The Independent – 27 October 2006:

Australia’s most senior Muslim cleric has been forced to apologise after provoking widespread outrage with a speech in which he appeared to blame women for rape, comparing them with “uncovered meat” that attracts animals.

Sheik Hilali, Australia’s Mufti since 1989, was quoted as saying: “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the back yard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it… whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem.”



  1. John Paradox says:

    Why insult cats?

    J/P=?

  2. Angel H. Wong says:

    ’cause they’re pussies?

  3. 0113addiv says:

    Women who walk around to provocate men by teasing them are either one of two things: 1) a total dimwit or 2) a man-hater. (note: if she’s at the beach it’s a different story)

  4. Jägermeister says:

    From the article:

    He was also denounced by John Howard yesterday.

    What I would like to see is Muslims denounce him… especially other Muslim clerics. What John Howard says is one thing, what these fellow Muslims think might be something totally different.

  5. catbeller says:

    Soooo… Muslims think men are morons controlled by the penises.

    Maybe it has something to do with the lack of socialization with women? Stupidity is trained, not inherited.

    It’s not the religion, it’s the culture of women haters. Problems with mothers, boys?

  6. Central Coast says:

    Just more of the same ol 7th century mindset. Sounds more and more like a wonderful place to go back to… 🙁

  7. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    Wow, the analogy is so fucked in so many ways one has no idea where to even start, so why bother?

    Underlying it is this: the cats (men) will do as they wish. (Of course! Male superiority is axiomatic to Islam) The concept of self-restraint is nowhere to be found, likewise the concept of social constraint. The ‘meat being eaten,’ i.e. the violation of women – is solely the fault of those who ‘set out the meat’ – i.e. the women themseves.

    Maybe the optimistic among us can kid themselves into believing that Western civilization can accept the injection of primitive, authoritarian, ethnocentric peasant patriarchy rooted in willful stupidity and superstition. I for one don’t. Our British cousins are beginning to learn this tragic lesson.

    We have enough idiocy to contend with with the fundies; the deterioration of our society will continue until a bright line is drawn for Muslims:

    If you want the benefits of living in the West, you will conform to Western standards of interpersonal behavior. Otherwise, return to where everyone else thinks and acts like you. You can’t have it both ways, at our expense.

    So Opineth The Ghoti

  8. ryan says:

    the women don’t need to cover up; even women in more liberal muslim countries dress very modestly. the problem is with the men and their mentality.

  9. Fingu says:

    [violation of posting guidelines]

  10. That is screwed up, duders. I can’t believe this guy actually said that. Anyways thats his opinion. Guys like this believe that women should be locked up in prison, for being cock teasers. “Well your honour, I couldn’t help myself. She was wearing a short skirt!!!”

    All well people are people, this guys a definite loser.

  11. I think the whole thing about women not wearing traditional muslim dress are “uncovered meat” is a much bigger issue than “muslim men think like cats”

    And the guy is still in his position, they haven’t done anything (e.g. back-flipped after yesterday’s stance that it was bad, now he was just misunderstood)

  12. Jägermeister says:

    #5

    Excellent. I thought it would another case of silence.

  13. Named says:

    You know, all you comments lack any intelligence whatsoever. If you place a piece of meat outside, WITHOUT it’s polystyrene tray AND transulcent plastic wrap, how can you blame the cat? It’s raw meat! Cat’s LOVE raw meat. If you left the wrap on, with the tray, and left the damn label with the price, the cats would look on it and say, “SHEEET! I can’t afford that! I’m hitting the garbage. You game?” Blame the cat’s indeed.

    Boy, I really miss pre-Gulf-War 1 Saddam. He REALLY hated those muslim fundamentalists. He even tried to kill them. In fact, Christians had their holidays under Saddam, and he was damn set against any burkas, or hajibs, or whatever. He wanted nice Versace pants and Gucci purses. And what did Dubya say about that?

    I don’t even know where the sacrasm begins or ends…. Must be the Jamiesons….

  14. The fact is that on almost all these issues a slew of Muslim moderates and liberals even (there are a lot) come up and bitch about these idiots. The media NEVER covers it and everyone thus says they are silent. This is bullshit, they are not silent. This situation never ends and although the blog team does enjoy dredging up all sorts of stupidities such as this none of us believes it is mainstream thinking. That said, it must be exposed for what it is and publicized.

  15. Named says:

    Hey John!

    Replace Muslim with Jew or Christian and see what happens. Maybe in 20 years we’ll all be reading about the muslim “purification”.

  16. Jägermeister says:

    #15

    You’re wrong John. Silence has been the problem in the Muslim world for a long time. Okay, perhaps not all people were silent, but the majority was. Just as silent as the majority of the Germans were when Hitler gained power in Germany.

  17. Named says:

    17,

    Who’s silence? The silence of the Jews as they organised and collected funds to ship their fellows to the camps? or the silence of the Germans to not protect the minorities of society?

    http://tinyurl.com/btdta

  18. Thepenguin says:

    I do think that its pretty sad that the only thing that the media and news sites cover is stupid stuff done and said by extremists. Theres a girl in my government class, that seriously thinks that ALL Muslims are terrorists extremists, bent on throwing the world into chaos. Guys like this and the coverage that they receive is nothing but fuel for the fire for people like that

  19. WokTiny says:

    what’s interesting to me is that this keeps happening. every coupl’a years someone says that scantly clad (by whatever cultural standard is relavent) women encourage sexual assault, there’s a huge negative response, the speaker goes back on his statement, and is shamed. women still dress as they please. a few years later, someone else says it, gets shamed. I’m waiting for one of two things, right or wrong… either people need to quit saying it, or someone who does say it needs to be sure enough about it and themself to stick to their word. right or wrong, say it or don’t say it, don’t say it and run away… that’s “a flip flop” isn’t it?

    (if you think I made a statement about the issue of women and dress, you read me wrong, read it agian)

  20. ECA says:

    When MAN open mouth with out engaging BRAIN.
    Man learns whet FOOT tastes like. Including the Gummy bits.

  21. SN says:

    “I do think that its pretty sad that the only thing that the media and news sites cover is stupid stuff done and said by extremists.”

    If you want whitewashed, uplifting, and positive stories, I think Grit magazine is still available.

  22. Lauren the Ghoti says:

    Sorry, John, but Jägermeister’s put the unvarnished reality out there. In any given subpop, such as Muslims (and Xtians!), the majority, by the very definition of being middle-of-the-road, aren’t sufficiently motivated to make any effort to silence or distance themselves from the extremists, which amounts to tacit approval, which in turn gives the extremists influence far beyond their actual numbers. And I know enough mainstream Muslims (and Xtians) personally to have observed this very phenomenon firsthand and frequently.

    Media or no media, the pool of those who are sufficiently psyched to make themselves heard is made up disproportionately of those farther from the center. Hence, the only people who speak out against them are outsiders.

    Thus Pontificated The Ghoti

    …and #22 – drolly put!

  23. TAH says:

    A back handed apology in my book. In his apology he still blames the meat for not being properly dressed.

  24. ken ehrman says:

    16 you can’t replace “muslim” with “jew” or “christian”
    let’s try:

    “today a rich arab gave the family of a 16-year-old suicide bomber a bunch of money and said thanks a lot.”

    christians and jews don’t have any respect for suicide! so you can’t replace it

  25. Named says:

    25,

    very simplistic indeed. Well done! You obviously only have one dimension.

  26. Greg Allen says:

    This view of temptation was one of the first things that struck me when I moved into the Muslim-majority world.

    I don’t know the theological fine points, but generally they have a very externalized view of sin and temptation… as opposed to those from the protestant pietistic traditions (like myself) who are taught to blame _ourselves_ for giving into temptation.

    In the Muslim world, they seem more likely to the blame the temptation. (thus, the covering up of women)

  27. Mr. Fusion says:

    #23, Media or no media, the pool of those who are sufficiently psyched to make themselves heard is made up disproportionately of those farther from the center. Hence, the only people who speak out against them are outsiders.

    Well put. I might add to that thought, the majority (in the center) don’t speak up because most of them are sheep following the leader without a mind of their own.

  28. RBG says:

    I have to agree with 23. And as one who often supports moderate Muslims, it’s still puzzling to me. I once asked a Muslim friend why there isn’t more public outrage by the Muslim community against Muslim terrorists. (This after 9/11.) And he insists there is, sending me a difficult, badly translated website from an important Muslim doing just that. But such a low profile minority.

    Why aren’t Muslims issuing weekly press releases of their positions and denouncements? Maybe they need to hire a Western press agent? Maybe they’re trying to shrink and maintain the lowest profile they can? Maybe there is an embarrassment factor? Or a fear factor? Maybe it’s because the Muslim world doesn’t have a prime head or ultimate spokesperson like a pope? Maybe its part of their beliefs in Insha’Allah(sp) – it’s all God’s will? Maybe the media just isn’t interested? (They should be regularly dragging out Muslim’s views on all this.) Or maybe Muslims do harbor some secret, small and deep general support. I just don’t understand this.

    RBG

  29. SN says:

    “I once asked a Muslim friend why there isn’t more public outrage by the Muslim community against Muslim terrorists. “

    I have to agree too. I don’t know where you’re getting your information, John, but I find it hard to believe. I live in a podunk town in Michigan (with a very large population of Muslims) and Muslims protested both the Danish comic book fiasco and after the Pope quoted from some ancient text. I saw no protest when thousands were murdered in the 9/11 attacks.

    Is publishing a cartoon really worse than killing a few thousand innocent people? Is the pope quoting ancient text really worse than killing a few thousand innocent people? From what I’ve seen of the Muslim community, the answers to both of those questions are unfortunately “yes.”

    Now do I think that there are some moderate Muslims that were against the 9/11 attacks? Sure. There were white people who were in favor of it. But is there any sort of widespread Muslim movement against such attacks? I see no evidence for that.

  30. i agree with the cleric regarding uncovered meat and the behavior of men as wild animals. but that does not mean that if you leave your meat out and you find cats eating it, you will not chase the cats off or shoot them. and our objectification of women is not freedom for females… i am free to lock myself in a cage but that does not mean i am free in that cage. sometimes we are prisoners of our own liberties


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