Author: Kerry-Anne Walsh
Publication: The Sydney Morning
Herald
Date: February 29, 2004
The powerful leader of Australia's
300,000 Muslims, Sheik Taj el-Din Al Hilaly, has praised the September
11 terrorist attacks as "God's work".
The controversial Mufti also appears
to have lent support to Arab suicide bombers in an inflammatory sermon
during a Middle East lecture tour.
Sheik Al Hilaly, who is based at
the Lakemba mosque, last week vehemently denied that he called for a jihad
against Israel in one of his sermons. But a translation of a sermon, delivered
at the Sidon mosque in Lebanon and obtained by The Sun-Herald, is littered
with references to Arab martyrs and Americans being punished by God.
Sheik Al Hilaly spoke of an "Islamic
revolution", and told his audience not to be surprised if one day a muezzin
called out "Allah is Great!" from the "top of the White House".
"September 11 is God's work against
oppressors," he said. "Some of the things that happen in the world cannot
be explained; a civilian airplane whose secrets cannot be explained, if
we ask its pilot who reached his objective without error: 'Who led your
steps?'
"Or if we ask the giant that fell:
'Who humiliated you?' Or if we ask the president: 'Who made you cry?' God
is the answer."
Declaring there was a "war on infidels"
around the world, the Mufti praised the boy who, "despite his mother's
objections", went to war to become a martyr.
Bemoaning the lack of "real men"
in the Arab world, he said the "true boy" was one who told his mother not
to cry for him if he died. The boy who cried: "Oh mother, jihad has been
imposed on me and I want to become a martyr [was a son of Islam]." The
boy would cry to his mother: "Oh mother, I'm going with a stone in my hand
to become a martyr."
After seeking clarification from
Sheik Al Hilaly in Egypt, his spokesman, Keysar Trad, said the Mufti had
taken bits from poems, which he often incorporated into his sermons.
The September 11 reference meant
that "evil can reach everywhere and everything", and the power of terrorism
should not be belittled. Stating that September 11 was God's work against
oppressors meant "people only do these things when they feel oppressed".
He denied the Mufti had supported
suicide bombers, saying the "boy with a stone" could not possibly mean
that.
A week ago, the Australian Federal
Police decided against investigating the Mufti's overseas activities.
