This article from The Age http://www.theage.com.au/news/people/lay-off-lara/2007/01/13/1168105227912.html suggests that Sheik Al-Hilaly is not so much out on his own, at least when it comes to uncovered meat, as many might like to think.

"SHE burst into the public arena last year as the face of Australian tourism's cheeky, laid-back "So Where the Bloody Hell are You?" campaign, but in less than a year Lara Bingle has morphed into a combination of Cleopatra, Mata Hari and Paris Hilton, all wrapped up in one voluptuous, man-eating, wife-terrifying, 19-year-old package.

Worst of all, she has preyed on the nation's most helpless, hopeless fools for love — footballers and cricketers. While the discussion in coffee shops and at barbecues all over the country this week has been about Bingle, the question left hanging is where the bloody hell are the men in all this?"

Indeed, and so it goes on. The Mufti's bass can almost be heard resonating through in the harmonies.

Cat Lumby puts it into mythical context:

"It goes back to an ancient kind of stereotype surrounding beautiful women," says Associate Professor Catharine Lumby from the University of Sydney. "They have a magical, evil power over men. There's a deep fear of the power of women's bodies, and Bingle has been turned into a media stereotype, like a siren from Greek mythology, luring helpless men to disaster and then heartlessly moving on.

"It's concerning to see how an individual can be so stereotyped, and the coverage has been quite mean-spirited. We often see this kind of treatment of attractive female celebrities."

While Professor Joy Damousi puts it down to our sporting culture:

"Male sportsmen are so iconic in our culture that they're elevated to a status almost beyond reproach. In a place like Melbourne they're bigger than pop stars. When they get in trouble they're seen as young blokes who need to sow their seeds."

If Hilaly hadn't shot his mouth off in Egypt, he might be able to enjoy a laugh at home in Sydney. Apparently reformed convicts aren't any more enlightened about women's sexuality than muslim muftis.

I love the analogy Graham.
Many Aussie sport stars like Shane Warne are not good role models.If this trend of irresponsible young men being totally indulged by their egos continues,then there will be many an unhappy man in the future who will suffer failed relationships because they are totally consumed with themselves,driven be media images of impossible expectations, rather than entering mature relationships that considers others with realistic expectations of what is possible within their socio/economic group.

The result will be unhappy and dysfunctional children,and many lonely and unhappy old men and women.

A great tragedy of modern Australia is that morality and behavior some a distant second to 'iconic status and success' ?

Seems that way. Soon we will be considering the very Aussie cultural idea of 'Best and FAIRest' redundant, and replacing it with the English and American ideas of 'most valuable player'. MVP

Nothing else should be expected since we chopped our cultural values umbilical chord off in the early 60s.
But as one feminist write on the subject of the 'muff'.. removal of female pubic hair recently said (which I still believe most missed) 'Where to next' ?

Bingle is representative of a major reason modern marraiges fail, and simply become "long (or short) term 'relationships'". Its all about ME stupid......Maybe Bingle has a score card.. or..like a Chinese friend who kept pictures of all the girls he had 'conquered' on his laptop....the opposite sex are simply 'raw material' to be processed in terms of a nihilistic and existential fulfillment of the 'ME' principle.

The absence of teaching moral values and more importantly the foundation for them, (being the Spiritual) will increasingly result in this type of behavior.

Hilaly might have his foot in his mouth, but he is at least speaking from the viewpoint of 'spiritual foundation' no matter how unsound that foundation is.

Its hard for a secular person to argue with Hilali, because he could easily show the poverty of their position, and demonstrate with great ease the destination of the moral relativism underlying such a position.

Without Gods love in our hearts, why should we or would we love our neighbours ? The lack of neighbourly love will become more and more manifest over time, as the last vestages of connection with our Judao Christian traditions are fully eroded by secularism.

Then, not only will God be 'dead' but so will we.

Ecclesiastes 3:19
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=25&chapter=3&version=31

I'll give some thought to Lara Bingle if ever she "preys" on me. I wonder if I would better able to resist her shocking, predatory, female chauvinistic attacks better than have the big, strong and sexy young blokes she has taken advantage of.

GY

Apparently reformed convicts aren't any more enlightened about women's sexuality than muslim muftis.

Some how i think you are taking the you know what... of course we are more enlightened, we dont preach rape and hatred of women.

we don't push for them to wear black sheets over their faces and bodys either. :P

Not "trying to take the ...", just pointing out that his views in this area aren't so outlandish. What struck me about the Hilaly issue was that I think he was being criticised for an issue that he could be "got" on, but that the real reasons people were after him had nothing to do with him being a sexist.

What he's just been caught saying in Egypt is far more serious.

Does Lara Bingle's invitation sound a bit on the bullying side while Hilaly seems to be the evidence of the bullied?

Even the Poms were intimidated by the "bloody hell" and then were more intimidated into accepting the bloody remark.

Is Australia too remote to understand what is going down out there?

But they are... outlandish to the extreme, can you imagine if one of the sport people said in defence of those cricket (were they cricket) rapes, or even Shane Warns bonking around.

"well those type of women are uncovered meat and deserving" etc

We have a standard of right and wrong that we regognize and accept...

Hilali and his ideals/beleifs/aims/ hopes what ever these things are of his are... fall into areas we think are grotesque..

'"It goes back to an ancient kind of stereotype surrounding beautiful women," says Associate Professor Catharine Lumby from the University of Sydney. "They have a magical, evil power over men. There's a deep fear of the power of women's bodies, and Bingle has been turned into a media stereotype, like a siren from Greek mythology, luring helpless men to disaster and then heartlessly moving on.'

What a load of bulldust. Men are, and always have been responsible for their own actions. But it's quite convenient to be able to put the blame on an attractive woman [or a succession of them!], after a man makes his own conscious decision to play around.

I learned Ballroom/Latin dancing when I was 16, after my very wise mother told me that was the best way to meet girls. As a dancer, the women I tend to find visually attractive are the fit, healthy looking ones, not overly made-up, but confident of their own appearance, regardless of what they may [or may not] be wearing. Similar to swimmers, skaters, tennis players etc.

Any man who can dance [at any age, I'm now 72] and is of moderate habits, otherwise presentable and accepts women as human beings and not as commodities, can easily make new female friends. And looks, from either point of view, can be largely irrelevant. And no-one [of either sex] needs to feel overawed by the supposed beauty of anyone else.

Putting the blame for cheating on your partner on the attractiveness of someone else is, to my mind, like putting your choice to do something stupid on peer pressure. Maybe this excuse can have some [repeat, some] validity for young teenagers, but surely not for so-called adults.

As for Poms being upset by our tourism slogan, perhaps a tiny minority may be, but for most it would be a non-event, taken out of proportion by the non-representative authorities and the media. A bit like our beer ad of years ago, I wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else, banned by the UK censors, but laughed at by Poms in general.

Lara Bingly is not going to have much going for her if she moves around under a black sheet, as our mufti would prefer it. If Hilaly with his mindset and communication skill is able to lead a religion in Australia this religion can’t have much going for it either.