Controversial Australian sheik steps down

An Islamic cleric in Australia who has made a series of anti-Semitic sermons against Jews stepped down as the Muslim community’s spiritual leader.Sheik Tajeddin al-Hilaly on Sunday was succeeded by a more moderate imam, Sheik Fehmi Naji El-Imam, as mufti of Australia’s 350,000-plus Muslim community.Hilaly has sparked a storm of protest for his inflammatory speeches, which have attacked Westerners and women as well as Jews. In 2004, Hilaly lauded suicide bombers in a sermon in Lebanon, and in 2006 he described the Holocaust as a “Zionist lie.”Earlier this year, police investigated Hilaly for allegedly channeling funds raised in Australia to Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon. In Sydney in 1988, he accused the Jews of being the cause of all wars.