Line up for Dole - mufti is told

Australia's Muslim spiritual leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has lost his $40,000 cleric's allowance and been told to apply for the dole because the bitterly divided national Islamic council can no longer pay him.

The high-profile sheik has been instructed to "contact your local Centrelink office" by the nation's peak Muslim body, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, which is locked in a legal dispute over its leadership and has been denied access to its bank accounts.

"The Westpac Bank has informed us that we will not be able to draw any funds from the bank," AFIC's new president, Rahim Ghauri, told the mufti in a letter obtained by The Australian.

"Due to this restriction we have to curtail or suspend our staff salaries."

AFIC, which derives most of its income from rent on land that houses Muslim schools across the country, and the certification of halal food, is understood to have paid the salaries of about 10 imams in the country. But Westpac froze the organisation's accounts last month after The Australian revealed the ethnic brawling that unfolded following the council's April elections, when a group of Pakistanis took control of the organisation, which had for years been controlled by Fijian Indians.

The Sydney-based Sheik Hilali was outraged by the instruction and sent a searing letter to the council's president.

"I would prefer to die 100 times over than to stand in line seeking welfare payments from Centrelink," he says in the letter, dated June 27.

"Does your dignity or Islamic manners permit you to direct such an insult to a spiritual leader who had spent his life in the service of the faith?

"You are very much mistaken if you believe that you can insult me, my dignity will not accept for me to be held hostage to the mercy of AFIC or anyone else for that matter."

The Egyptian-born cleric was receiving fortnightly payments from AFIC for his religious duties as Mufti - the nation's most senior imam - since his appointment to the position by the national council in 1989.

The nation's 150 imams earn their living through community donations generally given to them when they officiate at weddings and funerals. Some also receive money from other Islamic societies.

But the dispute comes as AFIC, the Islamic umbrella body, is in the middle of a fierce legal battle with members of the rebel executive board attempting to win the control of the organisation. It is understood the Mufti favours the rebel board over the new regime.

The Australian understands that the new Pakistani-led AFIC executive has since redirected the council's earnings to a Commonwealth Bank account.

But the letter from Mr Ghauri to Sheik Hilali, dated June 22, says: "Our records indicate that you have been on AFIC's payroll and your fortnightly salary is due on 30 June, 2006.

"In view of our inability to draw funds from our accounts we shall not be able to transfer the money into your account on that day and furthermore, until such ... restrictions are removed from our accounts.

"You may wish to contact your local Centrelink office to seek interim benefit ... However, any amounts received from Centrelink, until your payments from AFIC are reinstated, will be deducted from the accrued amount of salary that you will receive from AFIC subsequently."