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"Two wives," from the Jerusalem Post, with thanks to Leslie:
Marry women of your choice. Two, three, or four. However, if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly [with them], then only one or [a captive] that your right hand possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice. (Koran, 4:3)Over the centuries, the phenomenon of polygamy has captured the attention of Westerners – diplomats, travelers, writers and artists – who found themselves in the East. The enigmatic and enticing harems of Arabian Nights, the beautiful concubines and the wily eunuchs of The Thief of Baghdad gave polygamy an exotic eastern flavor for those who saw "the Orient" as nothing more than an exciting and distant fairy tale.
Today, there are no longer harems or eunuchs, but polygamy is still very much alive. It exists in a vast majority of Islamic countries, where it is permitted by law. And in the 20th century, it reached European and American shores with the massive wave of immigration from Islamic countries. Interestingly, Europe, while welcoming the reform of the Family Law in Morocco that made polygamy almost impossible, and pressuring Turkey to put an end to the practice (the country's ban on polygamy is commonly overridden), is at the same time turning a blind eye to the existence of the practice within its own borders.
Like many Muslim men, Muhammad, an immigrant from Pakistan, first came to Norway alone. After building a career, he found a wife, a Norway citizen, and obtained citizenship himself. Soon enough, his astonished new bride learned that Muhammad was in the process of bringing his first wife to Norway, along with their nine children, all of whom were considered Norwegian citizens by law.
Immigrants from Mali, Egypt, Mauritania, Pakistan and other countries who come to live in Europe often bring along their extended families, which may contain two, three and even four wives, and all of their offspring.
There are no official statistics, but some sources claim there are up to 10,000 polygamist families in France. The average size of such a family is up to 15 people, which means that about half a million French are living in polygamous families. There are also hundreds of polygamous families in England, Germany and Norway.
The law in all of these countries forbids the practice of polygamy, but local authorities are in a bind, faced with issues of freedom of religion. And aside from the social and cultural problems of polygamous families, there are legal questions surrounding issues of inheritance, taxation and property registration.
Jacques Kossowki, the conservative mayor of Courbevoie in France and an MP, believes that the choice is quite simple.
"It's a disaster. We don't even have housing big enough for these people. We have to accept polygamy exists in other countries, but it is not recognized by French law, so I don't see why we should accept it." But British legislators have chosen to adopt a more liberal approach, and have already begun amending existing laws in an effort to accommodate the needs of the local Muslim population.
"The Inland Revenue is considering recognizing polygamy for some religious groups for tax purposes. Officials have agreed to examine family friendly–representations from Muslims who take up to four wives under Sharia, the laws derived from the Koran," The Sunday Times reported last year.
Read it all.
Posted by Robert at July 12, 2005 8:03 AM
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If Orwell was alive and could write a sequel to "Animal Farm" what would the muslim rulers of the farm write on the barn door?
"Men and women are equal, but men are more equal than others"
Posted by: obl r us![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 12, 2005 8:14 AM
But British legislators have chosen to adopt a more liberal approach
This should read: But British legislators have chose a more suicidal approach ...
This is beyond insane. May as well just put a bullet through your temple and be done with it. I'm so shocked and dismayed.
Easy to have several wives and all those kids when you don't have to actually work for a living and support them. I'm sure these polygamous families are all supported by welfare. The rest of us ponder hard and long whether we can have more than two children, while these subversive parasites just live the high life on our backs. God, I just hate these pukes. I've had it.
Posted by: feralee at July 12, 2005 8:16 AM
Don't worry, Europe. Your laws will only change slowly one at a time. You won't notice or feel a thing. Like a slow boiling lobster.
Posted by: obl r us at July 12, 2005 8:27 AM
All cultures are equal. All languages are equal. All legal systems are equal. All ways of dealing with women are equal. All forms of marriage are equal. All views of the universe are equal. All religions are equal. All belief-systems are equal. All people are absolutely equal, not just before the law, but in the quality of their minds and thought, in every possible way.
We are all very very equal -- and don't you forget it, because if you dare to forget it, if you dare to suggest that just maybe, some ways of looking at the universe are just a bit more in harmony with justice, kindness, decency, things like that -- then you do not believe that all things, always and everywhere, are equal.
And therefore, you are An Enemy of the People. And we who are in the Equal Party, the Party of Equals, in a country of Equals, in a world of Equals, in a universe of Equals, must deal with you. For when you dare to question Equality, you immediately become -- Not Equal.
Posted by: Hugh at July 12, 2005 9:02 AM
Polygamy is slavery and any society that accepts and condones sexual slavery.
A polygamist cult operating in the U.S. is facing problems as authorities bear down on it exposing sex with minors and forced marriages (a.k.a. enslavement.)
And they want me to respect a religion whose “supposedly infallible” prophet teaches polygamy? Polygamists are perverted users of other human beings and deserve all the respect my back (or the bottom of my shoe) can show them. I don't care what culture or time period they come from.
f.g.
Posted by: f.g. at July 12, 2005 9:16 AM
There's just a teeny-weeny problem with this four-wives thing. Back when it was made part of Muslim Holy Writ, the Muslims were conquering lots of non-Muslims, killing the men, and seizing the women. Why, Muhammad himself acquired some rather pretty female companions in that way, who apparently did not hold it against him that he had killed their husbands, fathers, brothers, sons. No hard feelings in those days -- or if there were, at least not against Muhammad, uswa hasana, al-insan al-kamil.
So there were plenty of women to go around. And then centuries of Arab and Turkish raiders and slavers provided other women. Some were seized from Western Europe, where more than a million people were kidnapped, enslaved, and taken back to such places as Algiers. Other Muslims specialized in the kidnapping of Circassian and Georgian women, famed for their beauty.
But that was then. And this is now. There are, more or less (less in China, where proud parents limited to one child tried to have that child be a son), an equal number of men and women. That seems about right. So here's the problem. Or at least one problem. If Muslim men are permitted, within Europe, to have many wives, then one of two things will happen. Some Muslim men won't find any wives among the pool of presently-Muslim women. And this can lead to sexual frustration, which leads to headaches, and this of course naturally leads to putting bombs in busses and subways.
Or, in the alternative, those Muslim men, soft-voiced, liquid-brown-eyed, so serious, so caring, so unlike those lager louts who are the non-Muslims, who don't have those soft voices or liquid brown eyes, who haven't "suffered" ("yes, I am a Palestinian, and I still remember, from my grandfather, our orange grove by the sea") especially at the hands of the awful West itself. What a thrill. What a frisson, to share the fate, to tie the knot, to enter into the kingdom of holy matrimony and, simultaneously, to say -- in defiance of narrow-minded family, and friends who turn out to be so bigoted -- to say YES to Islam.
And then, with an extra wife or two or three taken from the finite pool of non-Muslim women, what does that leave the poor non-Muslim men with, but an ever-diminishing pool from which to find a lifelong, or less--than-lifelong, mate -- god knows the dating scene for Western man, and Western woman, is hard enough these days, and now this?
Posted by: Hugh at July 12, 2005 9:27 AM
So its Polygamy now?
What is this supposed to be? farce or tragedy?
Get ready for loads of western males to convert en masse for the joy of polygamy. The dandruff of society couldn't have it better, legally consort with multiple women and claim tax breaks for multiple dependents...
This is the bloody pits!
Posted by: voletti at July 12, 2005 11:15 AM
Even though I am European, this liberal stupidity shows once again that Europe deserves Islamization and the severe retrograde forces of Islamic oppression and social degradation. Dhimmitude, political correctness and sheer do-good naivity is, indeed, at an all-time high.
Europe will soon be hit by the demographic timebomb of Islamic polygamy. This continent is commiting cultural suicide, no doubt about it.
at July 12, 2005 11:41 AM
Whatever happened to the newcomer respecting the law of the land? We would never walk down the street in daisy dukes and a halter top in Saudi Arabia, G-d forbid. We know it's against their laws and not allowed. Simple, right?
But Muslim hordes are teeming to the shores of the Western World and our filthy dhimmi laws don't apply to them? Their cultural norms and Muslim superiority trump our laws? The intellectual giants running the country can't see how that might eventually blow up in our faces?
I couldn't care less what is common in their culture! Most municipalities allow ritual slaughter under freedom of religious expression, why not clitorectomy?
I recommend if they don't like our laws that they take their wife/cousin and their 14 Mohammeds and go the hell home -- You don't like it here, then get the hell out! I'll drive your stanky a*s to the airport!
G-d help us from our dhimmi leadership whose self preservation and loyalty to America is like smoke in the wind...
Posted by: Kemaste at July 12, 2005 11:57 AM
Small wonder London is referred to as "Londonistan" by even the French.
BTW - does anyone here have any knowledge of the percent of polygamous households that survive on the dole? I doubt one working spouse could support that large a family in Europe and I expect Muslim "honour" wouldn't let the women work (as if anyone would employ them). If you remember the polygamy case in Utah a few years ago (Tom Green), he would marry a woman and then officially divorce her before marrying another. The first (and subsequent wives) then collected welfare while they all lived together as one family.
Posted by: johnb at July 12, 2005 11:58 AM
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