Muslim Marriage Contracts: Equality or PR Stunt?

Yet another attempt to make Sharia law more palatable to Britons.

August 18, 2008 - by Mary Jackson
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The quest for a reformed Islam is a triumph of hope over experience. The experience is fourteen hundred years of violent conquest, killing of unbelievers, subjugation of women, slavery, and stagnation. The hope? Right now it’s a British think tank called the Muslim Institute. From the Telegraph:

Muslim women are to be guaranteed equal rights in marriage under a new wedding contract negotiated by leading Islamic organizations and clerics in Britain.

Hailed as the biggest change in Sharia law in Britain for 100 years, a married Muslim couple will now have equal rights. A husband will have to waive his right to polygamy, allowed under Islamic law, in the new contract which has been described as “revolutionary.”

[...]

The new Muslim marriage contract does not require a “marriage guardian” (wali) for the bride, and also makes delegation of the right of divorce to the wife (talaq-i-tafweeed) automatic.

This right does not affect the husband’s right of talaq [divorce by repudiation] but enables the wife to initiate divorce and retain all her financial rights agreed in the marriage contract. These provisions reflect a recognition of changes in the Muslim world, including women’s greater public roles, educational achievements, and financial autonomy.

[...]

Dr. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, director of the Muslim Institute and one of the authors of the contract, told the Daily Telegraph: “The document is a challenge to various Sharia councils who don’t believe in gender equality but the world has changed and Islamic law has to be renegotiated.”

The world has been changing for the last fourteen hundred years. Nobody has yet managed to “renegotiate” Islamic law, and many have lost their heads in the attempt. What would Mohammed say about “renegotiating” the Koran? This perhaps:

… and there is none to change the words of Allah (Koran 6:34) …

And the word of your Lord has been accomplished truly and justly; there is none who can change His words, and He is the Hearing, the Knowing. (Koran 6:115)

Islam is not a management consultancy. It doesn’t take kindly to “renegotiation” or other “innovative solutions”:

Beware of matters newly begun, for every matter newly begun is innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in hell. (Hadith)

Mohammed, with his eleven wives — including a nine-year-old girl — and his many concubines, was not one for pushing the envelope on “gender equality” issues. And the Koran suggests that Allah’s thinking was securely inside the box:

Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places, and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great. (Koran 4:34)

Islam lags behind in diversity and product development, but when it comes to public relations, it has its ducks in a row. Islamic PR takes the form of taqiyya, a doctrine which states that deception is acceptable in order to further the cause of Islam. The proposed Muslim marriage contract is an exercise in taqiyya.

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Mary Jackson is a British editor for the New English Review, an Anglo-American online magazine of politics and culture, dedicated to celebrating the good in Western civilization and warning against that which would threaten it. Click here for the latest full-length articles, and here for the Iconoclast, the regularly updated Community Blog.

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19 Comments

1. CR:

Sounds like more of the usual PR junk, same as “we’re really not a violent religion”, and “we’re tolerant and peaceful”. I hope Britons don’t bite at that piece of fluff but time will tell. It seems as though Europe is allowing yet another fanatical belief system to thrive within their societies. I hope it only seems that way.

Aug 18, 2008 - 4:22 am 2. Paul Blaskowicz:

Is the husband’s koranic right to beat his wife affected? Or is that still ok? Despite the fact that “the world has changed and Islamic law has to be renegotiated”. Do we look as stupidly gullible as they think we are..?

Aug 18, 2008 - 5:24 am 3. Vinny Vidivici:

This is part of an ongoing effort to establish special pleading and privileges status. Once you begin entertaining the specifics, you’ve effectively abandoned equality before the law and the law’s jurisdiction over all. This effort gets as much traction as it does because post-modern notions of group identity and grievance hierarchies have become more fashionable than individual rights and equality among our so-called leadership classes.

Aug 18, 2008 - 6:43 am 4. Patterson:

Sadly, I believe all of Europe is lost to the Muslims. Over the past year or so they have started to accept the Muslim religion as the norm.

I really hope I’m wrong because I would love to visit Europe some day other than touring on military duty.

SGT. Patterson
US Army

Aug 18, 2008 - 7:26 am 5. shocked!:

Basically what it is saying all Muslim men will now lose their rights in a corrupt divorce system we have in western civilizations. The father will lose his children in a divorce initiated by the wife because she’s bored, possibly never see children again due to false accusations, lose his home & finances. Muslim marriage will go down the pipes because that is true subtlety. These men must now make an easy decision as not to marry. Beware, our disturbed family breakdown is designed to rid of marriage all together.

Aug 18, 2008 - 8:28 am 6. tanstaafl:

This right does not affect the husband’s right of talaq but enables the wife to initiate divorce and retain all her financial rights agreed in the marriage contract.

Ah the old right of talaq, where the man is divorced by simply saying “I divorce you” while the woman can be tied up for years, begging some court to grant her a divorce.

Does “the document” address the fine custom of forced (arranged) marriage, where a non-compliant daughter might end up getting slaughtered by her male relatives ?

What’s wrong with Muslims in Great Britain simply complying with English law as to who receives what/has what rights in divorce, obviating the need for a “marriage contract”?

Alternatively, they could simply retreat to some fine corner of the world where shari’a holds sway.

At least LINK: Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, author of this proposal draws a distinction between Islamism (Salafism) and Islam

That’s somewhat refreshing.

Aug 18, 2008 - 9:57 am 7. Sharia Bait And Switch « Tai-Chi Policy:

[...] Islamofascism, The United Kingdom. trackback Mary Jackson explains what’s going on with the new Islamic marriage contracts in [...]

Aug 18, 2008 - 10:15 am 8. Sharon Ferguson:

Until islam changes the fundamental premise that women are incapable of the same salvation as promised to men in the Koran, then all the legal wrangling will undo itself, either through violence or sheer lack of will. This is the thinking of those pagans: only men deserve and obtain salvation, in this life and in the hereafter. Muslims need to be converted to Christianity before they can make reforms.

Aug 18, 2008 - 10:18 am 9. andy:

The so called moderate moslims can say what they like,the rule of tacqyia will provide the get out clause when they show their true colours but the principle will have been established,moslem made laws will have been accepted by the Govt as being as legitimate as those laws made by parliament,and then wait for the fatwa”s against apostates,homosexuals,wives who want divorces,or anyone else who dares to speak out against this insane death cult.But its not all bad news,many many people in the UK and in the rest of Europe are rapidly waking up to the threat posed by islam and are starting to take action.

Aug 18, 2008 - 10:37 am 10. Kevin:

In the west, this type of contract is called a pre-nup. Another stolen idea by islam. Of course in the west, the pre-nup doesn’t include a provision for the woman being able to initiate a divorce, she already can. And the author touched on the polygamy issue rather nicely. However, what about wife beatings? Is that still a go? Is it a no go? Does he only get to beat her on every other Tuesday and only between the hours of 8p-10p, under a full-moon, while a re-run of Benny Hill is on the telly? Islamic law is so twisted I can’t even begin to make fun of this bit of stupidity, don’t have the years to spend on this one article.lol Oh, and love how the “creator” stated that islamic law has been ongoing in the UK for 100 years. I’ll leave the rest for others.

Aug 18, 2008 - 11:29 am 11. Steynian 227 « Free Mark Steyn!:

[...] SPOON FULL OF SUGAR? Muslim Marriage Contracts: Equality or PR Stunt? Yet another attempt to make Sharia law more [...]

Aug 18, 2008 - 3:27 pm 12. Eric:

Only one real solution to the Muslim problem – mass deportation. Otherwise the West WILL be overcome by the sheer force of demographics. Muslim immigration continues at a high rate and they have far more children than Europeans.

Aug 19, 2008 - 5:39 pm 13. Prof. Valerio Ponti:

Islam, as a religion, is dangerous, very dangerous, for it conveys ideas of hatredness and Middle Age holy war, it judges the entire world and even condemns its nestorian roots. The pathetic ignorance of the West allows it in, especially when its Judeo-Christian roots are daily ridiculed by atheist and homosexual governments. The apple on the head of Sir Newton will inevitably fall.

Aug 19, 2008 - 5:46 pm 14. Michael T:

MOre BS from the religion of peace. Islam is a barbaric, cruel, primitive religion of 7th century mindset that was designed for a barbaric, cruel, primitive people. It doesn’t changa and never will. According to my British friends, it is too late. Britain with its large left-minded population is already finished.

Aug 20, 2008 - 10:21 pm 15. Frances:

It is laughable they way they try and manipulate (tagiya)the reality by whatever means to make Islamic family values more acceptable in modern societies, when they has no place in modern societies to begin with. How naive and gullible do they think Westerners really are? As a matter of plain fact, sharia law accords women and children no rights, period! After all, it is not in the business of human rights but rather duties, [mostly absurd] only.

The law of the land should apply to all and be respected by all, anyone who wants sharia law are free to go and live in some country where sharia operates. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but the level of deception to further the cause of Islam is an insult to reason and offensive in the extreme.

Aug 21, 2008 - 2:31 am 16. Judy, NYC:

the brits adore the upper class, and the french their aristocracy. in either case, the hallmark is not to become overwrought, even when necessary. perhaps it gives everyone some sad, phony sense of entitlement. even being overrun by muslims who despise western democracies and allowing these miscreants to call the tune, does not spur any outcry. the uk, pressured by these fanatical neonazis, actually barred isreali scientists who are world leaders, from an international meeting of scientists. jew hating, with its ratty old stale canards has been unearthed by the muslim deviants and is ballooning in europe. lately, in nyc, usa, quite a lot of scarf wearing muslim women and their cousins, are shlepping around in those humiliating and loony appearing full dress black shmatas (with only their eyes showing). i want to beat their heads in with a stick. is this wrong?

Aug 21, 2008 - 7:54 am 17. K M Masumbillah:

hi i am looking a nice girl who is islamik minded

Sep 17, 2008 - 5:22 pm 18. Md. Saiful Islan:

hi i am looking a nice girl who is islamik minded & Bangladeshi age notover 24y.

Oct 7, 2008 - 11:25 pm 19. Md. Saiful Islan:

please……… si.reagan@yahoo.com

Oct 7, 2008 - 11:27 pm