Polygamy-Canadian Islamic Congress president Mohamed Elmasry-Stephen Harper on 'radical' marriages--10 year old was "wed"
List of Articles:
* Canadian Islamic Congress president Mohamed Elmasry: "Don't fear polygamy: Muslim leader" -- Better than secret affairs, says chief of Canadian congress -- "So when the law is passed in a few months, Muslims will not say, 'Me, too'."
* Harper warns of 'radical' marriages -- links to a request from the Status of Women for research on polygamy
* Pastor wed to girl, 10, says it's legal -- He appeared in a Montreal court on five sex-abuse charges.
Canadian Islamic Congress president Mohamed Elmasry: "Don't fear polygamy: Muslim leader" -- Better than secret affairs, says chief of Canadian congress -- "So when the law is passed in a few months, Muslims will not say, 'Me, too'."
Don't fear polygamy: Muslim leader Chris Cobb and Bob Harvey, with files from Tim Naumetz and Philip Authier, CanWest News Service, Jan. 21, 05
Polygamy among consenting adults is less damaging to families, and less harmful to children, than secret extra-marital affairs, one of Canada's most prominent Muslims said yesterday.
Canadian Islamic Congress president Mohamed Elmasry dismissed fears that federal same-sex marriage legislation due to be introduced next month will "open a Pandora's Box to others who want multi-wives or multi-husbands."
According to Mr. Elmasry, polygamy, as practised in Muslim countries and by "a few" Canadian Muslims, can be a positive family force -- "a husband having a mistress is legal and socially acceptable in Canada," he said, "and it's irrelevant if the wife knows or not."
He said polygamy can be more moral than a secret affair because the first wife accepts the second wife, and the second wife, and all children of the marriages, are treated equally in one family unit. [. . . . ]
Read what he has to say about mistresses.
Harper warns of 'radical' marriages -- links to a request from the Status of Women for research on polygamy
Despite the government's denials of a slippery slope . . . . .
[. . . . ] Mr. Harper told reporters in Quebec on Thursday that if the Liberals don't enshrine the traditional definition of marriage in law, "radical" groups may begin launching constitutional battles arguing that it is legal for a man to marry more than one woman, as occurs in a polygamous marriage.
"I think that's where we should draw the line," he said after a speech in Montreal where he endorsed tax incentives for members of agricultural co-operatives.
The Tory Leader made the comments a day after
the Liberals decided to launch a study into the social and legal impacts of polygamy.
MONTREAL -- A man who married a girl when she was 10 said yesterday he did nothing illegal because, he argues, Canadian law allows people of any age to wed. The law has been kept secret from the public, the man told his preliminary hearing on five sex-abuse charges.
Quebec court has ordered the man's name cannot be published to protect the identity of the girl, now 15. A court order has kept him away from his bride, stating their relationship compromised her safety.
The man, now 52, said outside court current laws make it possible to marry anyone -- "even a baby" -- because there is no minimum age. [. . . . ]
Is there such a thing as wedding "training pants"? It looks as though eventually . . . . . . . Let's see, at the urging of ex-MP Svend Robinson and with a Liberal Parliament, the age of consent for sex was lowered to 14 for unmarrieds--homosexual or heterosexual. How low can we go for the parental consent marriage? Can't get them too young -- or they will no longer be virginal. What did her parents have to do with this?
Where is the outrage? What is wrong with Parliament?
Think also of Bountiful and polygamy though I understand there has been, technically, a way around this, whether it is serial marriage with a "divorce" in between or exactly what, I am not sure. Check on it.
