Aussie Muslims back cleric who defended rape

When I moved to India, I did not expect to be able to wear shorts and t-shirts on the street with impunity - I adopted the local dress codes. Western culture grants Australian Muslims the right to wear whatever they like in Australia...but not to impose their own codes of conduct and dress on the women of their host country.

I love how you can say anything you want these days, then, during the firestorm, just say that you were misinterpreted.

sure, he was misinterpreted...see, by comparing them to uncovered meat (which is, after all, a valuable commodity) he was actually just trying to *protect* women! Only because they are the "property" of men, of course....(yuck).

I didn't mean you by that statement. I do think a number of Australian politicians are doing that, even if not overtly.

Yeah, too bad the medieval morons keep giving the ultra-cons an excuse to bash the whole lot.

I think we have to keep in mind the language barrier. Assume that phrase was translated to "uncovered flesh"... would that change the context?

No, it would not. He was saying the uncovered whatever (whatever word he used, he was comparing living adult females to insentient lifeless carcass) would attract wild, predatory animals. This raises the very valid question of - why then should the women suffer, because the men allegedly cannot control themselves? Why not teach the men how to behave properly, rather than force the women to conceal the bodies God-Allah gave them?? or is the cleric alleging that men, esp. Muslim men, are such hopeless primates that they have no self-control? It's a lose-lose statement either way.