Muslim cleric says Christian women should wear veils

Outspoken Muslim cleric Taj al-Din al-Hilali has claimed that the Bible “mandates” the wearing of the veil by Christian women.

Sheik Hilali, who lost his job as mufti of Australia after comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, argues that the Bible and the Koran make similar demands of a woman’s modesty.

Hilali, who remains the head of Australia’s largest mosque in the south western Sydney suburb of Lakemba, says the purpose of the book is to show the commonalities of Islam with the Jewish and Christian faiths when it comes to women’s modesty and clothing.

The Legitimacy of the Veil for Women of the Scripture - Evidence of the Veil in the Bible, he points to references in the Old and New Testaments to women wearing a veil.

“The veil upholds the modesty and protects the dignity of women, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. Wearing the veil creates the most realistic similarity with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ,” he claimed.