Sydney, Australia - CONTROVERSIAL Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Aidin Alhilaly has stepped down from his posting after being admitted to hospital with chest pains.
The besieged mufti was yesterday rushed to a Sydney hospital after collapsing during a meeting with the Lebanese Muslim Association, which was to decide his future.
However, during the meeting with LMA president Tom Zrieka, the mufti collapsed complaining of chest pains.
The sheik issued a statement from his hospital bed stating he had asked for "indefinite leave from my duties at Lakemba mosque".
"The pressure of the last couple of days has had an obvious effect on my health and well-being. I ask the public to give my family and I some privacy, time and space to recover," the mufti said.
"In due course, I will take the necessary decision that shall lift the pressures that have been placed on our Australian Muslim community and that which will benefit all Australians."
Later the mufti released another statement in which he described women as "cherished pearls" and said rape was abominable as he tried to explain the comments which have engulfed him in controversy.
While he expressed some contrition to the women of Australia, he attacked the "dubious media" and "devious groups" which, he says, have slandered and defamed him.
The mufti reiterated his controversial comments were not intended to offend women and conceded the analogy likening women to exposed meat was "inappropriate and unacceptable for Australian society".
In his statement from hospital, the mufti said western women and Muslim women are entitled to wear what they like, but "Islamic sharia made it incumbent upon Muslim men to lower their gaze. It is prohibited for them to stare at the beauty of strange women".
Rape, he said, was "an abominable crime; it has no justification, and the perpetrator deserves the severest punishment and would not deserve to belong to a religion or to humanity".
"I turn to all the women of Australia and the world. You are the shining lights of the world. How could any sane person think of humiliating you?" he wrote.
"You are the cherished pearls, the dearest thing in the world. So don't be taken as offerings at the temples of the merchants of pleasure, or advocates of decadence."
Mr Zreika said the mufti will remain in hospital for up to three days.