Breakaway Muslims vote to dismiss executive

Angus Hohenboken, Natalie O'Brien March 24

A FAULTLINE through the most powerful Muslim organisation in the country deepened last night as a breakaway faction of the Lebanese Muslim Association voted to sack its executive.

The meeting of young MLA members, labelled the "Taliban of Lakemba" by controversial Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, was held outside Bankstown Town Hall in west Sydney after the group was reportedly shut out of the venue due to security concerns.

The 54 association members at the meeting voted unanimously in favour of motions of no confidence in the board's six executive office-holders.

"All we are asking is for a fair vote in April," Bilal Alameddine said. "From today there will basically be two boards directing what goes on in the (Lakemba) Mosque: nine on our side and six on their side."

Members said that, while the no confidence motions named the board's six office-holders, no one was singled out -- rather it was a vote of no confidence in the executive amid concerns the vote for the new board at the annual general meeting next month would be rigged.

The power struggle is mainly between the younger generation and the old guard, with tensions escalating in recent years.

LMA president Shawky Kassir said the executive would not accept the vote, as the executive was accepted by the majority of the organisation's 400 members.

"There is only one legitimate board," Mr Kassir said. "Irrelevant of its outcome, the meeting was not legal.

"They go and meet wherever they want and whenever they want -- any decision outside the proper procedure of the LMA constitutional law will not be accepted by the members and everybody around the mosque."

One senior Muslim said the younger group were "crazy and will stop at nothing".

The LMA board had previously sent a letter to the members attempting to cancel the meeting, and failed in an attempt to get an injunction in the Supreme Court to stop the meeting going ahead.

Mr Alameddine, who strenuously denied claims the group had Taliban ideology, said the cancelled venue booking was another example of the "political games" being played by the board. "The council asked the police for a risk assessment over the meeting and the police said there was no risk, but the council still cancelled the meeting because of security concerns," he said. "We are not radicals."

Bankstown City Council could not be contacted at the time of going to publication.

Trouble was expected at the Lakemba Mosque last Friday after confrontations last week between supporters of Sheik Hilali and his rivals, but a guest imam from Lebanon gave the sermon instead of Sheik Hilali.

Several scuffles have broken out during prayer times after the Nine Network's A Current Affair played security video footage of Sheik Hilali kicking in a door in his own mosque before calling in the police to report an act of vandalism.

The Muslim youths believe Sheik Hilali staged the vandalism to frame them and gain public support.

Sheik Hilali has denied the allegations and says there is more CCTV footage that proves there was a break-in.

Source: The Australian

Hilali kicks door, blames vandals

Image is Photoshopped for entertainment purposes

Natalie O'Brien, Angus Hohenboken | March 19

AUSTRALIA'S most controversial sheik, Taj Din al-Hilali, has been caught on videotape kicking in a door at his own mosque before calling police to report an act of vandalism.

The head imam at the Lakemba mosque, who caused outrage in 2006 by comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, was shown on a CCTV security tape kicking open the door just minutes before reporting the incident.

The Nine Network's A Current Affair last night broadcast the videotape from March 9, showing the incident, which Sheik Hilali initially denied.

"There is a trick in this camera. There is a trick in this film," he told ACA.

But in a letter sent by Sheik Hilali's lawyers to ACA yesterday, he admitted kicking the door, saying the damage had already been done to the door before he kicked it.

"What he did do was to kick open a door to the mosque that had already been damaged by others in order to gain entry to it," the letter said.

Lebanese Muslim Association president Shawky Kassir said they had called the police "for a little problem, but we have fixed (it) and everything is under control".

The footage shows four young men locking the door behind them at 10.28pm.

Nine minutes later, Sheik Hilali checks the lock and pushes on the top of the door, bending it on its hinges. After checking the corridor, he disappears from view before rushing towards it and kicking it open at 10.46pm.

It is understood the name of the suspected culprit was put forward to NSW police, but it is not known if he was interviewed by the authorities.

A NSW Police media spokesperson said they started to investigate the matter but three days later were told by a mosque official that he did not wish to take the matter any further.

"The matter remains under investigation. Further senior members of the local community will be consulted to discuss the incident."

Source: The Australian
Taj Din al-Hilali
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali accuses Israel of atrocities

Natalie O'Brien | February 06, 2009

AUSTRALIA'S most outspoken Muslim leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has compared the Israeli bombing of Gaza to the Holocaust, sparking outrage among Jewish groups.

Sheik Hilali, the imam of the nation's biggest mosque at Lakemba, southwest Sydney, lashed out at the Israeli leaders, branding them as "butchers" whose "Zionist racism" was creating another Holocaust.

"When we remember the atrocities of the Holocaust - it seems that what we are seeing is another Holocaust," Sheik Hilali said yesterday.

"It is not just about numbers of people killed - thousands as opposed to millions - but the atrocity itself, and here we have similar atrocities."

His comments drew an angry response from NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff.

Mr Alhadeff said comparisons between Israel's offensive in Gaza and the Holocaust were obscene and historically unsupportable.

"They trivialise the Holocaust and they falsify history," he said. "The racial hatred and anti-Semitism which Sheikh Hilali has been expressing for 20 years has clearly not dissipated."

Mr Alhadeff was referring to claims that Sheik Hilali gave an anti-Semitic lecture to a group of Muslim students at the University of Sydney in 1988, in which he was quoted as saying: "The Jews try to control the world through sex, then sexual perversion, then the promotion of espionage, treason and economic hoarding."

Sheik Hilali was appointed the following year as Mufti of Australia by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils in what was claimed to be a move designed to prevent him being thrown out of Australia over the comments.

Sheik Hilali hopes to lead a delegation into the Palestinian territory to deliver medical supplies to the wounded and to assess the situation.

The group, being co-ordinated by Melbourne-based group the Popular Committee for Palestine, has invited the attendance of Jewish journalist and the founder of Independent Australian Jewish Voices, Antony Lowenstein, who said yesterday he did not believe Sheik Hilali's comments were anti-Semitic. Mr Lowenstein said it was important to make the distinction between anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli.

Sheik Hilali is waiting for permission for the delegation to enter Gaza via the Rafa crossing on Egypt's border, and is planning to take a delivery of hundreds of wheelchairs and three ambulances.

The 15-strong delegation is expected to include five doctors and representatives of several Muslim organisations.

In the wake of the Israel-Lebanon war in 2007, Sheik Hilali travelled to Lebanon to deliver aid.

At the time, he was accused of diverting funds to an Islamic leader with links to Hezbollah. But an Australian Federal Police investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing.

In 2005, Sheik Hilali travelled to Iraq in an effort to help secure the release of Australian hostage Douglas Wood.

Sheik Hilali, who is a member of the Gaza Committee, which has been established by several prominent NSW community members and religious leaders, said he wanted to be able to see where the funds raised by Australians would most help the Palestinian people.

The Gaza Committee, along with other charities, is understood to have raised more than $2.5 million to send to the Palestinians. Sheik Hilali said the money would only be given to registered charities or hospitals, and would not go to any political organisation.

Source: The Australian