Category Archives: Polygamy
German Court Rules: Polygamy Not Against the Constitution
An original translation from Stuttgarter Zeitung by Egri Nök.
German Top Court Decides:
German Passport And Two Wives: Both Is Permittable
By Eberhard Wein
August 27, 2017
According to the Koran, a man can marry a second woman; but in Germany, too, this is not against the constitution. At least this is what the two highest administrative law judges say. Photo: ‘Arab with Three Wives and Two Servants’, Wikimedia Commons
A Syrian, who is married to two wives, can still become a German national. The city of Karlsruhe cannot revoke his naturalization, the administative court says.
Karlsruhe – if you contract a second marriage abroad, you can still be a good and loyal citizen. This is the gist of a verdict of the administrative court (VGH) in Mannheim. The highest administrative law judges of the country repealed a contrarian decision by the administrative court Karlsruhe. The city of Karlsruhe had revoked German citizenship from a native of Syria, after it surfaced that he had married a second wife in his old homeland.
The 36 year old Kurd came to Germany in 1999, studied and became a construction engineer in 2008. He married a German that same year, and applied for German citizenship shortly thereafter. At the naturalization test, he scored 33 out of 33 possible points. He received his naturalization certificate in October 2010.
Shortly after the wedding he married a second wife
In 2010, 2013 and 2015, three children were born. But then the man recognized fatherhood for another child born in Damascus in 2012. What surfaced now led to the city of Karlsruhe revoking the naturalization. The man allegedly had married another woman in Syria, already in June 2008, only seven weeks after his marriage in Germany. The charge is that he had given incomplete information in his application.
In the verdict, the administrative court leaves open the question if the plaintiff gained naturalization by willful deceit. It is true that the application form only asked for “previous marriages” and not “additional marriages”. Still, the judges of the previous instance were not wrong to say that a second marriage should have been stated “all the more”. But at the same time, the senate does not share the administrative court’s opinion that the principle of singular marriage was part of the constitution.
Marriage saved woman from ostracism
The city of Karlsruhe had argued that polygamy violated the dignity of man as guaranteed in article 1 [of the German constitution – translator] – in the judges’ opinion “an absolutely unique legal opinion”. They pointed to a decision by the administrative court Regensburg: Who violates the principle of single marriage, is not necessary an “enemy of the constitution”, it said “boldly and correctly”.
In the case at hand, the court also acknowledged the special circumstances. The plaintiff said that he had married the woman, his cousin, because their affair from the year 2006, was busted. Only this way he were able to save her from social ostracism in Syria. His Muslim belief allowed a multiple marriage. At the same time, he admitted, he could not imagine to be one of several husbands.
Case of fundamental importance
After detours over Istanbul, Abu Dhabi and Sweden, the wife now lives in Karlsruhe, too, but in an apartment of her own. His first wife always knew of her, allegedly. There would be no marital contact. The city of Karlsruhe already lodged an appeal against the verdict. The administrative court allowed the revision at the Federal Administrative Court. „We deem the clarification of this legal matter of fundamental importance for generality and consistency”, a townsspeaker said.
(File Reference 12 S 2216/14).
“If the state agrees to marry homosexual, he must accept polygamy” – The new Muslim demand
An original translation by Ava Lon
From this Swiss Website, Les Observateurs:
Article published on 08/13/2016
In November 2012, during the debate that preceded the Taubira law legalizing homosexual “marriage”, CIVITAS [the new French christian party] had campaigned with the message “Today gay marriage, tomorrow polygamy.” Critics of Civitas had claimed there was no connection between the two.
The Italian news has demonstrated how much the French Catholic organization was right.
The founder of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, the convert Hamza Roberto Piccardo, comes insidiously, on social networks to ask Italy, which recognized homosexual unions as a “civil right”, to do the same with polygamy.
“If it’s only a matter of civil rights, well, polygamy is a civil right,” Piccardo wrote on his Facebook account to comment a photo where the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, appears next to the a gay civil union couples on 5 August.
The Muslim leader said: “I and millions of people do not approve of homosexual relationships, yet this is the law and we respect it. The persons concerned (by the law) are a minority, as are polygamous people. The society can accept all minorities. ”
It has to be said that Hamza Roberto Piccardo was designated in 2005, spokesman of the European Muslim Network, lobby based in Brussels and chaired by Tariq Ramadan. One of his sons, Davide Piccardo, heads the Coordination of Islamic Associations of Milan and collaborates with the Italian version of the Huffington Post.
Polygamy by muslim ‘refugees’ to Europe. Laws? We don’t need your stinkin laws!
Polygamy epidemic in Germany
Thank you Hermes for the tip on this and Oz Rita for the translation:
Outrage after Indonesian official divorces teenage bride
H/T Michael Laudahn:
BBC
Protesters burned portraits of the district chiefAn Indonesian official is facing calls for his resignation after it emerged he divorced a teenager by text message following four days of marriage.
Aceng Fikri, the elected head of Garut in West Java province, has publicly apologised amid the outcry. Hundreds protested against him on Tuesday.
Mr Fikri, 40, is married with three children and took the 17-year-old as his second wife in a Muslim ceremony.
He divorced her after reportedly discovering she was not a virgin.
Ministers ban extra benefits for multiple wives
The Telegraph
Ministers are to bring to an end an “absurd” benefits regime which has seen husbands with multiple wives able to claim extra welfare payments.
A man with four spouses could have benefited from up to £10,000 a year from income support alone Photo: ALAMY
By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor
9:00PM GMT 21 Jan 2012
Although bigamy is illegal in Britain, men who married more than one woman in countries where the practice was legal and then brought them to the UK have been allowed for years to receive multiple benefits.
Critics claimed the controversial system meant the state is effectively “recognising” polygamous marriages, of which there are thought to be about a thousand in the UK.
The practice is largely confined to Muslim men, who are permitted under some interpretations of Islamic law to have up to four wives in a harem – as long as they spend equal amounts of time and money on each partner.
The system of paying extra benefits for multiple wives was reviewed under Labour in an exercise involving four separate Whitehall branches – The Treasury, the Department for Work & Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs and the Home Office.
The review concluded that recognising multiple marriages which had taken place overseas in the benefits system was the “best possible option” and official guidelines on income support were amended early in 2008.
Polygamy decision extends beyond isolated B.C. commune, observers say
H/T Bear
From Yahoo News:
VANCOUVER – The self-described fundamentalist Mormons in Bountiful, B.C., have shaped the debate over Canada’s anti-polygamy law, but an imminent court ruling could have implications extending far beyond the boundaries of the isolated community.
Observers say if a B.C. Supreme Court judge strikes down all or part of the Criminal Code section banning polygamy in a ruling Wednesday, it will have a major impact on Canada’s immigration system, certain minority communities, and could make this country a haven for polygamists.
At the same time, a group of so-called polyamorists, who describe themselves as consenting adults in relationships that happen to involve more than two people, worry they could be targeted if the law is upheld.
The competing interests underscore the complexities of a case that has tested the boundaries of religious freedom, the definition of marriage and the role of criminal laws in regulating morality.
“It (Bountiful) is a very small community, with a small number of people who happen to have the highest profile, but I suspect that, if not polygamy per se, various types of multi-person relationships exist all over the place,” said Ron Skolrood, a Vancouver-based constitutional lawyer who wasn’t involved in the case.
“I think the court has to be mindful of that and has to be careful at looking at the context broader than just Bountiful.”
The B.C. government asked the court to examine the constitutionality of the polygamy law following the failed prosecution of two leaders from Bountiful.
The subsequent trial heard from a range of academic experts, former polygamists and current plural wives, and most of the evidence focused on Bountiful and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the FLDS, to which the community belongs.
There was, however, some evidence about polygamy outside of Bountiful, though its prevalence is difficult to quantify.
There are believed to be hundreds of polygamous marriages in Canada involving Muslims. Aly Hindi, an imam in Scarborough, Ont., told The Canadian Press earlier this year that he was aware of more than 200 such marriages in Toronto alone, including a number in which he has officiated. Continue Reading →
The truth about polygamy: A special investigation into how Muslim men can exploit the benefits system
Daily Mail
By Sue Reid
Last updated at 1:16 AM on 24th September 2011
Ghulam is a taxi driver who lives in Blackburn, a once-booming textile town in Lancashire. He has a terrace house near his local mosque (one of 53 in the area), a silver Nissan car and a very complex private life.
For he has so many children that he struggles to remember their names, and five wives from various countries, including Yemen, Egypt, Turkey and his own birthplace, Pakistan.
Ghulam’s latest bride is a shy 20-year-old called Hafeza. He brought her to Britain from Morocco, soon after his 45th birthday earlier this year. They married in an Islamic wedding ceremony called ‘the Nikah’ in her village, with Hafeza’s pleased parents among the guests.
Two experienced Lancashire social workers say that in their estimation there are 20,000 bigamous or polygamous unions in the UK
Thirty miles across the Pennines in Yorkshire, pizza delivery driver Wasim, 27, has an equally complicated domestic life.
He lives in a part of Dewsbury called Savile Town, a network of 11 terrace streets dominated by one of the biggest mosques in Europe, where most residents are Asian with origins in Pakistan or India.
Wasim has three wives, the first of whom lives with him and their three teenage sons. His other two wives have separate houses in Savile Town, one down the road and another round the corner. He visits each two nights a week.
The women have had several of Wasim’s children and he hopes the youngest bride (aged 19) will soon present him with another baby. Continue Reading →
Polygamy UK: This special Mail investigation reveals how thousands of men are milking the benefits system to support several wives
By Sue Reid The Daily Mail:
Last updated at 10:03 PM on 24th February 2009
He cut a smart figure in his grey suit and crisply ironed shirt. The 6ft tall Somalian bowed to the judge, calling him ‘Sir’, before begging for his wife, Fatima, and their teenage son to be allowed to stay in Britain.
Fatima, with a black khimar veil covering her hair and shoulders, sat quietly next to her husband.
In her late 30s and wearing open sandals, she lowered her dark eyes as the details of the unconventional life she and her husband, Abdi, led in the West London suburb of Shepherd’s Bush unfolded at a busy immigration court.
Multiple marriages in Britain were first declared illegal in 1604
The judge listened in silence. Perhaps he knew from past experience what was coming next. Abdi went on to reveal that Fatima was not his only wife.
Indeed, he was a self-confessed bigamist who had a second, much younger wife and a 13-year-old daughter by her. They both lived nearby.
‘I visit them regularly,’ said Abdi, 51, who arrived in Britain in the 1990s and works in an old people’s home. ‘I have done nothing wrong. In Somalia, it is normal to have two wives – even three or four. Fatima is still my wife and she should not be deported.’
He was unable to produce wedding certificates or valid official documents to prove where, or when, he had married both women, therefore raising questions over the validity of the unions, under either Somali or British law.
Yet his story, unravelling at an ordinary weekday hearing at Taylor House, an asylum appeals’ centre in North London, is just one example of the growing phenomenon of multiple marriage in Britain.
Officially, such unions are punishable by up to seven years in prison. They were first declared illegal in England and Wales in 1604, when the Parliament of James I took action to restrain ‘evil persons’ marrying more than one wife. Parliament ruled that anyone found guilty of the crime would be sentenced to death.
In the four centuries since, bigamy (having two wives) and polygamy (more than two) has been frowned on by the state, the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.
Yet it is clear that officialdom is turning a blind eye to such marriages.
A recent review by four Government departments – the Treasury, the Work and Pensions Department, the Inland Revenue and the Home Office – has concluded that 1,000 men in the United Kingdom are now polygamists, although some say the figure is higher.
Baroness Warsi has warned that politicians have failed to tackle the problem of polygamy because of ‘cultural sensitivity’
What is more, the review found, a Muslim man can claim state support of more than £10,000 a year to keep his wives, if the wedding took place in one of those countries where polygamy is commonplace, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia and across huge tracts of Africa.
For example, a man can receive &£92.80 a week in income support for wife number one, and a further £33.65p for each of his subsequent spouses. Continue Reading →
Gov’t urged to pronounce husband, wife, wife, wife
Some interesting thoughts in this article from Canada’s David Harris and others…
From WND.COM
Posted: November 27, 2010
10:45 pm Eastern
By Ellis Washington
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Canada has recognized same-sex “marriages” since 2005, and now apparently is preparing to take the next step in the “progressive” movement, with arguments scheduled in coming days before the equivalent of a state Supreme Court on a plan to repeal laws against polygamy and bigamy.
The CBC has told the story of Zoe Duff, a director of the Canadian Polyamory Advocacy Association, who has two male common-law partners and believes Canada’s polygamy laws need to be stricken because they don’t permit her to live her chosen lifestyle.
The situation involving the Vancouver Island woman is expected to be the subject of hearings planned before the British Columbia Supreme Court over the coming weeks.
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If the advocates for multiple partners are successful in the provincial court, their next hurdle would be the Canadian Charter, where Section 293 of the Criminal Code at this point still bans polygamy and threatens offenders with a five-year prison term. Section 290 makes a similarly serious crime of bigamy.
Observers note that American values appear to be following Canada’s down the slippery slope of lifestyle choices.
For the rest of this article, please click over to WND.COM
What polygamy looks like from the inside
By Daphne Bramham, The Vancouver Sun November 25, 2010 7:53
This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find objectionable.
When lawyers talk about the harms of polygamy, there’s scarcely one that Kathleen and Rena Mackert haven’t personally endured. The sisters have had front-row seats in B.C. Supreme Court for the opening week of the constitutional reference case to determine whether Canada’s anti-polygamy law is valid.
“It’s a redemption to feel that we can make a difference,” Kathleen said during the Tuesday afternoon break. “To go through all the abuse we endured for most of our lives and turn it around for future generations is very redemptive.”
Rena agrees and says it’s also part of her long healing process.
Both are witnesses for the B.C. attorney-general, who has filed their video affidavits as evidence.
Both support Stop Polygamy in Canada and run a non-profit in Anacortes, Wash., that helps victims of domestic violence and polygamy.
The sisters are seventh-generation polygamists. Their ancestors have practised polygamy since soon after Joseph Smith had his revelation.
Their father had four wives, 27 children and four step-children. Their mother was his third wife and she had seven children. Rena is one of her older children and she was born in a chicken coop near the Utah-Arizona border.
That’s where their mother lived and was grateful for a place of her own, even if it was unheated and had no running water or electricity.
Rena says her father began molesting her when she was three.
More cultural enrichment in Canada: the importation of polygamy, child brides, forced marriages
From The Ottawa Sun
Polygamy, child brides pose problems for immigration officials
By BRIAN LILLEY, Parliamentary Bureau
Last Updated: October 12, 2010 4:13pm
OTTAWA – Forced marriages, child brides, polygamy and arranged marriages between first cousins are some of the problems that Canadian immigration officials in Pakistan have to deal with.
The revelations are contained in a 26-page report prepared by Canadian officials working out of the immigration and visa office in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The report was obtained by immigration lawyer Richard Kurland through access to information legislation and supplied to QMI Agency.
“With few exceptions, the Islamabad spousal reunification programme involves Muslim proxy marriages arranged by the families, the vast majority of which take place between first cousins,” reads the report.
According to Kurland, polygamy is most common among wealthy Pakistani families trying to immigrant to Canada. Canadian officials often won’t reject an application just because a man has more than one wife, Kurland said.
“They say we can’t do this because you are polygamists so you have to divorce some, keep one and work it out domestically,” Kurland said. Kurland told QMI that often second or third wives will be sponsored into Canada as skilled workers for a business or as a maid for the household.
As for first cousins marrying, while the practice is not common in Canada due to a higher risk of birth defects, marrying your cousin is legal in this country.
“Marriages that are legal in Canada are legal for the purposes of immigration and sponsorship,” said Alykhan Velshi, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Tazeen Ahmad, a British woman of Pakistani descent, produced a documentary earlier this year for Channel 4 called Dispatches: When Cousins Marry.
Ahmad documented the cultural reasons for the practice among British Pakistanis as well as the problems, such as a high rate of recessive gene disorders.
Greens may push to decriminalize polygamy
From Canoe news with a H/T to Tundra T.
LAURA PAYTON, QMI Agency 
TORONTO – The Green Party of Canada will consider a motion Sunday on whether or not they will push to decriminalize polygamy.
Party members in a workshop on Saturday evening voted to send the motion to the full-Party plenary, where they’ll debate and vote on it.
Speakers in the workshop were careful to define polygamy as a marriage between multiple spouses. They made a clear distinction between polygamy between consenting adults and a polygamist sect in Bountiful, B.C., where domestic abuse has been alleged, though charges were thrown out in 2009.
“It’s a human rights issue,” said Trey Capnerhurst, a Green Party candidate in Edmonton East, noting that she is a poly-advocate.
Polyamory is the process of having more than one intimate relationship at the same time, according to the Canadian Polyamory Advocacy Association.
Capnerhurst says in cases where police suspect domestic abuse against multiple wives and children, that should be the subject of criminal charges.
“We should be not be charging people with polygamy,” she said.
Several Green members in the workshop argued the policy is impossible to sell to voters and could mean losing support at a time when they hit record numbers in the last election. Continue Reading →