Marital Sex in the eyes of Imam Samir Abu Hamza

A MELBOURNE Muslim at the centre of a storm over a lecture where he apparently directed his followers to hit their wives and force them to have sex reportedly says his message was taken out of context.
Coburg mosque cleric Samir Abu Hamza has told a confidant his message about hitting was meant in a metaphorical sense.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Islamic leaders have condemned the lecture.

Mr Rudd said Mr Hamza's comments had no place in modern Australia.

During a 2003 lecture also posted on the internet late last year, Mr Hamza told followers that under Islamic law, men could demand sex from their wives.

Despite Australian law requiring consent, it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex, he said.

"Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia - under no circumstances,'' Mr Rudd said.

"Under no circumstances are other forms of violence, physical violence, acceptable towards women in Australia nor are they acceptable in my view to mainstream Muslim teachings.

"Australia will not tolerate these sort of remarks. They don't belong in modern Australia, and he should stand up, repudiate them and apologise.''

The President of the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) Ramzi Elsayed said he had spoken with Mr Hamza about the lecture, The Keys to a Successful Marriage.

"He told me he was speaking in a metaphorical sense,'' Mr Elsayed said.

"In regards to hitting your wife, his position is that it has always been metaphorical - it's not a whack, it's not a slap, it's a wake-up call.''

He said Islam did not condone violence against women or making a wife have sex with her husband against her will.

"He believes he was taken out of context insofar as he was talking about people who censure their spouses - it was not so much a physical hit as a metaphorical one to say wake up, we're heading for a divorce kind-of-thing,'' Mr Elsayed said.

But the senior honorary legal adviser to the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Haset Seli, hit out at Mr Hamza, calling him a lunatic.

"His lecture was absolutely ludicrous, unIslamic and highlighted the ignorance of the man,'' Mr Seli said.

He said anyone who thinks he can force his wife to have sex with him is a lunatic and certainly not a Muslim.

Mr Seli said he went through a similar episode with the former Mufti, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, who caused a national uproar in a 2006 Ramadan speech when he likened scantily clad women to uncovered meat, suggesting they were to blame for sexual attacks on them.

He also claimed at the time that his comments had been taken out of context.

"Statements like (Mr Hamza's) are about as helpful to Islam as a lunatic parading himself as an imam,'' Mr Seli said.

The Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia (FECCA) said violence against women in any form was unacceptable.

"There can be no cultural or religious defence for violence against women,'' said acting FECCA chair Beryl Mulder.

At the Islamic Information and Service Network of Australasia, which Mr Hamza runs in Melbourne, a staff member said the comments had been taken "absolutely out of context''.

"We do not hit our women, you can ask any Muslim woman and she will tell you that, it's not part of Islam,'' the male staff member, who did not want to be named, said.

Mr Hamza was on holiday somewhere in Melbourne for the next "couple of weeks,'' the man said.

Sherene Hassan, vice president of the ICV, said she was organising workshops for Victorian imams on the issue of domestic violence.

"There may be individuals who have interpreted this lecture as condoning violence against women - it's not the first time we have had this problem,'' she said.

She said imams will meet next week to plan workshops to find ways of discouraging domestic violence among their followers.

Despite Australian law requiring consent, it was impossible for a man
to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex, he said.