Take My Wives, Please: Polygamy Heads West
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Myra Morton approached her sleeping husband on the morning of August 5, 2007, with pain in her heart and a gun in her hand. Once the smoke had cleared at the couple’s upscale home just outside Philadelphia, a man would lie dead, a family secret would be exposed, and a spotlight would shine on the emergent phenomenon of Islamic polygamy in the Western world.
The slaying took place just hours before Jereleigh Morton was scheduled to leave for Morocco on a mission to impregnate his other wife, Zahra Toural. Niqab-clad Myra, a convert to Islam two decades earlier, acceded to his bond with the younger woman, whom he had met online in late 2006. Privately, however, the 47-year-old mother was shattered, recording her dismay in a journal and lamenting to friends that she no longer received attention. Myra even mailed a letter to immigration officials falsely claiming that Toural had terrorist ties and should thus be prohibited from entering the country. Her husband’s plan to conceive is apparently what sent her over the edge.
Islam did not kill Jereleigh Morton; Myra Morton did. She bears full responsibility for her brutal deed and should be punished accordingly. Regardless of the circumstances, murder is anathema to Western legal and moral standards. Yet so too is polygamy. Recent evidence, however, indicates that governments tend to look the other way as the conjugal mores of seventh-century Arabia—and the problems that travel with them—take root in our backyards. Just as Myra Morton faces justice in a court of law, these drowsy cultural watchdogs must be made to answer in the court of public opinion.
The prevalence of polygamy among Muslims living in the West remains a matter of debate. Here is a sampling of what has been reported: As many as thirty thousand Muslim families in France include more than one wife. There are fifteen thousand in Italy and several thousand in Great Britain. Estimates for the United States typically run into the tens of thousands. Even Australia has been forced to crack down on Muslim men looking to meet potential second wives via the internet.
{snip}
Concern about Islamic polygamy—whether in the West or East—has naturally been dismissed in some quarters as cultural imperialism. For example, Duke University professor Miriam Cooke argues that “polygamy can be liberating and empowering.” As Kay Hymowitz explains in City Journal, “Some women, [Cooke] continued, are relieved when their husbands take a new wife: they won’t have to service him so often. Or they might find they now have the freedom to take a lover. But, I ask, wouldn’t that be dangerous in places where adulteresses can be stoned to death? At any rate, how common is that? ‘I don’t know,’ Cooke answers, ‘I’m interested in discourse.’”
Two nations have apparently skipped the “discourse” and moved straight to capitulation. Following a yearlong review, the British government has ruled that husbands can claim benefits for multiple wives, as long as the marriages are legal in the countries where they were conducted. Specifically, guidelines issued by the Department for Work and Pensions regarding the jobseeker’s allowance state: “Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate (£92.80). The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently £33.65.”
A similar arrangement exists in parts of Canada. According to the Toronto Sun, “Hundreds of [Greater Toronto Area] Muslim men in polygamous marriages … are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses, thanks to the city and province, Muslim leaders say. Mumtaz Ali, president of the Canadian Society of Muslims, said wives in polygamous marriages are recognized as spouses under the Ontario Family Act Law, providing they were legally married under Muslim laws abroad.”
Why should the introduction of—and increasing tolerance toward—Islamic polygamy be a cause for worry in the West?
First, like so many facets of sharia, Islamic family law codifies inequality and thus contravenes both the letter and the spirit of Western jurisprudence. {snip}
Second, Nonie Darwish and Phyllis Chesler have noted that polygamy, when combined with other misogynistic provisions of sharia, breeds societal dysfunction. {snip}
Third, polygamy is illegal in virtually every Western state. {snip}
Fourth, the push to normalize polygamy is yet another front in the Islamists’ campaign of inches. Its acceptance would serve as a powerful salient, paving the way for the further implementation of sharia principles. This slippery slope is not lost on Tory shadow secretary Chris Grayling. Discussing the welfare imbroglio, he observed that extending payouts to multiple wives “sets a precedent that will lead to more demands for the culture of other countries to be reflected in UK law.”
While Grayling sounds the alarm in Britain, a few European nations have already enacted policies designed to combat polygamous unions. The Telegraph reported in 2004 that Ireland “has ordered all men from Islamic countries seeking residency to sign a sworn affidavit rejecting polygamy. . .&nsbp;. A man must swear he has ‘one spouse only’ and ‘has no intention of entering into a simultaneous marriage.’” Likewise, the Italian interior ministry has asked Muslim groups to agree to a “values charter” that promotes monogamous families and the equality of women.
{snip}
(Posted on March 3, 2008)
Comments
This is old news to me. I am a former Muslim and knew several families with more than one wife, usually it is someone that is either older or who cannot have kids that has to put up with this indignity.
Posted by Spartan24 at 6:34 PM on March 3
There will come a day when borders are totally meaningless, either the laws of a country apply to all or they apply to no one. Under Sharia, if a Muslim kills an infidel (unbeliever) they have committed no sin or crime. Imagne a scenario where there are hundreds of Muslims killing thousands of Americans with the blessing of the Koran and our laws condemning us for fighting back.
Posted by at 7:01 PM on March 3
Ahhhh islam…aint it wonderful???? Makes ya just wanna puke now doesn’t it???? And guess who pays the tab for all those muslim, black, and hispanic babies……YOU AND ME…THE WHITE TAXPAYERS….Hopefully more of these guys will be bumped off….we can hope can’t we????
Posted by lydia at 7:58 PM on March 3
Polygamy? Would that really be any different than what we have in society now? Women are encouraged to have dozens of sex partners and illegitimacy is at ludicrous rates in both the black and White communities. If you dare criticize a man who fathers a dozen children out of wedlock you are called intolerant, but if that same man married more than one of those women, he is suddenly a criminal.
Muslims should be kept out of our society because they can not and will not fit in. If the criteria for entry is our own moral superiority you might as well not even bother with a border.
Posted by Flamethrower at 8:00 PM on March 3
“Polygamy? Would that really be any different than what we have in society now? Women are encouraged to have dozens of sex partners and illegitimacy is at ludicrous rates in both the black and White communities. If you dare criticize a man who fathers a dozen children out of wedlock you are called intolerant, but if that same man married more than one of those women, he is suddenly a criminal.”
I agree. I’ve become a lot less judgemental about polygamy since coming to college and seeing some of the slutty alcohol fueled female behavior here.
Posted by Samuel at 8:36 PM on March 3
Who are these freaks and how did they get into our country?
Posted by at 9:09 PM on March 3
So let me get this straight:
When we try to impose our version of law and morality on Muslims in Muslim countries (female circumcision, female rights, gay rights, religious freedom, ending support of terrorism, etc.) THAT is cultural imperialism BY us ON them.
When Muslims come into our territory and take our wefare money and try to change or ignore the laws of a country to which they moved voluntarily, that is also cultural imperialism BY us ON them.
Methinks I smell a giant rat. A whole colony of them, in fact.
Posted by Alan at 1:26 AM on March 4
Regardless of the circumstances, murder is anathema to Western legal and moral standards. Yet so too is polygamy. Recent evidence, however, indicates that governments tend to look the other way as the conjugal mores of seventh-century Arabia—and the problems that travel with them—take root in our backyards.”
“Ours is a Christian country.” - U.S. Supreme Court
“This form of governement was derived for a Christian populace, it will not work with any other.” -paraphrase of Alexis de Tocqueville
This is why the US forbade Mormons from entering the Union, until their ‘plural marriage doctrine’ was abrogated. We WERE a Christian union.
So, if we decide to apply ‘sharia’ law selectively, what is to say that the LDS Church will merge “Deseret” with “Aztlan”, and secede from this already tattered and godless Union?
It is merely following the lawlessness that masquerades as ‘secular morality,’ to its’ ultimate conclusion. Utter Anarchy.
Keep your laws off my body? Hardly. ALL decisions are MORAL decisions, even those that seem to be ‘freeing.’ Those actually are the most slave-making laws of all. We used to have just 10 commandments. Nowadays, how many ‘laws’ are there, on any subject ranging from human cloning to trash collection? Are we better off as a populace? Are we ‘free’? Or are we enslaved to a New Master, one whose penchant is to be like a ‘boot, stomping on a face, forever?’
Truly, “where the Law of the Lord is, there is Liberty.”
Posted by Fr. John at 9:18 AM on March 4
>>>”Polygamy? Would that really be any different than what we have in society now?” posted by Flamethrower
As I was reading the article that exact thought sprang to my mind. Leftist governments worldwide have encouraged White women and men to behave like backward societies, reproducing in an uncivilised fashion or mimicing animal behaviour. Sadly this has produced millions of dependent fatherless offspring which if they were living in communal human groups or troups of monkeys would/might be cared for by said group. But we don’t live in communal groups and we’re definitely human; Western culture produced Nuclear Families,( older posters will remember when that was such a dirty phrase 30 years ago, and commuuuuuunal caring was so de rigeur!). The Nuclear Family was condemned by Leftists as selfish, uncaring and outdated and now we are witness to thousands of semi-feral children who are the result of listening to the Leftist manipulators.
Western culture is what the Left wants to tear down in order to impose the International Totalitarian Scheme they have planned for us. What better way than to destroy the family.
Good post Flamethrower.
Arc.
Posted by Arcadian at 9:18 AM on March 4
He who has the “GOLD” makes the rules.
Posted by at 1:14 PM on March 4
“I agree. I’ve become a lot less judgemental about polygamy since coming to college and seeing some of the slutty alcohol fueled female behavior here. “
Well you can’t have promiscuous female behavior without promiscuous male behavior. Anyway, this is not the point. Polygamy is totally against our nation’s values and culture. Tell me again, why do we have these Muslims here?
Posted by at 8:50 PM on March 4
Flamethrower & Samuel have clearly identified the current situation. Anyone can have multiple children to multiple partners without offense since the government began paying women to reporduce out of wedlock. The continuous degradation of USA culture began with subdising illegitimacy and now no one understands what illegitimate is because these children are the majority. It is a sorry and sad state of our men & women and our country to have brought this upon the children. Legal & illegal are no longer understood since legal foundations have been severely compromised to assimilate millions of foreigners who have no regard for USA foundations. V
Posted by Vickie at 5:28 PM on March 5
It’s hard not to see a hispanic woman without a baby in tow. We are encouraging them to have children by not outlawing anchor baby citizenship.
Posted by Ray M. at 7:16 PM on March 5