From FrontPage today:
Myra Morton turned herself in on Thursday. Police say she shot her husband, Jereleigh, to death Sunday as he lay in his bed in their home near Philadelphia.The Mortons converted to Islam in the 1980s. Jereleigh Morton had recently taken a second wife in Morocco: Zahra Toural, 35. (The first Mrs. Morton is 47). According to the police, Jereleigh Morton met Zahra in December 2006, on the Internet, and got married in Morocco last March. This made Myra Morton unhappy. She complained to friends that Jereleigh was “no longer paying attention to her,” but she felt as if she had to approve of his marriage to Zahra since it was sanctioned by Islamic law – and it was what Jereleigh wanted. She wrote in her diary: “I go give him the permission, because he argues with me when I protest this marriage.” She even went to Morocco, according to police investigators, to “sanction it under Islamic law.”
Yet at the same time, she wrote to the State Department, urging officials not to allow Zahra Toural into the United States, and accusing her of terrorist ties. Evidently, however, this letter had no effect, and in any case it couldn’t prevent Jereleigh from traveling to Morocco. So Myra Morton, desperate and deeply hurt, found a different solution last Sunday.It is never easy for the first wives. Adile Sultan, the daughter of the 19th century Ottoman reformer Mahmud II, was married to Mehmed Ali Pasha, an army officer. One day Adile Sultan traveled to a mosque far from her home. She stopped for a rest at a mansion that was on the way. The hostess, who was unknown to her, offered her coffee and sherbet -- and introduced herself proudly as the wife of Mehmed Ali Pasha.
Adile Sultan was shocked. And her life was never the same. “Thereafter,” says historian Phillip Mansel, “she lived in seclusion, writing poems of increasing sadness. When she died in 1898, she was buried beside her husband. They never referred to his infidelity.”
This is the story of just one woman, but it doesn’t take much knowledge of human nature to recognize that it’s a story that has been repeated and is still being repeated the world over. Whenever women in the Islamic world have dared to speak about polygamy, the story is the same. Halide Elib, a proto-feminist in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, said flatly that polygamy “was a curse, a poison which our unhappy household could not get out of its system...The constant tension in our home made every simple ceremony seem like physical pain, and the consequences hardly ever left me. The rooms of the wives were opposite each other and my father visited them in turn...”
A twenty-first century American Muslim wife felt the same way. April Ray El-Hage, wife of convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist Wadih El-Hage, successfully resisted her husband’s attempts to take a second wife. She couldn’t, of course, deny that he had a right to marry again — to do so would have been by her own account “un-Islamic.” But here again, her heart was greater than her religion. With an innate sense that polygamy was wrong, she fought back the only way she could: “I made his life hell...I was becoming a real b----.” It took six months for Wadih El-Hage to relent, but April Ray ultimately won: her husband broke off his engagement to his second wife.
Myra Morton was not so fortunate. Infidelity doesn’t justify murder (except in country music songs), however, it isn’t hard to sympathize with her despair and pain. Still, on the question of polygamy, as on all instances of Islamic oppression of women, feminist groups maintain a stony silence.
Is that because polygamy is a remote problem, having nothing to do with American women? According to AP, CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper “said that a minority of Muslims take second wives, and that Islamic scholars would differ on whether one could do so while living in the United States.” How large a minority? Do these Islamic scholars take into account the fact that polygamy is illegal according to the laws of the United States?
Polygamy, in which women are regarded as chattel, is a human rights issue. But since it involves the avowal that Western civilization is more humane in this regard than Islamic civilization, don’t expect human rights groups to be taking it up anytime soon. For, as I discuss in my new book Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t, the West is consumed with self-hatred and moral equivalence at precisely the time when Judeo-Christian civilization and values are facing a life-or-death challenge, and when Western countries should therefore be reasserting the fundamental goodness of their common civilization. After all, values that originated in a Judeo-Christian context are now accepted the world over, except in the areas where the sharp Islamic dichotomy between believers and unbelievers, and the idea that women are inferior beings created to serve men, supplant the idea of the equality of dignity of all people.
For the West to defend its heritage and values would go a long way toward delineating the nature of the present conflict – still cloudy six years after 9/11 – and giving people the will to resist Sharia and Islamization initiatives. But the dominance of multiculturalism and political correctness ensure that this defense is not on the horizon. The sad case of Myra Morton is only the latest example of the human cost of this failure of will and courage.
"Do these Islamic scholars take into account the fact that polygamy is illegal according to the laws of the United States?"
...Muslims care little for American law...and care less for Americans...Muslims continually disrespect the laws and the American people...Muslims continually strive to make everything and everybody Islamic...They use slow Jihad, fast Jihad, deceptive Jihad....and the MSM and dhimmicratics are compliant in many ways...
...Ban Muslim immigration...
In an era in which the traditional family is vanishing and gang activity is bugeoning in mnay of the cities of the West, suitable male role models are required, role models that guide young people towards responsible citizenship and the respect for others on which citizenship is based. How suitable is a male role model that floats between women and treats them like tilth, who may have so many children so as to potentially have difficulty in remembering their names, who -even if earnestly interested in providing such guidance- may simply not have the time to provide each of his children with the personal time necessary to teach them and guide them?
Polygamy is truly hard on the women. But it is just as hard if not moreso on the children. And it will have lasting effects upon the society in which it takes hold. Effects such as young men, driven to horrific, cruel exploits, all to impress malignant father figures, such as the Khomenis and bin Ladens of the world, themselves the products of this perversion of the human family system. That is not a society we want.
The fact that Muslim men are permitted to marry a non-Muslim woman (implying she belongs to the man's clan-family) but a non-Muslim man may not marry a Muslim woman is also part of this patriarchy in overdrive called Islam. Women are really reduced to breeders in Islam. Sharia law reduces women to second-class status and breeder status. This is a great religion for challenged men, slandering-liar slobs such as Ibby Hooper-LOL.
Wealthy Gulf Arab men book their multiple wives and families into American resorts. The resorts are happy to sell the extra rooms, meals and ticket packages. Muslim businessmen and students bring their second wives with them to the USA, with the second wife posing as a sister/cousin of the first wife. Again, no one cares because there will be plenty of money spent while in the country. The Muslims think that they are above and beyond any infidel laws and the State Department must agree with them. However, I have no sympathy for Myra Morton. Murder is murder. She could have divorced her husband or turned him into the authorities and exposed his scheme.
The Canadian Bar association meets this week to discuss polygamy, among other issues. Given the Leftists here and their agenda (everything about Islam is absolutely wonderful and should be emulated) I have zero expectations that a strong stance in support of monogamy will prevail. In fact (along with the Muslim Lawyers Ass'n, etc), I half expect that Canada (or Cana-duh) will soon be endorsing polygamy. the Muslims will no doubt be heralding it as a grand motion to "liberate" women -- supreme liars that they are...I am seriously thinking of leaving Cana-duh (it's getting even worse than Britain.)
Western countries have a hard time "reasserting the fundamental goodness of their common civilization" when they turned their backs on Christianity decades ago.
The US, in an effort to completely separate church and state, has all but banned Christianity from the public sphere. Any mention of God is verboten. People want to remove it from our currency and from our national anthem (a later stanza) and many other national songs. They even want to remove it from the art in the Capitol.
Secular humanism is the new religion. It can't hold a candle to Islam's claim of perfection.
Some Mormons along with Muslims approve of polygamy. While at least in the case of Mormons the practice was outlawed by the Mormon church. However, whether Mormon or Muslims Mr Hooper should be aware its irrelevant what "scholars" say since polygamy is against the law in the US. If Myra Morton was not Muslim I suspect she would have simply divorced her husband. The family was worth $8 mil thanks to an insurance settlement. Mrs Morton would have gotten half of the money and half of all property. She could have then gone on to make a new life with a man who was younger, better looking and better in bed then her husband.
I also read an article several years ago about how destructive polygamy is to societies and how the practice breeds violence and discontent.No matter what Mohammed says there are roughly an equal number of men and women in the world. So if you allow one man to have four wives your insure that at least three others will never marry.The problem is increased in the Muslim world as most of the countries with surplus male populations are in that part of the world.Mainline China is one of the few countries outside the Muslim world with a majority male population. For example there are 125 males for ever 100 females in Saudi Arabia. So approximately one fourth of all Saudi men will never marry, polygamy decreases the chances of the remaining men every marrying.Women are also treated like chattle in these societies, horded and taken off the market further increasing the problem. In societies where monogamy is the standard you insure that at least in theory each man has an equal opportunity at marriage.Polygamy like first cousin marriage is another reason Islamic countries are so dis-functional.
Not too long ago one of the FBI's Ten Most wanted was a Mormon charged with sexual assault, etc because he and his sect actively preach/practice polygamy. Just think if our govt spent one tenth as much effort on arresting these Muslim polygamers as Mormons, but of course, Islam is a protected religion in this country.
Perhaps we should consider arming all R.O.P. wives as a matter of policy in the GWOT.
What decent woman is content to be less than equal and worthy ?
islamic women: wake up, smelly jihadists bent on violence sure aint a dream match.
If polygamy is legal under sharia law, why isn't polyandry?
If we allow gay marriage, you can be sure that the push to legalize polygamy will not be far behind. Besides being immoral, polygamy is also a powerful Islamic demographic weapon.
Let's just have civil unions, and leave it at that.
tanstaafl-
...why not polyandry?
Because Muslim women are only worth a fraction of a Muslim man.
For polyandry in Islam to work, you would have to give each women only a part of up to 4 men.
Not that I'm opposed to that.
I can even recommend which part.
First, Myra Morton, should be given a medal for shooting the bum, second, she should be sent to an institutyion to fugure out how anyone could be that stupid.
I wonder how many other marriages of this kind exist in Muslim communities in the U.S?
I also wonder if government authorities know about these marriages, but turn a blind eye, so as not to offend Islamic sensibilities?
I wonder also if our tax dollars aren't being used to provide social services to these families -- wives and children?
I wonder if Muslim men aren't claiming mutiple wives, along with all the children, on tax forms.
I wonder if their Imams, and the members of their Mosques, aren't aware of other members who have mutiple wives?
I wonder how this man managed to get his second wife into this country?
Stop Muslim immigration now. They obviously obey a higher law than ours.
Ah, so as suspected...their family tree really DOESN'T fork! lol
I disagree with polygamy and believe it should remain illegal.
However, if it is ever legalized, would that mean husbands would be expected to financially support all wives and all offspring, with no welfare benefits to be paid out?
It is difficult, if not impossible, to support a family on one salary in large Canadian cities. How could one man support several wives and, say, 12-16 children?
Due to "financial hardship", I guess the children would all qualify for subsidized daycare (paid for by Canadian taxpayers). Well, that would bankrupt us in a hurry.
And don't forget subsidized university education for all of the children.
I can see corporations going broke from having to provide health insurance coverage (dental, prescriptions, limited chiropractic, etc.) for several wives and countless children of male employees. That would be the end of corporate health insurance.
As all of the parents and family members of the wives would be eligible to emigrate to Canada and stay, there would be more elderly and sick people relying on our government-paid health care system. Our tax burden is already too high; we couldn't support a heavier drain on our health care dollars.
This would put landlords out of business. It's hard enough finding good tenants: think about renting to such large families. How could you legally discriminate? It's already almost impossible in Canada to discriminate against people who can't afford to pay the rent (no joke).
With so many Muslim children flooding into our schools at once (12-16 children in a family instead of two), the system would be Islamized in order to accommodate the dietary and scheduling needs of the majority of students.
The legalization of polygamy must be fought when it is attempted. And it will be attempted. Let's keep the polygamists underground and on the wrong side of the law.
The silly woman is still a muslim, after so obviously showing that she can't live with its basic tenets.