There is NO excuse, reason or sanity in rape it's a twisted evil mind wishing to dominate a target who seems vunerable. Rapist's deprive people of their liberty, their self esteem, their self confidence, and their sense of equalibtium.

They are cowards who attack women, and sometimes men, and should be dealt with serverely, we do not need these creatures in our society, we already have enough violence, enough drugs, get these monsters off the street and into jail indefineately, they are not ill, they are evil.

Good article.

Our society has so much more work to do, in order to protect women and children, even men, from sexual assault. We should be critical of Sheik Hilali’s comments. We should be active right across the Australian community too.

I am not going to enter into the same tired old arguments with the usual suspects who bang on incessantly about women. However, for those others who my be tempted, I would just point to JamesH's source which was provided in all seriousness.

It's a website of sickening hatred towards women which purports to have proof that Governments all over the world are involved in a conspiracy with those devilish "hateful" feminists for some undisclosed reason.

Much of the content not only of JamesH's responses but of all those other men who regularly take over blog threads with "proof" for their theories originates from this site.

It also contains the following: "But I'd watch out if I was one [a woman] because it will not be long now before millions of western men are alerted to how they have been disregarded, disadvantaged and demonsied thanks to...the feminist movement and...the vast majority of women...The backlash against women is going to be positively huge unless women and governments quickly mend their misandric ways"...

That rather says it all for JamesH and co, doesn'tit?

This site produces some of the most bizarre contributions from ignorant buffoons who exhibit their bravado only when they can hide behind a cloak of anonymity. The ones who I despise the most are those, bereft of a decent argument and unable to appreciate a decent argument from others, irrationally attack the person rather than respond to their ideas. Some, like "Citizen" (what an ironic nom-de-plume) can't stand the thought that a woman - especially a smart woman - may be well informed and reasoned in debate. Citizen, I'd rather you didn't grace us with your bully-boy remarks about successful women rising only because of affirmative action or nepotism.

You may ask: aren't you the pot calling the kettle black? Maybe, but sometimes the justifcation is so obvious. Besides, how can one possibly respond to your ideas when your conception of rape is "An ebriated chick with her tits hanging half out is like a well-heeled drunk asking to be rolled"?

Please don,t take this seriously. Confucious said " no such thing as rape, girl with skirt up runs faster than man with pants down". PS I do post some comments that are intelligent. By the way lighten up all.

Excellent article, Dr Scutt. As FrankGol has said, you provide a cogent and evidence-based counterpoint to the drivel presented in 'Father Dave's' article at this site. I also agree with FG and Romany concerning the deranged nature of some of the links to which the more extreme misogynist 'usual suspects' direct us in their comments.

With respect to Hilali being "20 years out of date", it appears that this is untrue for these commentators. When Father Dave expresses essentially the same ideas as Hilali he attracts approving comments from these people, who speak for the ugly remnant underbelly of Australia's formerly (?) patriarchal society.

While Hilali's statements were certainly anachronistic and offensive, his vilification is more a product of his being a prominent Muslim than of the content of his silly pronouncements.