Exploitation is exploitation in any form

Here’s an article I MUST react to. And so should you as well.

“UK legally recognises Islamic harems
by Talal Malik on Monday, 04 February 2008
 
POLYGAMY: Islamic law permits men to have up to four wives at any one time – known as a harem.

 (Getty Images)
Polygamous marriages conducted by Muslims outside the UK are reported to have been given legal recognition by the British government, even allowing husbands who bring more than one wife to the country to claim welfare benefits.

The government in December last year concluded a year-long review that found recognition of polygamous marriages conducted overseas as “the best possible” option, the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. The decision has not been publicly announced.

[...]

In the UK, the review also concluded that extra welfare benefits can continued to be paid to those already in polygamous marriages, of which ministers estimate a thousand partnerships exist in the country.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has issued new guidelines for income support which state: “Where there is a valid polygamous marriage the claimant and one spouse will be paid the couple rate… The amount payable for each additional spouse is presently 33.65 pounds ($66.41).”

If the family agrees, income support for all of the wives may be paid directly into the husband’s bank account. A husband with many wives may also be eligible for additional housing benefit and council tax benefit under the deal agreed by ministers, in order to reflect the larger property needed for his family.”

(SOURCE: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/510221?tmpl=component&page=)

Now, is that communitarianism? Maybe it is… I have to highlight a number of key elements in this article first. Paragraphs 7 and 8 above. Who reads the news from arabianbusiness.com? Any guess? Come on!

THAT’S EXPLOITATION. YOU KNOW IT! IN ANY FORM YOU MAY FIND EXPLOITATION OF AN INDIVIDUAL BY ANOTHER, IT IS STILL EXPLOITATION.

Now, how does the UK government come to the conclusion that this is the “best possible option”? Here’s my guess. A number of Cultural Relativists have successfully influenced the policies of our governments in order to get them moving towards a direction that is not satisfactory [for anybody*]. Among them are people like Charles Taylor, or Anthony Giddens, whom praised Taylor’s ideas as he came to visit us in Delhi last October.

“However multiculturalism should not be seen as proposing ethnic or cultural groups always have the last say over how they should behave. We would call such a point of view ‘naïve multiculturalism’. Sophisticated multiculturalism recognises that there must be a body of law to which all subscribe; and that there are loyalties to the nation that transcend cultural belonging. These points have long stressed in what is probably the most successful multicultural country, Canada.” (Anthony Giddens, Ninth D.T. Lakdawala Memorial Lecture, delivered at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi, October 27, 2007)

Sophisticated multiculturalism! Well, seems that UK is one step ahead of Canada now… Although ion BC there was a man with some 20 wives for a while… Remember?!

If you believe there is some justification to exploitation of one by another [because of a different cultural context], YOU ARE WITH THEM!

(*) Later developments should follow when I regain my temper.

~ par bheroux le 5.février.2008.