Shoe hurled at Sydney Imam for suggesting Muslim women shouldn’t wear a burka
Sam Hussey - Yahoo on October 5, 2016, 11:25 am
The host of the show attempted to break up the fight as the guests lunged out at each other.
A live interview on Egyptian TV ended in a violent brawl after a controversial Sydney figure suggested that Muslim women should not be required to wear the burka.
A prominent Sydney Imam, Dr Mostafa Rashid, had a shoe thrown at him by fellow panelist, Egpytian lawyer Nabih Al-Wahsh after telling the talk show that the wearing of the burka was a cultural tradition rather than a religious duty.
“You said you were the Mufti of Australia and a scholar in Sydney, but there’s not even a mosque in Sydney,” Mr Al-Wahsh said to Mr Rashid.
Mr Al-Wahsh picked up the shoe and proceeded to hit the Sydney man repeatedly, forcing the host and crew members to intervene before going to commercial.
“It [the shoe] was in free fight in the middle of the studio. I never expected that something like this could happen on air,” Mr Al-Ghaiti said.
However the brawl did not end there, with Dr Rashid hurling a chair in retaliation, injuring a crew member and smashing a pane of glass.
Ready for action: the Egyptian lawyer did not take kindly to Dr Rashid's controversial comments
It is not the first time Dr Rashid has come under fire either. In 2013 he suggested there was nothing in the Koran that said Muslims couldn’t drink alcohol, as long as they didn’t consume it in excess.
“It has been established for 1400 years that alcohol has a high degree of prohibition in Islamic teachings,” Islamic Friendship Association of Australia spokesman Keysar Trad said at the time.
“Those who may already drink, if they hear his message they may see it as some kind of justification,” he said.
