Wife rape apologist condemmed by Australian PM

KEVIN Rudd has demanded a Melbourne Islamic cleric apologise for reportedly telling male followers they can force their wives to have sex, and hit them if they're disobedient.

The Prime Minister said Samir Abu Hamza's comments had no place in modern Australia.

During a 2003 lecture also posted on the internet last year, Mr Hamza told followers that under Islamic law, men could demand sex from their wives, the Herald Sun reported. Despite Australian laws requiring consent, it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex, he said. He also reportedly said that Islamic law allowed men to hit their wives as a last resort, but were not allowed to leave them bruised or bloodied.

Mr Rudd said Mr Hamza should apologise.

“Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia - under no circumstances,” he told reporters in Hobart. “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.”

In the lecture, titled The Keys to a Successful Marriage, Mr Hamza mocks Australia's sexual assault laws that require consent for sex between a man and his wife. “Amazing, how can a man rape his wife?” he asks. Mr Hamza, a cleric in the Melbourne suburb of Coburg, told the Herald Sun a man could hit his wife on the hand or leg, but not on the head.