A Muslim cleric who whipped up a storm last year when he told his Sydney flock that women who don't wear the veil invite rape has been endorsed as the supreme leader of Australia's 300,000 Muslims.

Clerics from around the country meeting in Sydney decided Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, 67, should keep the post of Mufti of Australia that he has held since 1988.

Prime Minister John Howard last year urged Muslims to dump al- Hilali, as did New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma.

Earlier this year al-Hilali raised the ire of Australians when he said Muslim migrants had a greater entitlement to the country than those who arrived at the time of colonial settlement.

"We came as free people, we bought our own tickets, we are entitled to Australia more than they are," al-Hilali told a television station in his native Egypt.

Howard called on Muslims to show a willingness to join the mainstream by ditching their controversial leader.

Al-Hilali, an Australian citizen, has been censured before for his extremist views and each time the Muslim community has closed ranks behind him.

He made international headlines when he told the congregation at Sydney's largest mosque that a woman in revealing clothes was herself to blame for sexual assault "because if she hadn't left the meat uncovered the cat wouldn't have snatched it."

After the remarks, 34 Muslim community organizations signed a petition urging al-Hilali to defy calls for him to stand down.

The Aussie Muslims have made their choice. Now they have to live with any consequences of that choice, including mosque raids, terror arrests, deportations and so on. They were given the chance to deny terror and Muslim brutality, and they turned their backs on that choice.

Once more we must ask, where were the "moderate Mulsims" during all this? Where was the outcry? Where were the letters to parliament denouncing the cleric and asking that he be removed?

Could it be because there is no moderation in Islam? It is an all or nothing religion. You either live by it, or you die from it. Now if only the rest of us would accept that, we might have a chance of putting a stop to it.

Labels: Islam, Religion