Meanwhile, in Australia...

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Cleric blames rape on 'suggestive' women

By Mark Chipperfield in Sydney
Last Updated: 11:48am BST 26/10/2006

Australia's most prominent Muslim cleric was threatened with deportation today after he was reported to have said that women who "sway suggestively" and do not cover up can provoke sexual assault by men.

In a sermon marking the end of Ramadan, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al Hilali told worshippers in Sydney that women who display their bodies were like "uncovered meat". He said that women should stay hidden at home, or wear the hijab, or Islamic scarf, in public.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park ... and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it?

"The cats or the uncovered meat?"

Sheik Hilali's remarks are a clear reference to a high-profile trial involving a group of Muslim teenagers who committed a series of brutal gang rapes against Australian women in Sydney six years ago.

The Egyptian-born cleric was roundly condemned by the more moderate sections of Australia's Islamic community - including many prominent Muslim women.

John Howard, the prime minister, described Sheik Hilali's comments as "appalling and reprehensible".

The cleric promptly issued a statement claiming that his sermon had been incorrectly translated and misunderstood. He went on to condemn rape and said that he respected the right of Australian women to dress as they saw fit.

But the government's sex discrimination commissioner said she believed his remarks warranted tough action.

Pru Goward, a close confidant of Mr Howard, alleged that the sermon amounted to an incitement for Muslim men to rape women who they deem immodest in their dress or behaviour.

"It is an incitement to a crime," she said.

"Young Muslim men who now rape women can cite this in court. It's time we stopped saying he should apologise. It is time the Islamic community did more than say they were horrified. I think it is time he left."

Relations between Muslims and white Australians have become increasingly strained, spilling over into pitched battles between gangs of Lebanese and white youths in December last year.

Earlier this year Mr Howard told authors of a book about his premiership that the minority of Muslims in the country who "rave on about jihad" and hold "extreme attitudes" towards women do not fit into Australian society.