Good news: Aussie imams set to reaffirm rape apologist as mufti

And why not? They’ve been protecting him for years.

SHEIK Taj Din al-Hilali is almost certain to be re-endorsed as the spiritual leader of Australia’s Muslims during a gathering of the nation’s Islamic clerics in Sydney tomorrow.

Sheik Hilali is expected to win the backing of 60 imams to continue in his role as mufti despite making a series of controversial declarations in the past year, including that Muslims have more right to live in Australia than Anglo-Saxons because their ancestors did not arrive as convicts. He also compared scantily clad women to uncovered meat…

It is understood that some imams will push for the position of mufti to be voted on every four years. Sheik Hilali has not faced a challenge for the position since being appointed mufti in 1989, a move made in an effort to prevent him being deported because of inflammatory remarks he made in relation to women and Jews.

They’re going to make up for it by formally declaring that Australian Muslims should pay their taxes, vote, and otherwise follow civic obligations that, um, everyone else in the country already follows. Apparently there were some in the community who were “hazy” on that point.

This is intriguing, too:

It will be one of a series of items on the agenda for the meeting which will also consider a report by the Lebanese Muslim Association suggesting that clerics should be encouraged to become surf lifesavers and volunteer firefighters to improve the Muslim community’s image.

LMA president Tom Zreika says in the report that Australians have “had enough of us”.

Whether that is true or not Sheik Hilali says he and the community have had enough of Mr Zreika.

Meanwhile, across the Tasman Sea, more healing: “It’s an underlying threat, but it’s like the twin towers – they imploded. Islam does the same thing to a society – it makes it implode.”

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