Politicians 'ignoring' polygamy

BBC says,' Baroness Warsi says more needs to be done to prevent polygamy in the UK
Cultural sensitivity has prevented politicians from discussing the issue of polygamy in the UK, a leading Muslim peer has told the BBC.

Baroness Warsi, shadow minister for community cohesion, told Radio 4's Today programme it was time policy makers took the issue seriously.

She said she wanted registering all religious marriages to be considered to stop men marrying more than one wife.

Baroness Warsi said politicians had been ignoring the issue.

"There has been a failure on the part of policy makers to respond to this situation," she said.

"Some of it has been done in the name of cultural sensitivity and we've just avoided either discussing or dealing with this matter head on.

"There has to be a culture change and that has to brought about by policy makers taking a very clear stance on this issue, saying that in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman," she added.

Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Muslim Forum, said polygamy is "the most misunderstood subject in the West" with a lot of "invective" unfairly directed at it.
(snip the erroneous)

"Why would you not allow Muslims to conduct their affairs in their cultural, religious framework, without interference from the state?

"Why should we take them to task for having a second, third and a fourth nikah [marriage] which is compatible with their religion?"

Professor Haleh Afshar, of The University of York, said it is a "sad reality" that polygamy is increasing in Britain because there is no requirement by the state to register every marriage.

She said: "Sadly it is increasing on the part of British-born men who... sometimes marry British-born girls, but more often... someone in the sub-continent then go back and abandon wife number one and take wife number two." '

Britain has serial polygamy called easy divorce. That may be one reason for not facing the issue. Another is that multiculturalism has its limits. But'she wanted registering all religious marriages to be considered '. What about African native law and custom? That allows unlimited polygamy. Does she want benefits for registered wives?