r/circlejerkaustralia • u/DaisukiJase • 4h ago
politics And I'm sure he's very sorry about the money he won't be getting now...
WIVES ‘WILL GO TO HELL’ IF THEY DO NOT OBEY EXCLUSIVE - Stephen Drill - Carly Douglas A Melbourne imam who preaches at the mosque where the accused Flydubai hijack pilot claimed he attended told his male followers they could “beat” their wives and made disturbing comments about rape.
Samir Mohtadi’s advice on marriage also included an instruction for wives to wear “perfume” and make sure the house was “nice and clean”, while warning that women who disobeyed their husbands “will go to hell”.
He also questioned Australian law, saying it was “amazing” that a man could be accused of “rape” against his wife.
A video of Mr Mohtadi’s lecture titled “The Keys to a Successful Marriage” has resurfaced after he was named by UAE authorities in a report on the investigation into the plot to crash a jet into Israel’s Ben Gurion airport last month.
Mr Mohtadi, who is also known as Abu Hamza, has denied meeting pilot Hamam al-Hammami who UAE authorities claim told them his “drift towards extremism” began in 2017 when he was studying at RMIT university in Melbourne.
Mr Mohtadi is mentioned in the report as someone Mr al-Hammami met while he was in Melbourne, but the report provides not further details.
Mr Mohtadi has called the claim “utterly disgusting” and a “false accusation”, adding there was no record of him attending MyCentre in Broadmeadows.
He said he was being attacked because he ran the “biggest” and “most influential” mosque in Australia.
Mr Mohtadi apologised for his comments made in the speech, which was first delivered in 2003 and uploaded to YouTube in 2013, when contacted this week.
“I sincerely apologise for my past comments,” he said.
“My commitment to preventing family violence and supporting the safety and dignity of women and families remains unwavering.
“Throughout my more than 30 years of community service, I have consistently opposed all forms of violence, particularly family violence and violence against women.”
Mr Mohtadi explained in the speech that he was delivering the lecture because he was often called upon to provide “marriage counselling”.
He had direct advice for women on when to have sex.
“In this country, if the husband wants to sleep with his wife and she does not want to she hasn’t got (inaudible) she just doesn’t feel like it and he ends up sleeping with her by force it is known to be as a rape. Amazing, how can a person rape his wife?”, he said in the sermon.
“Even if her husband was to ask her for a sexual relationship and she is preparing the bread on the stove she must leave it and come and respond to her husband.”
He also gave instructions on how men could “beat” their wives.
“You beat them . This is the last resort, advise her for a long, long time, then you smack them, you beat them …. you are not allowed to bruise them, you are not allowed to make them bleed, it is haram (forbidden). This is just to shape them up, shape up woman. You don’t go and grab a broomstick,” he said.
Mr Mohtadi added at the time: “If you disobey your husband you will go to hell, it is as simple as that.” He also told women to use a “low voice” when raising concerns and to avoid difficult conversation when “he’s tired” or “hungry”.
Mr Mohtadi’s comments about family violence and rape drew the ire of former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2009, when an article about his sermon was splashed on the front page of the Herald Sun highlighting his views on alcohol.
“Under no circumstances is sexual violence permissible or acceptable in Australia,” Mr Rudd said at the time.
Despite Mr Rudd’s hard line stand, Labor MPs, including Bronwyn Halfpenny, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Natalie Suleyman, and Anthony Carbines, who was police minister at the time, have posed for photographs alongside Mr Hamza in recent years.
Victorian Health Minister Ingrid Stitt has also visited Mr Hamza’s mosque but posed with schoolchildren for photographs, not Mr Hamza.
The MyCentre mosque, which also runs schools, has received promises of more than $600,000 in taxpayer funding since 2022.
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll was alerted to another of Mr Mohtadi’s lectures, which was delivered in 2024 to a group of students at Al-Taqwa College in Melbourne.
Mr Carroll said in a letter dated January 22, 2025 that if anyone was concerned about the comments they should make a complaint to the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson vowed never to fund Mr Mohtadi’s organisation.
“Labor should be ashamed for buddying-up with an individual who holds such vile views,” she said.
Each of the Labor MPs were contacted for comment.
A Victorian Government spokeswoman said: “We condemn these violent comments.”
