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Australia gets first female Muslim MP

2013-04-08

A Pakistani-born migrant who made the top ranks of environmental engineering is set to become the first Muslim woman elected to an Australian parliament, after the NSW Greens chose Mehreen Faruqi to fill a state upper house vacancy. The Greens said yesterday that Dr Faruqi had been preselected by a mail ballot of all NSW members of the party, from a field of seven in a contest in which only women could run. Islamic Friendship Association spokesman Keysar Trad yesterday hailed the move as a major advance in demonstrating opportunity for Muslim women in Australia, but warned Dr Faruqi could have difficulty reconciling the teachings of Islam with Green policies, such as the party's support for gay marriage. Dr Faruqi indicated she will fully take on board the leftist agenda, saying she would be "fighting for gender equality and equal marriage" and taking up "the campaign against coal-seam gas mining". Dr Faruqi called herself a practising Muslim, but said she came from a modern stream of Islam in Pakistan and did not, for example, wear a niqab. She steered around whether she, like former Greens NSW leader and now senator Lee Rhiannon, supported the international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel, saying she supported the Green policy of promoting human rights for Palestinians and Israelis. Mr Trad said the elevation of Dr Faruqi would encourage Muslim women to enter politics. But he said Islamic leaders remained absolutely opposed to homosexuality and gay marriage, creating a dilemma for Dr Faruqi. He said, "It will be something that is likely to test her . . . we will be watching to see whether she will allow her beliefs as a Muslim to succumb to the party policy." The Greens, often criticized as the party of trendy inner-city elitists, claimed Dr Faruqi as another triumph -- she will become the first Greens MP in NSW from a migrant background, which she plans to use to help the party build links with migrant communities in west Sydney.

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Four found guilty over sharia law whipping in Australia

2013-03-02

An Australian court heard that Wassim Fayad and three other men - Zakaryah Raad, Tolga Cifci and Cengiz Coskun - claimed they were following sharia when they held Muslim convert Cristian Martinez down and whipped him on the back in the middle of the night. With these words, "Next time you think about picking up a drink you will remember this pain," Fayad delivered 40 lashes with an electrical cord across the back of Martinez, to help the Sydney man to quit drugs and alcohol. Martinez vomited during the attack and pleaded for mercy, "Can you stop this? Stop what you're doing?" Fayad told his victim he loved him and it was for his own good. The whipping happened in a western Sydney townhouse in July 2011. In what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Australia, the four men were convicted on Thursday of assault and other charges. Magistrate Brian Maloney told Burwood Local Court, "Until now, assaults occasioned in the course of a religious practice involving mortification of the flesh have not been before any court in any common law country." A statement from Sheikh Omar El Banna, the imam of the Omar mosque in Auburn, said the whipping was not sanctioned or authorized by the community. When Martinez went to the sheikh for advice, he was told, "This is ridiculous. You can't apply this ruling, this is wrong. This isn't what should be happening." The founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar Trad, said he was glad the court did not treat the case as a trial of the religion. He said, "The Islamic faith does not allow any person to take the law into their own hands. Muslims cannot perpetrate a crime and have no right to punish anyone. [The men] must have a very active imagination. They should not blame religion when things get out of hand." The court heard that Martinez drank and took drugs, before he called Fayad to ask for guidance. Fayad said, "Yeah, it means I'm going to tie you up, brother, that's what I'm going to do." Fayad called Raad and instructed him to go to Martinez's house, where Raad sent Fayad a message saying something like, "Allam, the sharia bring right material. It's important." Fayad, Cifci and Coskun then joined Raad at Martinez's house and Fayad whipped him while the others held him down. Maloney said, "Mr Fayad assured Mr Martinez that the last 20 lashes won't be so bad, and told [him] that he loves him, that he wants him to be a good person and the way he's going, he's ruining his life." Martinez said he consented to the first, 11th and 21st lash, but Maloney found that he had withdrawn his consent. Raad was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company, stealing and two counts of intimidation, while the others were convicted of the assault and stealing charges, related to a CCTV hard drive they took from Martinez's home.

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Extremists among Muslim rioters at Sydney protest

2012-09-17

Al-Qaeda sympathisers were among those involved in violent weekend protests in Sydney, which saw Muslim men engage in a series of clashes with security forces. Several of the hundreds of protesters who marched on the city's US consulate were carrying the black flags adopted by the proscribed terror organisation and its splinter groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq. Many others wore headbands which said: "We are your soldiers, O Mohammed." Muslim leaders denounced the violence yesterday, saying the protest had been "hijacked" by a group which called itself the "Sixth Pillar". One of the six men arrested on Saturday, 29-year-old champion boxer Ahmed Elomar, appeared in court yesterday wearing a T-shirt with the words "Sixth Pillar". Some sources suggested the group were associated with controversial Sydney sheik Feiz Mohammed. The president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, Samier Dandan, said they were not part of any of the Australia's established Islamic organisations. He said, "Where and how they operate we still don't know." Six people have been charged in relation to the violence, in which four people were hospitalized, while police have created a strike force to analyze footage of the demonstration in order to track down others involved. NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said, "This is a no-nonsense engagement. If you want to act like you are extremist criminals, we will treat you like you're extremist criminals. I can guarantee those extremists who caused these problems, they will be joining those already charged. If you were sensible, you would come forward now and speak with police." A second police operation will monitor the aftermath of the protest, including social media websites thought to have been used to orchestrate Saturday's violence. There are fears a second peaceful protest against the video planned for next weekend could be disrupted. Julia Gillard yesterday called the video "truly repulsive". "(But) there is never any excuse for violent behavior. To anybody who wants to replicate that behavior today, I just want to say very strongly that this kind of conduct has no place on the streets of our country," the Prime Minister said. Tony Abbott said the protests were not "an acceptable face of Islam ... Newcomers to this country are not expected to surrender their heritage, but they are expected to surrender up their hatreds". He added, "I think all Australians need to give a very strong message ... violent protest is never acceptable in a country such as ours." Keysar Trad, founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, was appalled to see children at the protest holding up signs that read "Behead all those who insult the prophet". He said, "Our prophet would be sitting in heaven wondering are those really my followers?" See also: Eight year old girl calls on Islamic youth to back jihad

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Australian terror case triggers Muslim summit

2010-02-19

Dozens of senior figures from the Muslim community will attend a crisis meeting tomorrow night in the wake of the sentences handed down this week to five NSW men convicted of terrorism offences. The meeting will be held at the nation's largest mosque, in Lakemba in Sydney's southwest, and will be hosted by Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali -- formerly Australia's most senior cleric. Several other senior imams are expected to attend. The extraordinary meeting was called following an outcry within Sydney's Muslim community about the five offenders being sentenced on Monday to maximum jail terms of between 23 and 28 years for plotting violent jihad on Australian soil. NSW Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy said that, although there was no evidence that the men had identified a specific target for their crime, the fact that they had stockpiled vast amounts of ammunition and weapons, and were found to be in possession of extremist material, indicated that "each conspirator intended that the ultimate act or terrorist act Sheik Hilali said the case had the "scent of hysteria" and argued that the men should not have been found guilty when there was no evidence of the group's "true intentions". Islamic Friendship Association of Australia president Keysar Trad said yesterday that the Muslim community "detested terrorism in all its forms". "If we thought somebody in the community was plotting something, we would be the first to knock down their door and stop it happening," Mr Trad said. He said the feeling in the community was that the five men, who were convicted of conspiring to do an act in preparation for a terrorist act, had been "victimised". "It's human nature -- sometimes we all think about doing stupid things," Mr Trad said. "That doesn't necessarily mean we are always going to go through with it." It is understood that senior law professor Ben Saul, from the University of Sydney, has been invited by Sheik Hilali to host a "question and answer" session on Australia's terrorism laws at Lakemba mosque next week.

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Terror links in battle for control of Austalian mosque

2008-01-06

An Islamic group accused of trying to seize control of a Sydney mosque is understood to be part of a hardline religious movement that has been linked to the 2005 London bombings. The Australian has been told that some of the group's members follow the Tablighi Jamaat stream of Islam, which is under watch by Western intelligence agencies because of its suspected links to terrorism. The battle for the Sefton mosque in Sydney's southwest has already resulted in legal action being taken over ownership of the property and the resident imam being kicked out of his home. Sheik Abdul Karim Quasimi has also been served with an apprehended violence order forcing him to stay away from the Helen Street mosque. Sheik Abdul Karim, who is not a Tablighi follower, said the group had gone to extremes to remove him, including calling in police to evict him from his home in the middle of the night. "It was very scary, the police arrived very early in the morning," he said. He said the group was attempting an ethnic and religious-based takeover, wanting the mosque exclusively for Bangladeshi Muslims, particularly those who follow Tablighi, to the exclusion of other ethnic groups including Arabic Muslims. "Some of the Tablighi in Australia are very dogmatic, bordering on extreme," he said. The caretaker of the mosque, Mohammed Zantar, said trouble started last year when a number of new members, who are Tablighi, were elected to the 15-strong committee that runs the mosque. Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad said the move against the imam was unprecedented. "It is a disgrace to seek out an AVO against an imam unless he's made a major breach of religious teachings or the law," he said. The Tablighi are influenced by a fundamentalist branch of Saudi Arabian-based Islam known as Wahabism. The sect has been linked to two July 7 London bombers, and failed shoe bomber Richard Reid is also known to have attended Tablighi meetings. Tablighi supporters reject the idea that the group is linked to terrorism or recruiting members for jihad, instead saying they are bringing Muslims back to the mosque. One of the founders of the mosque and committee member Abdul Bhuiyan said legal action was under way between the original trustees of the mosque, the House of Peace, and the Bangladeshi Islamic Centre which now runs the mosque. Mr Bhuiyan said when the mosque was established in 1995 it was for all Muslims, but the new members now wanted it to be exclusively for the Bangladeshi community. Sefton mosque committee member Kabir Ahmed said Sheik Abdul Karim had been caught in the middle of the dispute and treated badly. But the press secretary of the Bangladeshi Islamic Centre and committee member Abdullah Yousef Shamim has denied the Tablighi were staging a takeover. Mr Shamim, who refused to confirm or deny he was Tablighi, admitted some of the new members were followers but said he did not know how many. "It is not an issue," he said. Mr Shamim said the dispute with Sheik Abdul Karim stemmed from dissatisfaction with the imam's work practices. He said the group wanted an imam who was more qualified and more experienced and gave more "attractive sermons" than Sheik Abdul Karim.

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Muslim students seek clerics' jihad advice

2007-06-05

AUSTRALIAN Muslim university students eager to become jihadis are regularly seeking advice from Islamic spiritual leaders in the hope of winning religious approval to travel overseas and fight. Leaders have warned that the obsession among some young Muslims to become holy warriors was also driving them to "shop around" for fatwas - religious rulings - should their initial request be turned down. Moderate Sydney-based Islamic cleric Khalil Shami said young Muslims, "predominantly university students", frequently asked his advice on travelling to war-torn countries to fight in the name of Islam. This comes two years after hardline Islamic university students were involved in the London bombings that killed 52 people and injured 700 others. It also follows The Australian's revelations in January that a 25-year-old Somali Australian, Ahmed Ali, died fighting alongside Islamists in his country of birth in December last year. Sheik Shami said he always warned aspiring Islamists against fighting because he believed Muslim countries were being run by corrupt leaders who were more interested in making money and advancing their political profiles than liberating their people. "There are some people who would like to go and perform jihad," he told The Australian in an Arabic and English interview. "I say don't go. Because those fighting aren't truly fighting in the path of God. I've been asked numerous times and I've advised against going," added Sheik Shami, an imam at Penshurst Mosque in Sydney's southwest. He said young Muslims interested in jihad either called him anonymously to ask his advice or approached him at the mosque. Sheik Shami, who is also an Australian Federal Police chaplain, said he had not notified authorities about Muslims interested in jihad because he did not want to betray the trust of people making the inquiries. "If you come to me and tell me about something, it's not nice for me to go and tell the authorities about you because you trust me and I have to just keep your secret," he said. "I know I have enough faith in myself. I'm not going to hurt the person or hurt the authorities." The federal Attorney-General's department last night said clerics were not obligated under common law to pass on national security information. "A Muslim cleric would have the same obligations as any other member of the community," a department spokesman said. "The Government would expect that any person in receipt of such information, whatever their religious beliefs, would have a duty to prevent terrorist activity and pass the information on." Sheik Shami's comments follow revelations in The Australian last week that Muslims were refusing to give national security authorities counter-terrorism tip-offs, fearing they might implicate themselves or be labelled traitors by fellow community members. Sheik Shami said young men often became more enthused about seeking advice on jihad after seeing horrific images of fellow Muslims caught up in conflict. Islamic Friendship Association of Australia president Keysar Trad admitted hearing young Muslims asking their cleric for advice on going to fight jihad overseas. He said some even went to more than one imam in the hope of getting a green light for joining the battle. "Some people will shop around, what you might term as fatwa shopping, and I am yet to meet an imam who would say yes, go," Mr Trad said. "My personal assessment of these kind of people is they want the imam to reassure them that staying here in luxury and comfort is OK, that's all they're doing. But then they go (and say), 'I would've gone only if the imam let me'." Melbourne cleric Isse Musse said aspiring jihadis do not usually ask for fatwas from their imams to approve their departure for battle. And while the Somalian imam had never been approached by young Muslims wanting to join overseas terror outfits, he said in most cases people would only seek advice about such issues from their clerics.

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Cops probe Hilaly al-Qaeda link

2007-04-06

ISLAMIC community leaders at Lakemba mosque are being interviewed by the federal police about mufti Sheik Taj al-Dene Elhilaly's decision to hand charity funds to supporters of al-Qaeda and Hezbollah terrorist outfits in Lebanon. Officers have seized documents from the Lebanese Muslim Association, which backs Sheik Hilaly, and interviewed its president Tom Zreika. Islamic Friendship Association spokesman Keyser Trad, who is in Lebanon, has also been contacted by police. The LMA raised $70,000 in conjunction with other Islamic bodies following the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon. The money was meant for widows needing ammunition war victims but LMA documents, in Sheik Hilaly's handwriting, state he gave $13,000 to political party leader and alleged supporter of the Iraqi insurgency and al-Qaeda Sheik Bilal Shaaban. The Weekend Australian reports Sheik Hilaly, who is overseas, and LMA employee Sheik Yihya Safi will be asked by the AFP to provide a detailed outline of how they distributed the Australian-raised funds in Lebanon. It has been claimed that Sheik Elhilaly met with the leader of Hezbollah's terrorist wing, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

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Muslims to use polls as a sounding board

2007-03-24

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib and a handful of other Muslims will stand for election today in New South Wales - Australia's most populous state - hoping to secure the community a political voice. "One of the reasons we stepped forward is to confront racism head on and to confront Islamaphobia head on," said Kaysar Trad, spokesman for Sydney's Islamic Friendship Association. "We owe it to this nation to stand up to racists and make a positive political stand," Trad said. The Iraq war and comments about women, jihad and Jews by radical imams in Australia have inflamed tensions between Australia's small, mainly Sunni, Muslim community of some 280,000 people, and the rest of the country. During the election campaign, Christian Democrat leader Reverend Fred Nile called for a 10-year ban on Muslim immigrants to give priority to Christians fleeing persecution. He also called for a study of the effects of Muslim immigration. Habib, with his slick-back hair and ponytail, aviator sunglasses and chain smoking, admits he is a political novice and stands little chance of victory in the election to the New South Wales parliament. On the steps of a Sydney shopping mall, microphone in hand, however, he pleaded emotionally against the Iraq war and for democracy. Habib is contesting the seat of Auburnin Sydney, an area with a large Muslim community, along with converts Silma Ihram and Malikeh Michaels. A fourth Muslim is a candidate in a neighbouring seat.

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Australia warned to limit Muslim immigration

2007-02-15

Life can become untenable when the Muslim population of a non-Muslim country reaches about 10 per cent, as shown by France, a Jewish expert on Islam says. The Australian Jewish News yesterday quoted Raphael Israeli as saying Australia should cap Muslim immigration or risk being swamped by Indonesians. Professor Israeli told the Herald that was a misunderstanding. But he said: "When the Muslim population gets to a critical mass you have problems. That is a general rule, so if it applies everywhere it applies in Australia." Professor Israeli, an expert on Islamic history from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has been brought to Australia by the Shalom Institute of the University of NSW. The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council is co-hosting many of his activities. He said Muslim immigrants had a reputation for manipulating the values of Western countries, taking advantage of their hospitality and tolerance. "Greeks or Italians or Jews don't use violence. There is no Italian or Jewish Hilaly [a reference to the controversial cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly of Lakemba mosque]. Why?" Professor Israeli said that when the Muslim population increased, so did the risk of violence. "Where there are large Muslim populations who are prepared to use violence you are in trouble. If there is only 1 or 2 per cent they don't dare to do it - they don't have the backing of big communities. They know they are drowned in the environment of non-Muslims and are better behaved." In Australia, Muslims account for about 1.5 per cent of the population. Professor Israeli said that in France, which has the highest proportion of Muslims in Europe at about 10 per cent, it was already too late. There were regions even the police were scared to enter, and militant Muslims were changing the country's political, economic and cultural fabric, and demanding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel policies. "French people say they are strangers in their own country. This is a point of no return. If you are on a collision course, what can you do? You can't put them all in prison, and anyway they are not all violent. You can't send them all back. You are really in trouble. It's irreversible." Professor Israeli said that in Australia a few imams had preached violence. "You should not let fundamentalist imams come here. Screen them 1000 times before they are admitted, and after they are admitted screen what they say in the mosque." He said some Muslims wanted to impose sharia in their adopted countries, and when propaganda did not work they turned to intimidation. Professor Israeli said his task was to describe, not prescribe. He also said his warning did not include immigrants, including Muslims, who simply wanted to improve their lot. As long as they respected the law and democracy, their numbers — Buddhist, Muslim or Jew — were immaterial. It became material when a group accepted violence. "The trains in London and Madrid were not blown up by Christians or Buddhists but by Muslims, so it is them we have to beware," he said. Keysar Trad, of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said "Not only religious clerics need to be screened before entering Ausralia but also academics this type of academic does nothing but create hatred, suspicion and division We should review not only what the man has said but also those who have sponsored him, to see if they endorse those comments."

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Australian Muslims under siege

2007-01-20

Australia’s Muslims gathered on Friday for prayers at mosques around the country under a suspicious spotlight yet again after another radical cleric inflamed tensions with his extremist views. The widening gulf between Australia’s small, mainly Sunni, Muslim community of some 280,000 people, and the rest of the country is leaving many Muslims feeling under siege and young Muslims trapped between two cultures - Islam and Australia. "Oh, hold me, Mahmoud! I feel so... so... so under siege!" "Oh, Achmed! Me, too! Whatever shall we do?" "Mind the caltrops..." Friday newspaper headlines read “Jihad sheik” and “Crazy sheik’s DVD of hate” after news that Sheik Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Sydney, had called for child martyrs for Islam in a series of DVDs called the “Death Series”. Muslims arriving on foot under a blazing hot sun at Sydney’s Lakemba mosque look nervously at a television crew, scared by previous encounters with local media they believe portray Islam and Muslims as evil. It's a total misconception, of course. Just because they spew hatred and call for child martyrs, where's the problem? “I’m Australian, I was born here, this is the only country I know. We will defend this country against anyone,” one angry Muslim says in publicly declaring his patriotism for Australia. Good idea. Hunt the shiekh down and kill him. Suspicion, misunderstanding and ignorance lie at the heart of the widening gulf between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians. What's not to understand about child martyrs? “There is still an element of fear out there,” says Keysar Trad, spokesman for the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, and one of the faces of Islam in Australia. “I have had people put the head of a pig on my car and pigs’ trotters (feet) in the letterbox. I have had hate mail,” says Trad, who came to Australia with his family from Lebanon in 1976. Gee. Golly. Gosh. That's terrible. I mean, it's not like Muslims were blowing people up or cutting their heads off or anything... Trad says that when he arrived as a boy, Australia was a very conservative and Christian nation, and he was forced to hide his Islamic faith. Religious prejudice then was based on ignorance, unlike today when Muslims live under the shadow of terrorism. “A lot of people do not view Islam as modern or civilised. Today, Australia is less Christian, but less tolerant of Islam. Buddhism is more readily accepted because people see it as a force for peace and spirituality.” Whereas they see Islam as a force for warfare and bloodshed. I wonder why that is? After all, it's the Religion of Beslan. Like many migrants in Sydney, Muslims have grouped together for support, living in a handful of southwestern suburbs. One is nicknamed “Little Lebanon” due to the proliferation of Arabic signs and Muslim women shoppers in hijabs and scarfs. But this limited interaction between a small community and the rest of Australia has seen them categorised simply as Muslims, no matter where they were born. They keep telling us what they want, and then they keep getting upset when we take them at their word.

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Hilaly 'refuses to be silenced'

2006-11-02

BESIEGED Muslim cleric Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly is expected to make his first public appearance since his dramatic collapse by attending Friday prayers tomorrow. As the controversial cleric yesterday checked out of Canterbury Hospital in Sydney and into a private hospital to continue recuperating, the Islamic community was abuzz with speculation he will attend Lakemba Mosque tomorrow. "The plan was to keep him there for two weeks and after that get airline tickets for him to go to Saudi Arabia (for Haj)." It comes as The Daily Telegraph can reveal supporters of the lunatic firebrand cleric had concocted a plan to have the Mufti moved to a farm at Goulburn while they "ride the wave" of public outcry following publication of his controversial sermon likening women to uncovered meat. "The plan was to keep him there for two weeks and after that get airline tickets for him to go to Saudi Arabia (for Haj)," former confidant Dr Jamal Rifi revealed yesterday. The two men have had a major falling out since the reporting of the mufti's controversial comments even though Sheik Hilaly had sought Mr Rifi's opinion the night before the damaging remarks were made public. Dr Rifi said the Sheik had met at his home from 11pm (AEDT) seeking his opinion on how to handle any fall-out. "Eminence, they are out there to get you and you have to be extremely careful!" "I told him 'Your Corpulence Eminence, they are out there to get you and you have to be extremely careful'," Dr Rifi said. "It's not like before - this time is very serious and has created a big rift and you have to be careful." But Dr Rifi said their plan to "ride the wave" was blown after Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad organised for a television crew to interview the mufti in his sick bed. He said the mufti then reneged on a promise not to make any more public statements by attending Lakemba Mosque last Friday and delivering a "fiery" speech. Sheik Hilaly's daughter Asma said yesterday the family was hopeful the 65-year-old would address worshippers and make a public statement tomorrow. "When he comes out, he'll probably be speaking to the media to put an end to all of this talk about him," Ms Hilaly told The Daily Telegraph. Despite taking infinite indefinite leave from preaching, the mufti can deliver a sermon tomorrow if he wants to. "If he wants to do a speech on the day, he will," Lebanese Muslim Association president Tom Zreika said. When you're a mufti, your seniority supersedes everyone else. "When you're a mufti, you're superior to mere mortals your seniority supersedes everyone else. If the mufti says he wants to talk and you're the guy who's about to hold the sermon, you can't tell him to piss off say no. You would move aside and let him talk," he said. "Or else he'd turn you into a pillar of salt." Supporters of the mufti yesterday accused worshippers from a rival mosque of trying to discredit him.That was yesterday denied by Bankstown mosque Imam Sheik Ibrahim El-Safie who said: "It's a stunt to deviate the attention away from the inflammatory remarks he's made." Sheik Safie said his group Darulfatwa - the Islamic Council of Australia - does not consider Sheik Hilaly to be the most-senior Muslim in the country. He said the title went to their mufti, Sheik Salim Alwan, chairman of Darulfatwa. "Our guy's a lot holier," he added.

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Hilali won't quit

2006-10-28

Australia's top Muslim cleric defied mounting pressure to step down for comments comparing women without head scarves to "uncovered meat," and suggested Friday that President Bush was more deserving of criticism for the bloodshed in Iraq. Government leaders warned that by remaining mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali was dividing Australia's Islamic community, many of whom reject his suggestion that women who dress immodestly will be eaten by cats invite rape. "He's driven a wedge within the community and the Muslim community itself is demanding that he be sacked." "He's driven a wedge within the community and the Muslim community itself is demanding that he be sacked," government spokesman on multicultural issues, Andrew Robb, told Nine Network television news. But Toufic Zreika, an administrator of Australia's largest mosque in Sydney where the Egyptian-born cleric gave his sermon last month, said dismissing al-Hilali could also divide Muslims. "The problem is we risk dividing the community further and that's my main aim, to keep this community together," Zreika, president of the Lakemba Mosque Association, told Ten Network television news. In a concession to broad outrage from Muslim and non-Muslims alike over his comments, al-Hilali agreed to abstain from preaching for three months while he makes a pilgrimage to Mecca, said his friend Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia. "He's going to have time to reflect about he's said, for which he has apologized, "The grass roots (Muslims) are certainly not going to overlook all the hard work he's done for the community in the past and condemn him for these comments." and the grass roots (Muslims) are certainly not going to overlook all the hard work he's done for the community in the past and condemn him for these comments," said Trad, who also acts as the cleric's spokesman. The furor erupted Thursday when The Australian national newspaper reported translated excerpts of al-Hilali's lecture, which his supporters suspect had been secretly tape-recorded by a rival Islamic group. Scores of worshippers attended Friday prayers at his mosque, but, in accordance with the ban, the 65-year-old al-Hilali did not deliver a sermon. Asked if he would resign, al-Hilali, surrounded by a police guard outside the mosque, told reporters, "After we clean the world of the White House first." He did not elaborate. The statement brought cheers and applause from the supporters who surrounded him. Trad later explained on al-Hilali's behalf that the cleric was making a point that Bush's foreign policy and invasion of Iraq were more deserving of criticism than a sermon. The cleric was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war and has previously described Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister John Howard - the three leaders who declared war on Saddam Hussein's regime - as an axis of evil. But some Muslim leaders have called for the resignation of the cleric who was to become a unifying figure when he was appointed national mufti in 1989 by the top Islamic body, Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. Islamic Council of Victoria state executive Sherene Hassan told Ten news that "99.99 percent of Muslims do not support what he's saying and he certainly does not represent the majority of Muslims." "99.99 percent of Muslims do not support what he's saying and he certainly does not represent the majority of Muslims." Howard said Australia's Muslims would be perceived as supporting al-Hilali's views if he remained a religious leader. "What I am saying to the Islamic community is this: If they do not resolve this matter, it could do lasting damage to the perceptions of that community within the broader Australian community," Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting. The controversy comes amid tense relations between Australia's estimated 300,000 Muslims and the rest of the 20 million population who predominantly come from a Christian background. In December 2005, Sydney was gripped by riots that often pitted gangs of white youths against youths of Middle Eastern descent. Howard recently offended parts of the Muslim community by singling out some Muslims as extremists and saying they should adopt liberal attitudes to women's rights.

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