"Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 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." He didn't say anything about obeying American law.
Sharia Alert: "Some Muslims in U.S. Quietly Engage in Polygamy," by Barbara Bradley Hagerty for NPR, May 27 (thanks to all who sent this in):
All Things Considered, May 27, 2008 · Although polygamy is illegal in the U.S. and most mosques try to discourage plural marriages, some Muslim men in America have quietly married multiple wives.No one knows how many Muslims in the U.S. live in polygamous families. But according to academics researching the issue, estimates range from 50,000 to 100,000 people.
[...]
Group member Sarah says that in her native Guinea, the husband springs it on his wife that he's going to marry someone else. Sarah, like the others interviewed for this story, would give only her first name.
"Sometimes he say, 'OK, I am going to be married tomorrow,' or 'I'm going to be married today.' He's going ask you like that. It happened to me," she says.
Sarah begins to cry. Others nod in sympathy. These women are all Muslim. The Koran states that men may marry up to four women. The Prophet Mohammad had multiple wives.
But there's a restriction, says Sally, another group member. The husband cannot favor one woman over another – with his wealth or his heart.
"You have to love them the same way, share everything the same way, equally," says Sally. "Nobody can do that. It's impossible."
Indeed. But that doesn't stop it.
Still, Muslims practice polygamy in the U.S., despite state laws prohibiting it.Here's how a man gets around the laws: He marries one woman under civil law, and then marries one, two or three others in religious ceremonies that are not recognized by the state. In other cases, men marry women in both America and abroad.
Many women keep quiet for fear of retribution or deportation.
For example, Sally's husband moved to the United States from the Ivory Coast before she did. When Sally joined him, she found he had married someone else in America. But without legal immigration papers, she didn't dare come forward and report him to the authorities.
She said when she arrived in the U.S., her husband and his new wife put her in the basement.
"They told me to cook, clean, do everything. I didn't speak English. And he told me, 'Don't say nothing. You say something, she's going make you deported. And me, I'm going to be in jail.'"
Eventually, Sally left the house with her children, and now works at a hair braiding salon. But that fear of deportation prevents many from leaving their polygamous relationships.
"Legally, they're invisible," says Julie Dinnerstein, a senior attorney for Sanctuary for Families. "If you are the second or third or fourth wife, that marital relationship is not going to be recognized for immigration purposes. It means if your husband is a citizen or green card holder, he can't sponsor you. It means if your husband gets asylum, you don't get asylum at the same time. The man is always going to be in a position of greater power."
Secret Ceremonies
In the past decade, Muslim clerics began to notice that some men who wanted a religious wedding were already married to someone else.
According to Daisy Khan, who heads the American Society for Muslim Advancement and is married to an imam, polygamy is more common among conservative, less educated immigrants from Africa and Asia. It is rarer among middle-class Muslims from the Middle East. She adds that nowadays, imams do background checks on the grooms to make sure they're not already married in their home countries.
Some clerics in the U.S. perform second marriage ceremonies in secret....
They ought to be prosecuted for that, when discovered.
Read it all.
Well they should be arrested. It is clear what the United States law is. After all the case in Utah where they arrested people who were practicing polygamy. There should be no exception when it comes to the Islam and those who practice polygamy under sharia law. Precedence has been set under United States law. That must be enforced.
I love the comment 'comes from conservative, less educated'... that says it all about Mohammed.
I had read some where that the ACLU was trying to open the polygamy thing back up under 'religous freedom'.
I think they do this so as to 'outbreed' the non-Muslims. When you have 5 children by 4 wives (and welfare pays for their care!) and the non-Muslims are responsible and have 1-3 children that they can afford without welfare, eventually Muslims will not only take-over demographically, but also the economy will be in a shambles, not to mention the kids will have not received the love and care they should have gotten as they were just born for 'the cause'.
Selfish and twisted in my opinion. No wonder they have 'honor' killings and death for apostasy, when you're a number in the 1.5 billion and that's your main value...well..
Is the United States of America a nation? Does it have laws? Does it care to enforce those laws? Does it care to continue to think of itself as a nation, as something other than a geographic designation, apparently to be shared with anyone who happens or slyly manages to get here, and whom, apparently, for many it would be impolite or impolitic to ask to please, please, please obey those laws.
Where is child protective services in the U.S. when they are really needed?
Same thing is happening in Canada:
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/429490
Yeah. But the press and the gov't will keep pounding on the unoffending Mormons, on the off chance that one of them is thinking about doing something illegal.
Makes me want to puke.
Seconding Hugh.
The United States (like many, many other 'western' or 'westernised' countries) has a law that says a man is allowed one wife, and one wife only, at a time.
There are excellent psychological and sociological reasons why this should be so.
Some of those reasons are screaming at us, right there in the article: "As the Senegalese owner {of a hair salon} Miriam Dougrou, weaves cornrows on a young woman, she says that her father married four women and she had 19 or 20 siblings. She lost count. So did her father. {Gee: really great family love there!}
"Sometimes he doesn't know who's who, and he forgets the name" of his children and wives, she said.
"He calls them No. 1 and No. 2," says Dougrou's husband, Timothy."
Nonie Darwish and Wafa Sultan both, I understand, have remarked upon the destructive effect of polygamy on men, women and children. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in 'Infidel', mentions it. V S Naipaul comments upon it, in 'Among the Believers', and again, in 'Beyond Belief', speaking of the way in which men can have more than one household, and the psychological damage that it does to the children involved.
American law says, one man, one woman. It must be enforced, to the letter, relentlessly.
In fact, I would go so far as to argue that Muslim immigrant polygamous families, on being detected, should be summarily deported.
If they're converted Americans, or second or third generation born, then the guy gets exactly the same punishment as would any American non-Muslim caught practising bigamy.
Same deal in every other Infidel country where having more than one wife at a time, is a crime.
And as an epithet for the Muslim men who do this sort of s**t, causing such terrible, terrible hurt to vulnerable women (especially to their 'first wife'), only a piece of blunt Australian Ocker dialect will do:
"arrogant dirty bI****y b*****ds!"
Is the United States of America a nation? Does it have laws? Does it care to enforce those laws?
from a poster above
Well, right here in what once was the good 'ole US of A (from the article)
Secret Ceremonies
[...]
According to Daisy Khan, who heads the American Society for Muslim Advancement...
Some clerics in the U.S. perform second marriage ceremonies in secret.
Khan, who does pre-marriage counseling, says she always raises the issue of polygamy with engaged couples.
"I also explain to them that as a woman, you have certain rights, and as a man, he may one day exercise his right to have a second wife," Khan says.
The article notes that many of these Muslim women--second and subsequent wives, typically of immigrant Muslim men, and being here illegally--are obviously quite reluctant to report the situation to appropriate authorities (no, not the Imam).
So, no, no matter what Ma and Pa America want, our nation is not only unwilling to enforce applicable laws, it is loathe to tell Daisy that her clients DO NOT have such a right in this country.
Bigamy (i.e. actual legal marriage to more than one person) is of course illegal. But anyone, of any religion, can surely have some kind of ceremony by which they believe they are 'married' to more than one partner. What they are really doing is simply adultery. Very difficult to make adultery illegal again.
I vote that when this is discovered the immigration laws are enforced and the non-legal 'wives' deported. Tough on the women, who are then sent home, but if it happens often enough the men will give up this dumb notion.
If the women are already American citizens, could they be encouraged to sue the creep for false claims or whatever?
In the UK the BBC has been preparing the ground for polygamy for at least 4 years. It’s flagship middle class radio station ran a programme that was not in the least bothered that it was illegal but took the line “Golly gosh isn’t it common! How does it work?”
It has now reached the point were last year a friends work colleague openly said he was having time off to marry his 4th wife. He knew only the first was legal but what the hell.
Since the first act of the present government in 1997 was to pay off its muslim vote by scrapping all controls on overseas marriages 60% of muslims now bring in partners from Pakistan or Bangladesh so it is probable that 2 of his “wives” are illegal twice over.
It's really just like marrying a guy who says 'BTW, this is the official ceremony, but I keep my right to support and sleep with up to 3 other women at my whim, and you'd better put up with it'.
These stupid women just need to read the koran and face the facts of their horrible ideology. Don't complain if you subscribe to this cult. They KNOW what the koran says, it shouldn't be a surprise. Don't come running to the state or the press when you don't like the consequences of what you subscribe to.
The true meaning of a real marriage continues to be diluted throughout the United States. First there came 'no fault' divorce, now marriage between people of the same sex. Legal polygamy cannot be far behind. How can you stop it when 'gay marriage', an oxymoron if I ever heard one, is forced upon the various states who have strongly voiced their opinions in support of the traditional definition?
The elected government of the United States has not the will to enforce its own immigration laws at the behest of big business. Amnesty will secure the positions of these people, be they terrorist supporters or bigamists, etc.
This is what happens when a nation allows an entrenched political class to rule over it. I am sure this is not what the Founding Fathers of this nation ever intended.
God save us from Islamists, leftists, and elitists!
Send them back to Mecca,
It ain't legal, savory or sane.
Multiple marriages are, I regret to say, recognised in the UK and a husband can claim financial support from the British taxpayer to maintain his harem. This applies only to Muslims, of course, not to the native British.
Not so long ago the Labour government did a deal with the Islamic clergy of Britain: 'we will give you concessions to Sharia Law, if you continue to vote us into power'. Other parties go along with this, since they are as anxious as Labour to win the 'Muslim vote'.
At present Britain has no credible political party which will express the democratic wishes of the electorate. This is our problem. USA, Candada, take warning!
"All Things Considered, May 27, 2008 · Although polygamy is illegal in the U.S. and most mosques try to discourage plural marriages, some Muslim men in America have quietly married multiple wives. "
the Muslims know the law and willingly disregard it, thumbing their noses at the host country..
time to ban Muslim immigration and begin deporting any Muslim convicted of a crime, no matter how minor..
I am starting to lose hope.
Sarcasm on?
Perhaps all male Jihadwatchers should pretend to convert to islam and impregnate as many muslim women as your resources will allow and then we can bring up thousands of doubting mohammeds.
David England -
Infidels cannot marry (or date) Muslim women. I know that in my own case, Mrs. Infidel has overruled Allah and Mohammed. It may come as a shock to our Muslim audience, but in my household, my wife's rulings are to be obeyed.
Allah has to give way!
It sounds like states need upate their criminal statutes so that any Clergy, including Imams, would face stiff criminal penalties for performing marriages when the couple do not have a marriage license. Any legislators willing to run with this?
John McCain says he will not go after citys that harbor illegal aliens, nor will he deport the illegal alien wife of a Marine policing in Iraq.
If our "leader" can "pick n choice" what laws he will enforce, then the rule of law is quickly going to go down in flames.
And it is. The compound castle in Texas is likely going to get back the children, for going after them may open another front in the war, one right here in this country.
Try to enforce a law where you may need to find up to 100,000 hidden suspects. Sounds like a profile is needed.
Or our "leader".
Have the Fundamentalist Mormons joined forces with Muslims who advocate the right to practice polygamy? I would be surprised if such an alliance does not yet exist.
I've quoted you and linked to you here: http://consul-at-arms.blogspot.com/2008/06/re-50000-to-100000-us-muslims-in.html