B'tzelem Elohim

I haven’t written a line on the Australian Islamic cleric who ignited a storm of controversy with his remarks suggesting that immodestly clad women are responsible for rapes because I have come to expect no less from the Islamists.

Just in case anyone still doesn’t know who or what I am referring to; here is CTV online account.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?" Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali was quoted as saying in a sermon to some 500 worshippers in Sydney last month. "The uncovered meat is the problem," he was quoted as saying in The Australian newspaper.

"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred," he said, referring to the headdress worn by some Muslim women. Hilali also criticized women who "sway suggestively" and wear cosmetic makeup, implying they attracted sexual attack. "Then you get a judge without mercy... and gives you 65 years," he added.

For the record, the cleric condemns rape. I wouldn't put stock or comfort in that as long, as it takes four male witnesses testifying to have witnessed the rape, before a rape can be declared a rape, and the culprit found guilty under Islamic law.

I am not particularly frightened or shocked by the Cleric’s words and thoughts – misogyny has a long history and I have been a female since birth. Just call me well schooled. What really does make an impression on me is how poorly this cleric thinks of the character and nature of men who he likens as to that of a base senseless animal. I don’t know who the Sheik has been associating with but the poverty of character in his social circle demands change. For even I have known many a noble soul called man.

Beloved is man for he was created in the image of God.