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April 5, 2006

Australia: Muslims Plan To Depose Mufti

65-year old Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilaly (pictured left) is the imam at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque. He is generally regarded as a leader to Australia's 300,000 muslims, and he likes to be referrred to as the "mufti" of Australia. His spokesperson is the Lebanese Keysar Trad.

Despite the Mufti's pretensions to be Australia's leading Muslim, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilaly is certainly not the most pleasant individual to be regarded as a spiritual leader.

As we reported last year, al-Hilaly has called Jews "the underlying cause of all wars", and has said they try to control the world "through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, traitory and economic hoarding." He has been previously caught on camera calling Islamic suicide bombers in the Middle East "heroes". Keysar Trad has explained that al-Hilaly was given the "honorary position" of "Mufti" in 1989. He said the title was "honorary" because it is not a paid post. The title was awarded by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils/

In May 2005 the BBC reported on his much-publicised efforts to go to Iraq to secure the release of Australian hostage Donald Wood. The hostage was freed, but the BBC reported that even though the "mufti" is popular among many of the Lebanese Muslims of Lakemba in Sydney, he is not representative of the Muslims communities in Australia as a whole. During his 20 years' residence in the country, he is still for many a marginal figure.

Though he publicly claims that he condemns the Sept 11, 201 attacks in the US, his opponents charge that he privately called the 9/11 incidents as "God's work against oppressors".

We reported in November that Egyptian-born Lebanese al-Hilaly was involved in a vindictive campaign to outlaw the Australian branch of the Lebanese charity Al-Ahbash or Islamic Charitable Projects Association. This group has helped to set up Muslim Community Radio, and in 2004 was involved in the forming of Darulfatwa (meaning "House of Law/Jurisprudence") which is housed in Bankstown.

As the Darulfatwa issues Islamic guidance, and fatwas, the Mufti was miffed at this threat to his powerbase. The Al-Ahbash group has a mosque, a school and a scout group.

In reports carried by UPI and The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Australian, it appears that the Mufti's days as "leader" of the Muslim community are numbered.

It is now being proposed that the Mufti's position be held open, and that the New South Wales Muslim Council has decided that a national board of imams should be created, under the aegis of the executive body of the Australian Federation of Muslim Councils (AFIC).

The position of Mufti would now be a democratic procedure, with votes cast by Islamic council representatives from around Australia. The new rules state: "The AFIC executive committee in conjunction with the federal council and the AFIC state board of imams shall set up a national council of imams under a mufti of Australia who shall be appointed by the congress of AFIC at the recommendation of the executive committee."

According to the Australian, the reason that al-Hilaly is being pushed aside stems from "criticism levelled at him by the federal Government and Islamic leaders over his outspoken opposition to John Howard's hand-picked Muslim advisory board."

The chairman of the NSW Muslim Council, Neil Kadomi, said: "So many ... say that he (Hilali) is not our mufti."

The Australian puts the lie to Keysar Trad's claim that the Mufti is not paid. He is paid by the AFIC. But Keysar Trad himself is an extremely controversial figure in Australian society.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 5, 2006 4:15 PM

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