Muslim Imam on Harvey Weinstein: Women Need to Wear Hijab So Men Can Control Sexual Urges

A Muslim cleric in Australia told followers that women need to wear the hijab in order to ward off sexual attacks from men.

He also suggested that if women did so, then the likes of Harvey Weinstein — the Hollywood bigwig being outed for all his sexual harassment of women — just wouldn’t have happened.

Talk about blaming the victim.

The Daily Mail has more (h/t The Religion of Peace):

A hardline Islamic leader says women need to wear the hijab so men can control their sexual urges.

Queensland Muslim leader Sheikh Zainadine Johnson has weighed into sex scandals surrounding Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to advise women on the need to cover up.

‘Men should be able to control themselves. This is a common argument against the Islamic hijab,’ he told his Facebook followers.

‘I totally agree, they should be able to control themselves, however facts show many don’t, this is why a hijab is necessary for women.’

The Muslim-convert and Sharia law advocate, who used to play in a band, followed this up with a sermon urging women to avoid wearing bracelets out in public.

‘There’s no problem with a female wearing a gold bracelet and making herself look beautiful as long as it’s underneath her hijab or at home, no problem,’ he told the Logan City Mosque south of Brisbane on Friday night.

‘In front of her husband, no problem. But on the streets wearing it? No.

‘In front of the people, this is not what’s permissible.’

Sheikh Johnson’s argument linking the hijab with keeping at bay the sexual urges of men has echoes of controversial remarks by former western Sydney-based grand mufti Sheikh Taj el Din al-Hilaly, who in 2006 described women who don’t wear the hijab as ‘uncovered meat’.

Sheikh el-Din al-Hilaly told 500 worshipers in September 2006 that women were asking for attention when they failed to cover up their flesh with a hijab.

‘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?,’ he asked.

‘The uncovered meat is the problem.’

His remarks were condemned at the time by other Muslim leaders and then prime minister John Howard as ‘appalling and reprehensible’.

Sheikh Johnson, a surfer and former bass guitarist with Brisbane rock band Grinder, used his latest sermon to urge Muslim men to avoid also wearing bracelets.

The hardline Sunni used the Arabic term for sinful, haram, to denounce the idea of men putting on metal, bodily decorations.

‘For men, on the other hand, bracelets are haram. Why are bracelets haram?,’ he asked.

‘Because it is copying the females. Bracelets, necklaces, earrings, nose rings, eye rings, whatever rings.’

Sheikh Johnson, who grew up on the Sunshine Coast, has recently urged Muslims to refrain from celebrating Christmas and in August described as sexual harassment the idea of shaking hands with women.