The daughter of besieged Muslim cleric Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly said the media should "leave him alone" because "he is a sick man."

Asma al-Hilaly said her father remarks comparing women not wearing hijab, Muslim traditional dress that covers the whole of the body, to "uncovered meat" that invites sexual attacks, were misinterpreted.

"His only concern was to keep their daughters modest," Ms. al-Hilaly said to Southern Cross Broadcasting.

However, Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly himself has earlier admitted that the translation of his sermon was correct but taken out of context.

The Australian quoted Hilali as saying: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?"

"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred," he said in a sermon last month to mark the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, referring to the headdress worn by some Muslim women.

The comment has caused an uproar in Muslim communities worldwide, and leading Muslim women organizations had called the comments repulsive.