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- NATIONAL
Don't harm Muslim women
We'll fight back . . . Sheikh Hilaly warns of revenge. Photo: Simon Alekna
By Frank Walker
Sydney's Muslim community will strike back at attacks on their women, their spiritual leader has warned.
Sheikh Taj El-Din Al Hilaly, imam of the Lakemba mosque, accused Premier Bob Carr of inciting racist attacks on Muslims.
He said the Muslim community would also come down hard on Lebanese gangs hanging around after dark.
"We will mobilise people to walk the streets at night to reclaim the streets," he said. "We will go to areas where young people congregate. We want them off the street."
He said that after Mr Carr had blamed Lebanese gangs for a series of rapes there had been an increasing number of attacks on Muslim women and abuse of Muslim people, including the rape of an 18-year-old Muslim girl by a Caucasian man last week.
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Police said they had no record of the rape. Lebanese Muslim Association vice-president Keysar Trad said community elders knew of the attack but the girl may not have reported it to police.
"This girl was a virgin," Mr Trad said. "It is a terrible stigma in our community to be raped."
Sheikh Hilaly said the community was in uproar over reports of the rape. "The situation is now very dangerous," he said, speaking through an interpreter.
"If this is not dealt with, there will be a reaction from the community. We can't stand idly by while our daughters are being attacked."
Even though Sheikh Hilaly said Muslims would also challenge Lebanese gangs, he insisted it was wrong of Mr Carr to label criminals by ethnicity or religion.
"These criminal youths are behaving in an un-Australian way," he said. "We did not bring these criminals with us from the Middle East. They were born here."
Sheikh Hilaly said gang members involved in rapes should be deported or jailed for life.
"The people most affected and most upset by the rapes and [who would] most deplore the rapes would be our community," he said. "These rapes are against our religion and against our tradition."
The Sun-Herald
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