Britain is seeing a surge in Sharia marriages — many of them polygamous — as young Muslims shun legally binding unions.
As many as 100,000 couples are living in such marriages, which are not valid under UK law, and bypassing register offices, experts said. Ministers have raised fears that women can be left without the right to a fair share of assets if the relationship ends, while others are forced to return to abusive “husbands”.
A leading Islamic family lawyer warned that the increase in Sharia ceremonies among the 2.7 million-strong Muslim population in Britain was also behind a growth in “secret polygamy”.
“Probably a quarter of all couples I see involve polygamy issues,” Aina Khan told The Times. “There has been a huge rise in recent years because people can have a secret nikah [Islamic marriage] and no one will know about it.”
.... Amra Bone, Britain’s first woman Islamic judge on a Sharia council, a Muslim scholar and chaplain at Bristol University, denied that the councils discriminated against women. They were there to help women out of “failed marriages” and to move on with their lives, she said. “We apply Sharia principles... within the law of the land. We are a voluntary body and can’t make orders — we just advise. People don’t want us to be judgmental.”
.... Mrs Bone said that most Muslims did not take more than one wife. Some women wanted “part-time husbands”, she said. “Most men will tell you: ‘I can’t look after one wife, never mind more than one.’ But we cannot — and the government cannot — ask Muslims not to have more than one wife. People have a right to decide for themselves.” [452 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 134 votes] "We cannot - and the government cannot - ask Muslims not to have more than one wife"
As polygamy is illegal in this country, I would have thought that the government would not so much ask as insist that Muslims in Britain do not have more than one wife. Ms Khan is at pains to emphasise that "we apply Sharia principles....within the law of the land." Well, the law of this land allows you but the one spouse.
[2ND 132] It's very simple.
Ban the burqa and hijab.
Close down mosques that peddle and support extremism
Ban halal slaughter (and schetita, just to keep Mr Burgess happy))
Ban praying in the road
Withdraw UK citizenship of Anjem Choudary and deport him to Saudi
Ensure that no funding from halal certification goes to support extremism
[3RD 119] Is the Child Support Agency on top of this or are we funding all the children of apparently single mothers under this system?
[4TH 116] About 15 years ago, a very liberal friend of mine told me that Muslims aimed to instal Sharia in Britain. I thought it was a preposterous claim. How right he was. How wrong I was.
[5TH 111] Good to see another example of integration into their chosen society.
[6TH 106] Our country is walking, perhaps stumbling, in slow motion towards a point where in a decade, it will be unrecognisable as England.
Already, the most popular boy's name is Mohammed.
Adieu, farewell beautiful England.
[7TH 103] "...the government cannot — ask Muslims not to have more than one wife."
Yes.
Yes it can, because that's the law in this country. [The Times (£)] Read more
