3 Feb 2008 - Polygamy, integration and the UK government

Well, its been a funny old week. While Peter and I have struggled to get things together in time to move to our new home in Manchester, feeling the world was on our shoulders in our little micro-cosmic universe, far more sinister movings were afoot across the UK.

The Bishop of Rochester, Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, one of the finest, most liberal of theological icons in the modern, multi-cultural world, has had to receive extra round the clock security protection after his daring to suggest that Muslims living in the UK should assimilate more into the existant culture of the nation has resulted in totally vile and extragecious threats to his and his family's safety from Islamic extremist loons.

Whilst the Muslim Council and Muslim League have rightly challenged Dr Nazir Ali's approach (politically and citizen based rights you understand) they have also roundly condemned the perpetrators of this downright wrong assault. Bishop Michael's comments were based on the facts that areas of the UK are rapidly becoming 'no go' areas for non Muslims (sorry that should include Muslims who don't, for one reason or another, don't fit into the 'correct' Islamic image that these people wish to promote)

Yet, in the same week, these Council and League members have applauded the decision of the lunatic government that currently exists in this country to permit extra welfare payments to men who have polygamous marriages ( for the uninitiated this is still an illegal act in the UK). Needless to say this only affects Muslim men from certain quarters of the extreme Muslim communities in the UK. who, in the main, treat their mutliple wives as 'chattles' to be derided, scorned and put down, rather than recognised as equals, with rights that have been extended to every other sector of the community.

There is surely no man, woman or child, with even the basest of an understanding of liberal theology or politics, who could stand by and watch this ludicrous inequality taking place without giving voice to their concerns.

Both the Council, the League and further, the loop di loop quasi liberal nutters in the higher echelons of our political system must take a step back and look at this increasing lurch towards inverted exclusivity and act, in their own arenas, with prompt propriety to bring about a sense of balance and normality, with a recognition of the inalienable rights and privileges associated with citizenship in the UK. I urge all our clergy in the UK to do whatever they can to bring about a resolution between faiths, to call for urgent dialogue between Christian, Muslim and other faiths, in tandem with their local elected bodies, to realise common ground for moving forward to a happier space for all, rational thinking, moderate liberals, who I insistently believe are in the majority in this country.

Our Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his cabinet, constantly trumpet their liberal credentials, their desire for and equal and equalitous community in the UK for ALL, and even the other two parties have recently jumped on the band wagon of political expediency. Yet this decision to award extra monies seems to be, at the very least, an incentive to hard line extremists as a reward for their misheld beliefs in condemning women and children to a life of poverty, humiliation and servitude.

This is a western culture in the UK, a 21st century multicultural community based on equality and fair opportunity and respect for ALL, and in every other quarter, any attempt by the government to give support to a group that negated those principles would be resisted to the highest level. So what makes this different?

The offocial reluctance to comment on this beating, bullying and on occasion murdering of these chattled women, and indeed to reward these acts in the global perspective (obviously not EVERY polygamous marriage gives these results) is a far more effective response than the death threats sent to Dr Nazir Ali for speaking common sense.

By offering these platitudinal gifts of hard cash to the perpetrators of these malevolent acts, our government, our elected representatives, make it appear that they truly speak for US, those who put them there in the first place. We are all entitled, in the country that these people reside in alongside us, namely the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to 'an absolute basic (right) to be able to choose whom they will marry, where they will work, and what they will wear '(Sunday telegraph Editorial Comment 03/02/08).

This inalienable right of the British people is being eroded daily by the insistence, by a very small minority of immigrant dwellers on these shores, in supporting these above acts of brutal coercion.

The time has come for us all to take a stand. Invoke your right as citizens to speak out and be heard. Annoy your elected member till you get a response. Trumpet the cause of rightful equality for all in every quarter, on every street corner, and make February the month for consideration of  a return to values of liberal acceptance, of living in harmony with one another.

Of course we dont see eye to eye with everyone everywhere and every second. However, I firmly believe that at the core of EVERY human life there is an understanding and a commitment to recognising the value of ALL people, regardless of race creed or colour. What seperates us from the primates we arose from is our willingness to be liberally minded, to accept differences in one another. Sometimes we dont like what we see, sometimes it makes us uncomfortable to accept that certain quarters of the community have different approaches to life than us. Yet what marks the maturity of mankind is its' total willingness to co-operate with one another, to learn to accept and honour differences, without trying to stamp out other ways of life. Yet what further larks our development and growth as a community of differences, is our recognition when something simply is not acceptable, and our willingness to speak up and do something about it, whether it is within our comfort zone or, more likely, outside it. Shalom and may Allah, in Her benificent love, shower you with grace through the Holy Spirit in us all. Namaste!