Much ado about nothing: fine for niqab-wearing French driver dropped
A French police tribunal has annulled a 22 euro ($29.50) fine against a woman found wearing a niqab while driving in the western city of Nantes last April. The case fuelled not just one but two separate debates in France, one on banning the “burqa” and another on polygamy among immigrants. Full veils have been legally banned, the polygamy debate has temporarily fizzled out and Sandrine Mouleres, the Muslim convert who challenged the fine, seems to have come out a winner. For now, at least…
The tribunal annulled the traffic ticket issued by officers who argued that Mouleres could not see properly while wearing her niqab, which covered her face but left an opening for her eyes. As her lawyer Jean-Michel Pollono put it: “This means one can drive today with a niqab. There is no danger as long as whatever the driver wears doesn’t block her vision. A niqab moves with the head.”
The second debate, about polygamy, arose when it was reported that Mouleres was one of four wives of an Algerian-born man, Liès Hebbadj, and he might be collecting family allowances for all four. Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux suggested he might be stripped of his French nationality if found guilty of these allegations. Hebbadj fought back by saying he doesn’t have four wives, but one wife and three mistresses (and 12 children among them). “If one can be stripped of one’s French nationality for having mistresses, then many French could lose theirs,” said Hebbadj, a halal butcher in Nantes.
This new twist in the DWV (driving while veiled) story brought up an interesting question. Now that France has banned the niqab in public, what would the legal situation be for Mouleres if police stopped her these days? Pollono said the car was considered a private space but he was not sure how a court would classify a car driving on a public road. Nor was he sure whether she would have to take off her niqab when she gets out of the car.
This turn of events doesn’t mean France is warming up to Muslim women’s headgear. Also on Monday, a labour tribunal in Mantes-la-Jolie west of Paris confirmed the 2008 firing of a woman from a private creche because she refused to take off her headscarf. The tribunal rules that the creche could apply the same secular principle (laïcité) as public creches where religious clothing is banned under a 2004 law.
Canada’s anti-polygamy laws go on trial in Vancouver
A Canadian court opened hearings on Monday into whether anti-polygamy laws violate constitutional protections of religious freedom. The court is wrestling with civil liberties and moral questions surrounding a breakaway sect of the Mormon church that has practiced plural marriages at its compound in rural British Columbia since the late 1940s.
“We are beginning on an historic reference,” Robert Bauman, chief justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court told a packed courtroom in Vancouver.
The provincial government asked the court to probe the law’s constitutionality ahead of a criminal case against leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that is expected to test the issue.
Canadian prosecutors had declined to pursue charges against the church, fearing the untested 19th-Century law was unconstitutional. Critics of the sect said the government was condoning abuse of women and children.
The church, which split from the mainstream Mormon church over the issue of polygamy, has an estimated 10,000 followers in Utah, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, South Dakota and British Columbia. The group’s leader, Warren Jeffs, is awaiting a retrial in Utah on his conviction of forcing an underage girl to marry her cousin. Polygamy is also illegal in the United States.
Bus tours journey into U.S. polygamist town run by breakaway Mormon group
A peek inside a polygamist community and their isolated way of life is now just a bus ride away for sightseers from around the world.
Billed as the “Polygamy Experience,” the four-hour, $70 tour takes visitors through the middle of the polygamist enclave Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border. Children play in yards, families picnic in parks and teenage boys gallop their horses away from the guests. Women with old-fashioned braided hair and pioneer dresses usher the little ones out of eyesight.
Holm says tourists have come from France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway and throughout the United States. He added that the tour idea is growing slowly as local people start opening up.
Colorado City is the headquarters of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). It is where their prophet and leader Warren Jeffs once ruled. The FLDS is a breakaway from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon faith, which is centered in Salt Lake City and once practiced plural marriage but renounced it over a century ago.
Film champions liberalism in conservative Egypt
A new film exploring issues of sexual freedom, polygamy and individuality has drawn media praise in Egypt, but its liberal message remains on the margins in the country’s conservative society. The appearance of Rasayel El Bahr, or Messages from the Sea, in Egyptian theatres is the latest indication of an easing of censorship rules, which film critics say reflects government efforts to counter Islamism.
The film’s themes are striking in a country where the streets are dominated by the Islamic headscarf and where, analysts say, the state is battling against the rise of stricter versions of Islam emanating from Gulf states like Saudi Arabia.
In director Daoud Abdel Sayed’s story, Yehya, a young doctor who moves to coastal Alexandria and slowly shakes free of social norms, falls in love with Nora, who leads him to believe she is a prostitute. Viewers learn that Nora, as the second wife in a polygamous marriage, just sees herself this way. Polygamy is permitted in Egypt under Islamic sharia law.
We know that Polygyny(a man having multiple wives at a time) is permitted in Islam, Islam justifies that it is the best possible solution for a couple when the wife is infertile and the husband seeks an heir of his own, and seperation is not an option.. Then why not recognize polyandry (woman having multiple husbands) if man is not capable? http://www.lawisgreek.com/the-practicali ty-behind-polygyny-in-islamic-law/
French Muslim rejects polygamist charge, says has wife and 3 lovers
France’s debate about Muslim face veils has taken an ironic twist. An Algerian-born Muslim man who is a naturalised French citizen has fought back against charges of polygamy by saying he doesn’t have four wives, but one wife and three mistresses (and 12 children among them). What could be more French than that? he asked journalists on Monday as politicians debated how they could strip him of his citizenship.
“If one can be stripped of one’s French nationality for having mistresses, then many French could lose theirs,” Liès Hebbadj, a halal butcher in the western city of Nantes, said after visiting the lawyer for his wife, who was fined for driving while wearing a full facial veil.
That moving violation is what got this curious story rolling. After Mrs. Hebbadj — a French-born woman who goes by the assumed name Anne in this saga — was fined, it emerged that her husband was believed to be a polygamist drawing family support payments for each wife separately. The DWV (driving while veiled) charge would have been enough to fan the fire of a national debate about banning full facial veils such as niqabs or burqas.
The polygamy link suddenly added additional fuel. Indeed, it seems to have overtaken the debate among the politicians in Paris. It’s hard to say what will happen, but this could lead to closer scrutiny of polygamy among immigrants, in addition to the “burqa ban” that President Nicolas Sarkozy seems intent to push through. There appears to be some polygamy among a tiny minority of Muslim and non-Muslim African immigrants, but I haven’t seen any overall figures on this. The police intelligence services may have their own internal figure, but it hasn’t become a media factoid yet like their famous 2,000 guesstimate for veiled women.
If this is the opening shot in a wider debate about polygamy, Hebbadj has responded with an interesting push-back. It wasn’t too long ago — 1996, in fact — that former President François Mitterrand’s longtime mistress and their daughter very publicly walked in his funeral procession. The out-of-wedlock daughter Mazarine walked in the front row, with the president’s widow Danielle and Mitterrand’s two sons by her, while Mazarine’s mother Anne Pingeot followed only a step or two behind.
Hebbadj became a French citizen by marrying the French-born Anne in a civil ceremony in 1999. The civil marriage ceremony is the only one recognised by the French state and even couples who want a religious ceremony must first go to city hall to tie the knot legally. So if Hebbadj did this, what he did with the other women should arguably be his own business. Even if he had Islamic religious ceremonies for the other, what should that mean for the French authorities? They always say religious marriages are irrelevant in their eyes.
Naturalised citizens can have their French passport taken away if they acquired it through fraud — if, for example, Hebbadj hid an existing marriage when he married Anne. Officials in Nantes are presumably searching through their files right now to see if he had civil ceremonies with the other women. If he did, he could be heading back to his native Algeria sometime soon.
Liès Hebbadj who is a muslim,is a polygamist and he knows it. He is milking France to pay for his twisted life style. And he will be lying all the way to the bank. It is true that Muslims are permitted to lie. In Islam a Muslim can speak as lie but in three cases: In battle, the words of the husband to his wife, the words of a wife to her husband (and among friends) (Sahid Muslim, Book 032, Number 6303)
Islam’s “Noble” Qur’an also tells Muslims to lie Qur’an (16:106) (40:28) (2:225) (66:2). Even the god of Islam is the best liar of them all. Qur’an (3:54) – “And they disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of “makara” which literally means deceiver”
Having read the comments posted by Muslims, it is horribly wrong if the only way to make your religion look good is to lie or be ignorant. Come all of you to the truth.
Muslim revival brings polygamy, camels to Chechnya
Adam, 52, keeps his three wives in different towns to stop them squabbling, but the white-bearded Chechen adds he might soon take a fourth. “Chechnya is Muslim, so this is our right as men. They (the wives) spend time together, but do not always see eye to eye,” said the soft-spoken pensioner, who only gave his first name.
Though polygamy is illegal in Russia, the southern Muslim region of Chechnya encourages the practice, arguing it is allowed by sharia law and the Koran, Islam’s holiest book.
Hardline Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov is vying with insurgents for authority in a land ravaged by two secessionist wars with Moscow. Each side is claiming Islam as its flag of legitimacy, each reviles the other as criminal and blasphemous.
Wary of the dangers of separatism in a vast country, Moscow watches uneasily as central power yields to Islamic tenets. It must chose what it might see as the lesser of two evils. Political analysts say that in exchange for successfully hunting out Islamist fighters, the Kremlin turns a blind eye to Kadyrov’s Muslim-inspired rules.
from Fan Fare:
“Big Love” endowment ceremony — relief or dismay?
After all the pre-broadcast anguish, the "Big Love" episode depicting a Mormon endowment ceremony went ahead as planned and appears to have generated more relief than outrage.
The TV show about a polygamous family has long been a thorn in the side of the growing Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although the Church refrained from getting drawn into a battle with cable channel HBO over the particularly controversial March 15 episode.
For those who did not cancel their subscriptions to HBO, and who watched Sunday's episode, many thought it portrayed the sacred Mormon ritual with respect. "I think (actress) Jeanne Tripplehorn did a great job of showing how important this ceremony is to Mormons. She really hit a home run with that scene, " wrote "Marigoldmama" on HBO's "Big Love" forum.
One HBO forum poster admitted signing up to the premium cable channel service just to see Sunday's episode, although that person seemed to object more to the "contrived and dumb writing on the show" than the endowment ceremony scene.
Over on lds.net -- the social networking forum for Mormons and those interested in learning more about the religion -- "aspenmgy" judged the episode "pretty lame" adding "they got it right but it still felt so wrong."
Did you boycott the show, drop your HBO subscription, or did you make sure you tuned in on Sunday? And can any TV show accurately portray the complexities of any religion?
Sema, the more you say, the more you reveal you ignorance about the LDS faith. There are no references in the Book of Mormon about Native Americans or Blacks being bad. Yes, there was a group of “Native American” people in the book who the Lord cursed. But the other group–also Native Americans–were blessed. The Book of Mormon doesn’t say anything about anyone outside that group of people being bad or cursed. As for Blacks, they’re not mentioned in the Book of Mormon. And if you do your research, you’ll find that the LDS Church was one of the first denominations to actually have Black leaders at the head of congregations that included white people. Sure, other churches had Black pastors and so forth, but almost none of them led congregations that included whites. Oh, and you’re silly to say that because a Church changes its policies, then past leaders must have been wrong. When Christ fulfilled the law of Moses and introduced a new law, did that mean Moses and Abraham had been hoaxes? Selma, you ignore the fact that LDS beliefs have parallels in the Bible. But you don’t put down the Bible’s teachings. It’s quite clear that you see only what you want to see and ignore the truth.
Sect raid raises questions about polygamy in U.S.
For most readers outside the United States, and probably many living there, the recent stories about the polygamous sect raided in Texas in early April raised several basic questions about multiple marriage and the law in America. Like any other Western society, the United States bans polygamy. Mainstream Mormons officially banned the practice in 1890, but several breakaway groups continued it. While informed readers may know that, it still came as a surprise to see there was a polygamous community of several hundred Americans living in a large compound right under the noses of the local police and politicians. And they were not the only ones — once-hidden polygamists are now pressing to have “plural marriage” decriminalised. What’s going on here?
Andrea Useem, author of the interesting blog Religion Writer, has come up with a fascinating look behind these recent polygamy headlines. She’s got links to blogs with names such as Polygamy Now and Introspection of a Plural Wife (at Heart). The most interesting part, though, is the long interview she has with John Witte, the director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory Law School in Atlanta. As she puts it: “He explains why polygamy laws are rarely enforced, how “moral repugnance” is one of the last arguments against polygamy, and why having a concubine is still legal.”
Useem also has a link to one of several interviews with women in polygamous marraiges on YouTube. Here it is:
If you want the real scoop on polygamy then you should visit http://www.my2wives.com it’s the most visited polygamy web page on the net.
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Resident FaithWorld Expert
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Well Done to this brave woman, may Allah reward her.
I am waiting for the Republican Secular French to ban the Kippa, the cap that the Jews wear and the Turban that Seeks wear, as they to are open religious symbols.
It wont happen, as this is about the propaganda towards Islam, based on fear, ignorance and hatred.
I am a convert to Islam and wear the Niqaab, out of my own free will, and it is liberating.I am proud to wear it, as it is my religious right.
I would say to other Muslim, use the spending power you have to hit the French where it hurts, dont spend your hard earned money on a country which represses women and Islam, and yet its fine to have sxx in open and nobody bats an eyelid