MUSLIM leaders will decide on the future of controversial Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly tonight. Sheik Hilaly has said he will stand down if he is proved to have been deliberately offensive in his sermon that suggested women provoked sexual attacks.A meeting of senior clerics and the Lebanese Muslim Association was planned for 9pm (AEDT) tonight at Lakemba Mosque, in Sydney's west, Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Keysar Trad said today. "It is open to clerics who want to go, and they will be mostly from NSW," Mr Trad said.
Sheik Hilaly said he would not be attending the Multicultural Eid Festival and Fair to celebrate the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan at Fairfield today. A spokesman for the sheik said he did not want his presence to take the focus off the festival itself. The sheik was widely criticised last week for comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat.