– TAJ EL-DIN HILALY

*Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly was born in Egypt in 1941 and is a follower of Sayyid Qutb. He arrived to Australia from Lebanon in 1982 on a tourist visa.  In 1988 there was an attempt to deport him from Australia after his speech at Sydney University in which he was quoted saying “The Jews’ struggle with humanity is as old as history itself; the present continuing struggle with the Islam nation is a natural continuation of the Jews’ enmity towards the human race as a whole. Judaism controls the world by…secret movements as the destructive doctrines and groups, such as communism, Free Masons, Bahaism, the Rotary clubs, the nationalistic and racist doctrines. The Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason, and economic hoarding”, for inciting hatred and being against “Australian values”.

However Taj El-Din Hilaly was, eventually, granted permanent residence by the newly elected Immigration Minister Gerry Hand in 1990, which led to his eventual citizenship, following a campaign by Sydney’s Muslim community.  

Taj El-Din Hilaly became the Imam of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney, mainly used by local Muslims from Lebanese descent and the breeding ground of many of Australia’s radical Muslims such as: Bilal Khazal, Abdul Rakib Hasan and Faheem Khalid Lodhi. His wages were paid by the ‘Libyan Islamic Call Society’.

In 1988 Taj El-Din Hilaly was appointed as the Mufti of the Islamic community in Australia. He, however, represented himself as the Grand Mufti of Australia and New Zealand as well. The Turkish Muslim community in Australia rejected his status.

In 1999 Taj El-Din Hilaly was charged and jailed after being convicted of involvement in smuggling goods from Egypt. In early 2003 Taj El-Din Hilaly’s vehicle was stopped because an object was protruding from it. After closer inspection, New South Wales Police charged him with driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle, as well as for his behavior towards the police officers. This incident led to an attack against police officers by nearby Muslims and widespread condemnation from the public. Although charges of assaulting the police officers, hindering the officers, and resisting arrest were later dropped due to a processing technicality, Taj El-Din Hilaly was fined A$ 400 for the incident.

In 02/2004 Taj El-Din Hilaly gave a sermon in Arabic at a Mosque in Sidon, South Lebanon, the text of which was translated by the Australian Embassy in Beirut. It appeared to show him supporting terrorist attacks. In his sermon, Taj El-Din Hilaly said: “Sons of Islam, there is a war of infidels taking place everywhere. The true man is the boy who opposes Israeli tanks with strength and faith, the boy who, despite his mother’s objections, goes out to war to become a martyr (Shahid) like his elder brother. The boy who tells his mother: ‘Oh mother, don’t cry for me if I die. Oh mother, Jihad has been imposed on me and I want to become a martyr…The 9/11 is God’s work against oppressors”. In his speech, he also predicted that Muslims would control the White House and appeared to support Hizbullah.

 In 05/2005 Australian contractor Douglas Wood was abducted by an Islamic militant group in Iraq. Taj El-Din Hilaly traveled to Iraq to negotiate Wood’s release at the explicit request of the Australian government. Taj El-Din Hilaly claimed to have spoken to Douglas Wood via telephone, yet after Douglas Wood was rescued, following a raid by the Iraqi army, Wood denied ever having spoken to Hilaly. In 07/2005 Taj El-Din Hilaly was named “Muslim Man of the Year” for 2005 in Australia.

In 07/2006 Taj El-Din Hilaly denied the Holocaust and called it “Zionist lies” but he arose huge public anger in Australia when, in 10/2006, Hilaly delivered a Ramadan  sermon in Arabic, in Sydney, in which he made statements concerning female clothing which proved highly controversial. The key part of this was – “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her Hijab (veil), no problem would have occurred.” — Taj El-Din Hilaly also said, “in the state of zina (Extramarital sex), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time is on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement”.  

His speech caused such an outrage, especially among women organization but also in the general public that, on 10/31/2006, Taj El-Din Hilaly was forced, by public pressure, to return to Egypt. He was succeeded as Grand Mufti in 06/2007 by Mufti Fehmi Naji.

On 01/12/2007 Taj El-Din Hilaly was interviewed by the Egyptian television and claimed there is no freedom or democracy for Muslims here and that English people are the most unjust and dishonest.

 

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