COMMENT: Natalie O’Brien tries desperately to link Hilaly to bin-Ladin ...

Heck, if it's good enough for Jesus ...


In case anyone hasn’t realised it, I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of some of Sheik Hilaly’s public comments. He’s said things in the past which have been grossly offensive, racist and misogynist.

But I would hesitate to link him to terrorists.

Natalie O’Brien, a senior reporter for The Australian, has no such hesitation. In an article on Saturday March 22 2008, O’Brien reports that Sheik Hilaly

... has rallied his supporters against the publication of cartoons insulting to Mohammed.

O’Brien continues …

Sheik Hilali said the cartoons, published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 - and republished last month - showed the "hatred and envy" felt by the West against Islam …

"The West announces holding a competition for caricatures that insult the Messenger of God, may he be blessed," Sheik Hilali said.

"And the worst drawing, that succeeds in causing the most harm in order to provoke the Muslims and cause them hurt for their prophet, wins the competition. They are determined. They are hateful."

No indication is given as to whether Hilaly said these words in Arabic or English. Yet given that they were delivered in a Friday sermon to a largely Arabic-speaking audience, I doubt Hilaly would have spoken them in a broad “Strayn” accent.

If spoke in Arabic, we have no idea who translated them. Or has O’Brien taken a crash course in Arabic?

What makes O’Brien’s article even more problematic is that she tries to somehow link Hilaly to bin Ladin. How so? By interspersing his report on Hilaly’s pronouncements with pronouncements on the same subject by Usama bin Ladin.

Reproduced are the first seven paragraphs of O’Brien’s article …

MUSLIM cleric Taj Din al-Hilali has rallied his supporters against the publication of cartoons insulting to Mohammed.

His call comes just a day after Osama bin Laden denounced the European Union over the same issue in a new videotape.

At his sermon at Australia's biggest mosque, in the southwest Sydney suburb of Lakemba, Sheik Hilali said the cartoons, published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 - and republished last month - showed the "hatred and envy" felt by the West against Islam.

He said today's sermon at the mosque would be followed by a march to a nearby park to protest against the cartoons.

"The West announces holding a competition for caricatures that insult the Messenger of God, may he be blessed," Sheik Hilali said.

"And the worst drawing, that succeeds in causing the most harm in order to provoke the Muslims and cause them hurt for their prophet, wins the competition. They are determined. They are hateful."
In an audiotape message posted on a militant website, bin Laden warned Europe of a "reckoning" over the cartoons and claimed their publication formed part of "the framework of a new Crusade" in which the Pope "has played a large, lengthy role".

What on earth do a Sydney imam’s comments at a Friday sermon have to do with a tape-recorded message of the leader of an international terrorist network? Is O’Brien suggesting that bin-Ladin ordered Hilaly to mention the cartoons in his sermon? Is she suggesting Hilaly determines the content of his sermons by listening to bin-Ladin tapes?

Or is Natalie O’Brien engaging in the kind of journalism more befitting of the New York Post?

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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MEDIA: Kerbaj’s Claytons Scoop

Richard Kerbaj has again “broken” a hot story about Muslim leaders. Sadly, it’s little more than extracting the tallest mountain from a microscopic mould hill.

No doubt The Oz’s hysterical front-page packaging of Dr Ali’s relatively benign remarks (not to mention the hysterical responses of caricatured sheiks) will assist in his re-appointment to the PM’s undemocratic handpicked Muslim Community Reference Group. But how revolutionary were Dr Ali’s words?

The gist of his message seems is that the Prophet Muhammad wasn’t perfect. But what kind of perfection is he talking about? Muslims agree that the Prophet was a perfect human (al-insan al-kaamil in Arabic). But the word for human (insan) itself means negligent. Muslims agree that, as a human being, the Prophet was perfect. Yet there are places in the Koran where he has been corrected in his conduct.

So how is this perfection to be worded? This is where the controversy among different Muslim denominations begins, whether in the Indian sub-Continent or the Middle East.

At worst, Dr Ali could be accused of using somewhat inappropriate language to describe the Prophet. He should have used more careful phrasing. Then again, had Sheik Hilaly bothered to learn English during his last 2 decades in Australia, he might have recognised the problem not in Dr Ali’s message but rather in his choice of words.

The rest of Dr Ali’s comments are nothing new, especially those relating to the process of renewing the understanding of Islamic sources. Similar thoughts have been expressed by the likes of prominent Swiss scholar Dr Tariq Ramadan and the American sharia academic lawyer Professor Khaled Abou el-Fadl.

Yet The Oz’s editorial on 5 October continues with manufacturing Mt Everest from a speck of dust, describing Dr Ali’s remarks as evidencing

... great courage ...

... and applauding them for ...

... promoting honest discussion that is in the interests of Islam, its followers and the Australian community.

The editorial took swipes at both Sheik Hilaly and his arch-nemesis, Muslim Community Reference Group member Mustapha Kara-Ali. For once, these two find themselves on the same side of an argument.

The editorial further claims that ...

... Dr Ali's standing cannot be easily dismissed.

How so? He has a doctorate in economics and teaches at a university. An economist claiming expertise on Islam’s most argued esoteric theological controversy. About as nutty as suggesting Sheik Hilaly be appointed to the Reserve Bank Board.

Speaking of Sheik Hilaly, Dick Kerbaj wrote on October 5 about Hilaly’s response to Ali’s remarks. Kerbaj described the Sheik as ...

... the head of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's southwest.

Had Kerbaj done his research, he would have found out that there is no such a place as “Lakemba Mosque”. The Sydney suburb of Lakemba is home to at least 5 mosques, the largest of which is the Imam Ali ben Abi Taleb Mosque. Further, the head of that mosque (where Sheik Hilaly is senior imam) is in fact the President of the Lebanese Moslems Association which owns and manages the mosque and the property on which it is built.

Words © 2006 Irfan Yusuf


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