Controversial cleric resigns as top Australian Muslim leader

Jun 10, 2007, 14:27 GMT

Sydney - A Muslim cleric who whipped up a storm last year when he told his Sydney flock that women who don't wear the veil invite rape Sunday resigned from his post as the supreme leader of Australia's 300,000 Muslims.

Clerics from around the country meeting in Melbourne decided Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, 67, should keep the post of Mufti of Australia that he has held since 1988.

But the Eyptian-born cleric declined their offer of a further term. In his place, they appointed Lebanese-born Sheik Fehmi Naji El-Imam.

Earlier this year Prime Minister John Howard had urged Muslims to dump al-Hilali, calling on them to show a willingness to join the mainstream by ditching their controversial leader.

Al-Hilali, an Australian citizen, has been censured before for his extremist views and each time the Muslim community has closed ranks behind him.

He made international headlines when he told the congregation at Sydney's largest mosque that a woman in revealing clothes was herself to blame for sexual assault 'because if she hadn't left the meat uncovered the cat wouldn't have snatched it.'

After the remarks, 34 Muslim community organizations signed a petition endorsing his remarks.

Al-Hilali has denied the Holocaust, defended suicide bombers, described as 'God's work against oppressors' the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, and blamed Jews for 'all the wars and problems that threaten the peace and stability of all the world.'