me, or does that sound menacing?
I can just imagine these guys fighting for Australia- infidels will be required to stand behind them with guns aimed right at them at all times.
So they’ve replaced the pig with an ape, Daffy Duck would have more credibility than anything these bullsh!t artists could come up with and the people of Australia know it…