Wallah Wallah, Cat's Meat

Before I get too many complaints, let me explain the title...

In the 19th and early 20th Centuries, visiting street traders had no motor horns or recorded jingles to play to attract customers. So they had to *Shout their wares* when they arrived in a neighbourhood, either pushing a hand cart, or with a horse and cart.

What they shouted usually related to their particular product, and did not have to make sense. For example, my parents assured me when I was young that fruiterers often shouted *Apples a pound, Pears*, which makes no sense, but at least you know it's a man selling fruit!

Before commercial petfood was available, horseflesh would be sold around the houses, and the cry of the Catsmeat Man was, I swear, *Wallah Wallah, Cat's Meat*. Why? I have no idea. But it's a distinctive cry, and fits strangely well into the following item.....

Well, lets's talk about Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali.

During a Ramadan sermon in a Sydney mosque this year, he described women as 'weapons' used by Satan to control men, and compared them with uncovered meat. He told the worshippers "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."

He went on: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (veil), no problem would have occurred." Further report here.

Now, I have a number of issues with this man, and I am going to take the time to go through them. Read to the end, and then stop and think. These are my own thoughts, but magnified a thousand times through the *blogosphere*.

First thing to understand is that he´s in part trying to criticise a Sydney court´s ruling over a despicable series of gang rapes perpetrated by muslim youths, and seeming to put the blame on the women (and young girls) involved. See here for details...


The Sheik in further comment criticised the 65 year sentence handed out to the ringleader, but as the link shows, this was actually 55 years, and was halved well before the sermon, although a further 10 years was subsequently added after a retrial on one of the counts.

The Sharia penalty for rape is......??

Now I don´t know if the rest of you are in the same century as me, but in my humble opinion, the fact that a woman, Muslim or not, should choose to walk uncovered in public does not entitle any man to molest her, and certainly not for 14 to gang rape her. But the cleric seems clear on this - it´s the fault of the uncovered meat, he says - the woman's to blame....

Why does this bother me, you may ask? As I suggested there are several reasons, so here goes....

First, women are NOT uncovered meat. If the cleric talks about women in general, he talks about my wife and my mother, and they are NOT to be described in that way.

Second, if the cleric mentions Muslim women, I have to defend them too. Many of my chat friends are Muslimah, and I consider his characterisation of them to be disgraceful. None of you, my sisters, deserve to be seen like that.

The cleric goes on to suggest that if the woman is at home, in her room, in hijab, there is no problem. Well yes, if we never go out, we will be safe from all molesters, except for those in the house, of course, but that´s another matter.

Many of you will know that I have an interest in Islam, and have studied for some time in various ways. I never converted, although it could be said that I came close. (More on this later on request)

This is why I take more interest than perhaps would be usual for an Anglican, in a case like this. Women, I have repeatedly been told in my studies, are equal to men. (And have been, supposedly, for 1400 years). It takes a case like this, and it´s not an isolated case, to show that it isn´t so in the minds of certain people.

Was the sheik referring to women in general in his sermon? References to hijab suggest he was talking about muslim women, but when commenting on the rape verdicts, he clearly meant non - muslim. Regardless, a woman has the right to walk the streets unmolested.

The molestor - the cat - if there is one, will be a male, and it's he that should be controlled - it's he that should be harangued in the mosque. Never forget that!!!

كيوي جون

An update has been added here