Haha, they suspended the douche bag. Good for them.

"His metaphor is faulty." That's true, Samhita. Something was bothering me about his comments; it must have been that.

That's a pretty tactless metaphor...not to mention it doesn't make sense. Theorhetically, according to his metaphor, it's the cat's fault. *Gasp!* The harrasser responsible for harrassment? How silly!

Granted, I know some women do 'ask for it' by dressing like porn stars and Playmates, but a lot of women who get harrassed don't wear quote-unquote provocative clothing. And I certainly wouldn't call an uncovered head provocative, but it's not my culture.

Still, implying that women are responsible, then comparing them to meat...*shakes head*

I attended a Reclaim the Night rally yesterday evening in Canberra, Australia, where a female Muslim community leader powerfully rejected Hilali's comments. Condemning his comments as bringing Islam into disrepute, she called for his immediate resignation and the end to all sexual violence. She also affirmed both her free choice to wear the veil and her daughter's choice to wear "the shortest of shorts and the tightest of tops." It was a powerful demonstration of the strength and commitment of Muslim feminists to ending sexual violence against all women.

Actually, of course, it's not even the cats' fault. It's the idiot who left the meat out at the park. But women aren't meat and you can't really just leave them laying around. Sooo...

His faulty metaphor underestimates women and men as simply prey and animals.

This is one of those kinds of things that screams "poetic justice" to me.

Hilali, regardless of whether his career is over or not, should himself be forced to go veiled for the rest of his life.

Frankly, from his point of view its probably an appropriate (though imperfect) metaphor. He does think of women as meat. He does think of men as entitled to that meat.
And he does feel that Muslims should enforce the wearing of a veil (ie, the covering of women/meat). If the Islamic community fails to coerce these women into wearing veils, then they will spoil their own supply of meat. So maybe he is saying that women should cover themselves, but by his very act of speaking he is also saying that he has a responsibilty to ensure that they will cover themselves.
I really find it questionable when women and others support the wearing of a veil as a personal choice that does not undermine women. It just seems like this guys perspective is linked to symbolic wearing of the veil in Islamic culture/religion.

I wanted to add as a disclaimer that I do know that not all followers of Islam are misogynistic jerks. And I do know that there are strong women who do claim to wear the veil for a myriad of personal/political reasons.
Still, I think that this jerk's voice is representitive of Islam as it is presented in mainstream (and many other sources) media in the US.

Wait, I think I figured out the metaphor. Meat can't cover itself, but neither can women--women have no agency, they need a man to cover them, just like meat needs a man to put it away. The faulty part is when he compares men to cats. Men aren't like cats! We're like dogs--loud, aggressive, ravenous, crotch-sniffing.

Yes, well, even if you cover a piece of meat with a cloth, a determined cat will tear through it anyway. Better to lock up the cat.

Yeah, but you don't let the cats walk around in restaurants and supermarkets and other places where there's uncovered meat lying about minding its own business, if they're not capable of knowing better.

That has to be the most sickening 'blame the victim' BS I've ever heard. (Forget the stupid analogy...) So he is saying that if a woman doesn't wear a veil and she is raped, it is her fault?!?! That takes the 'but she was dressed like a slut' line even farther.

My cat is neutered.

Apparently, this schmuck is also a Holocaust denier. And describing himself as a "frail old man" is really kind of pathetic--I mean, does his argument really go "Please let me represent an entire religion on the Australian continent--being senile and in poor health, I'm a perfect candidate!"?

Cheers,

TH

Consciousness of risk comes in myriad forms. Some have been with us for a long time, such as assessing the financial viability of projects. Others concerned with safety, health, epidemics or bullying are more recent and grabbing most headlines are safety concerns about personal injury in the public realm, such as tripping over a tree trunk, stepping off the road into an oncoming car or tearing your trousers on the edge of a park bench. Undoubtedly a perception exists that the public have a greater tendency to seek redress if they suffer an injustice or injury. People look for someone else to blame for their misfortune.