Do Muslims have Greater Rights in Australia?
Published January 24, 2007
The Egyptian-born Australian Mufti, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, who shot to fame with his infamous fasting-month sermon last September, in which he called the unveiled Australian women "uncovered meat". Referring to about 20 incidences of rapes by Muslim youths in a Sydney suburb in 2000, he blamed those women for being raped, suggesting that they attracted the rapists by using their uncovered meats as bait. [The Australian, 26 Oct, 2006]
The sagacious Imam once again raised a furor by claiming that the Muslim immigrants have greater rights in Australia than the white Aussies, who have descended from their criminal ancestors, referring to those who came to the country between 1788 and 1850 from England, among them 162,000 convicts. "We (Muslims) came as free people. We bought our own tickets. We are entitled to Australia more than they are," he said in Arabic in an Egyptian television interview. [Reuters, 12 Jan, 2007]
The Mufti also slammed the Australians for creating a conspiratorial uproar over his "uncovered meat sermon" last October and claimed the controversy was a conspiracy to "bring the Islamic community to its knees" and called the Aussies the "biggest liars".
In the backdrop of the "uncovered meat" controversy, an ex-Muslim's critique of Islam clearly showed "how accurate the Mufti was in asserting that the liberally dressed Australian women were like uncovered meat attracting rapes", according to the divine precepts of Islam [See, Uncovered Meat and Rape: Condemning an Honest, Innocent Cleric]. Furthermore, Abul Kasem, another ex-Muslim writer, conclusively demonstrated that the immodestly dressed Australian women were "nothing but whores" according to the Koran [See, The ‘Meat’ Imam and the Qur’an]. Indeed, the impression that "the liberally dressed women in the West are like whores" is an almost universal thinking amongst the pious Muslim community in the West, which they often dare assert in public slogans and even on TV cameras.
Yet, the Westerners and the ignorant or deceptive few Muslims denounced the Mufti for his apparently outrageous comments at that time. But, there cannot be any doubt about the grand Mufti’s depth of scholarship in theological doctrines of Islam. This was proven correct when the overwhelming majority of the Australian Muslims tendered their unstinted support to the beleaguered Mufti. Muslims sent him van-loads of flowers in congratulation and an unprecedented 5000 worshippers rushed to his mosque in Sydney to attend the next Friday’s congregational prayer, where they greeted him "like a rock star". This was followed by 34 major Muslim organizations’ petition in the support of the honorable Mufti [Herald Sun, 03 Nov, 2006].
It is clear that the Grand Mufti of Australia is thoroughly knowledgeable in Islam and he says nothing that falls outside the scope of Islam. Hence, his latest assertion that Muslims in Australia have greater rights than their white counterparts requires a thorough examination before condemning him. Since the prophet Muhammad’s deeds and actions were the most perfect and are a model for all Muslims to emulate at all time to come, the Prophet’s emigration from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE (hijra or hijrat) is the perfect parallel for the accurate examination of this controversy.
- Do Muslims have Greater Rights in Australia?
- Published: January 24, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Religion, Culture: History, Politics: International
- Writer: Alamgir Hussain
- Alamgir Hussain's BC Writer page
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Comments on this articleComments
One reason muslims have almost zero credibility with non-muslims is due to stupid, bigoted, & incredibly arrogant attitudes like "...muslims have greater rights than non-muslims over every corner of the earth."
And then they wonder why no one else likes them or respects them....?
Alamgir wrote: "Under such distress and to avoid persecution, the prophet sought refuge in Medina, which was quickly granted by the Medina citizens. They also assured the safety and security of his community and so he migrated there with converts in 622 CE from Mecca. His religion was getting converts fast in Medina, which had hinted towards a greater chance of success to his otherwise doomed prophetic mission in Medina. This likely "greener pasture" in Medina was also a big reason for the prophet's migration to Medina."
Yeah, there's a modern version of this .... thousands of Muslims who were suffering in their own country through the strife of civil war found refuge in Australia, through kindness.
The government of Malcolm Fraser in one of the few good things it did in the late 1970s opened the door to thousands of Muslim Lebanese, who were considered genuine refugees - and if you were around at the time and knew and saw what was going on in Lebanon you'd know that to be true.
Subsequent Australian governments have continued to open the door to Muslim refugees from all overv the world.
You can imagine, then, that those Australians descended from convicts and who built this country might feel a little miffed when they realise that their kindness has been repaid by the kind of nonsense spewed out by the mufti and some of his apologists.
Luckily, he doesn't speak for all Muslims in Australia. Getting 5000 worshippers at the Lakemba mosque in south-western Sydney after the gang-rape/uncovered meat comments is not a wholesale show of strength. There are a lot more than 5000 muslims in south-western Sydney. As many are avid followers of their local team in the National Rugby League, You'd probably get twice that number at a single Bulldogs game at Homebush Stadium on a Friday or Saturday night.
And Hilaly is wrong about paying for tickets. The vast majority of Muslim Australians either came from Lebanon or were born here. They are either the original refugees, who were given generous government support, or the children of those refugees. Many others are family members of the originals, and were able to come to Australia under generous family reunion schemes - also supported by the government.
It makes my blood boil when I, as a person who was angered by the rioters who attacked innocent people of middle-eastern descent in 2005, then have to listen to this kind of nonsense.
In their misguided racism, sadly it was inspired by the kinds of rubbish the mufti is fond of spouting.
This is a secular country, but largely a Christian country, and therefore has different values which Muslims must respect as much as we must respect theirs. Remember that it was the generosity and kindness of a Christian country - yes, a country settled by convicts, if you must - that gave many Muslims refuge and the opportunity for a new life away from dreadful war and strife that tore their country apart.
Perhaps rather than writing this nonsense, you could come up with some constructive solutions - otherwise we'll all be banging our heads against brickwalls for the next 100 years.
But my answer is no, Muslims don't have a greater right to be in Australia. Since this country is a country of migrants, they have as much right to be here as anyone.
But some of them also need to understand that with that rights comes responsibilities and obligations. One of the main obligations is to seek to end divisions, rather than create them.
And I'll ask this question: are Muslim Australians Australians or Muslims?
Also, having noted your last few paragraphs about Taqqiya, which I am well versed upon having lived in the middle east, I am now wondering - is your story a call to arms by the west against those you describe as the Taqqiya tacticians??
Under that theory, even you could be one such tactician, Alamgir ....
If any-one believes that muslims have come to any of our anglo-saxon based countries "for a better life"and freedom , they must be stark staring bonkers!They have but one agenda,domination,either through violence or demographic displacement of the anglo-saxon and his culture,as seen from the article above,they will be paragons of virtue while thier numbers are small,but as they increase so will thier violence and demands,they are not here to share ,they are using our democracies against us,and unless we stand up to them and insist upon the supremacy of our cultures and our rule of law,and basic freedoms then we and our children are finnished.
STM, I am here to tell the plain truth. If I take recourse of deception and lies to divert attention, then only you can call me a 'Taqiyya tactician'.
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(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/58641)
Once again we have a muslim intellectual defending the indefensible...
Hilaly may be well-educated in Islamic lore, but he's an elderly Egyption who has not managed to learn to speak English despite living in Australia for 20+ years.
Most people in Australia regard him as a joke - he clearly does not respect me on the other 19.7 million Australians who are not muslim, so why should we respect him?
If a non-muslim makes comments that offends muslim sensibilities, all hell breaks loose, yet the muslim community doesn't feel it necessary to exercise the same restraint they expect of others. So much for mutual respect.....