Famous Aussie Muslim Dies: Said Women Are Like Pieces of Meat Liable to be Eaten by Cats

Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly: Australia's most famous Muslim cleric behind infamous comment about women and 'pieces of meat' dies

A Muslim cleric who famously compared uncovered women to 'pieces of meat' has died in Egypt at 82. 

Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly's death - once Australia's most high-profile Islamic cleric as Mufti of Australia - was confirmed by his daughter, Asma, in a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Thursday morning.

Hilaly was one of the most controversial figures in Australia in the early 2000s after making a series of contentious remarks.

In October 2006, he sparked a firestorm after comparing women who did not cover up their skin to 'uncovered meat' left to be eaten by cats. 

Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly (pictured) has died in Egypt at the age of 82

The last photo of  Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly (pictured) was taken on September 24, during his trip to Mecca and Medina

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?' Hilaly said in a Ramadan sermon.

'The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.'

That made women so angry they planned to march in bikinis at Lakemba mosque. 

Two years earlier, in 2004, a sermon he gave at a mosque in Lebanon included comments in support of the attack on the World Trade Centre.

'September 11 is God's work against oppressors,' he said.  

'If we ask its pilot who reached his objective without error, who led your steps? … God is the answer.'

In a separate speech, Hilaly praised jihadist militants fighting U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2007, he said Muslims are more Australian than those with convict ancestors.

He died just after he finished a pilgrimage to Mecca, called Umrah. His cause of death is unknown. 

Hilaly served as the Inam of Lakemba Mosque for 31 years, between 1982 and 2013. He was appointed Mufti of Australia in 1988.

In 2005, he was named 'Muslim man of the year' at the Australian Muslim Achievement Awards.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12595625/Sheik-Taj-El-Din-Hilally-dies.html

Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly (centre). In 2006, he said women who do not wear the veil are like 'uncovered meat' who attract sexual predators.

Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, compared immodestly-dressed women who do not wear the Islamic headdress with meat that is left uncovered in the street and is then eaten by cats.

He said in September 2006 that women were asking for attention when they failed to cover up their flesh with a hijab.