Earlier this week, I spoke at a meeting where ignorant Tories jeered at my suggestion (elaborated upon in my book Londonistan) that the UK was spinelessly turning a blind eye to the growth of areas of the country governed informally by sharia law, exemplified by the toleration of polygamy and forced marriages of Muslim children, and was even appeasing increasingly shrill demands for sharia law to be officially incorporated into mainstream British life. Today’s Daily Mail carries this story:
Polygamous husbands settling in Britain with multiple wives can claim extra benefits for their ‘harems’ even though bigamy is a crime in the UK, it has emerged. Opposition MPs are demanding an urgent change in the law, claiming that the Government is recognising and rewarding a custom which has no legal status and which is ‘alien’ to this country’s cultural traditions.
Officials said yesterday a review was now under way into whether the state should continue to pay out income support, jobseeker’s allowance and housing and council tax benefits to ‘extra’ spouses. Islamic law allows a man to take up to four wives, providing he can provide for them fairly and equally. But British law only ever recognises one spouse, while bigamy is punishable by up to seven years in jail. However, if a husband and his wives arrive and settle in Britain having wed in a country where polygamy is legal, then the UK benefits system recognises his extra wives as dependents and pays them accordingly.
The Department of Work and Pensions admitted yesterday it had no figures on how many families are claiming for multiple wives. Official DWP guidelines on housing and council tax benefit states: ‘If you were legally married to more than one partner under the laws of a country that permits this, then your relationship is called a polygamous marriage. In this case your household consists of you and any partners who live with you and to whom you are married.’ Officials were unable to say when the rules were brought in, claiming they had ‘evolved over decades’.
Monogamy is a core value of British society and western civilisation. The rewarding of polygamy is indeed entirely alien to our tradition, morality and values. The fact that this is going on shows how far Britain has already travelled down the road to cultural suicide.
