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June 28, 2008
Two (or more) can play?
Will the decadent West be conquered by decadent Islamic sexual tolerance? If that sounds like too much of a mouthful, read "Converting the West to Islam Through ... Sex?" by Timothy R. Furnish, whose Ph.D. is in Islamic History, and who is a former U.S. Army Arabic interrogator and college professor. Furnish recently learned of a Yahoo group MahdiUniteMuslims which is propounding the idea that promulgating Shia-approved multiple, "temporary" serial marriages will so popularize Islam that the West will be unable to resist: For the past few weeks MUM -- which is dedicated to uniting the Islamic world through belief in the Mahdi, the "rightly-guided one" of Islamic traditions who will create a global caliphate -- has hosted a discussion about mut`ah, Shi`i temporary marriage, the "secret weapon that will convert the West to Islam in the later days before the advent of Imam al Mahdi" according to the ingenious Muslim who first advanced the idea (and is there any doubt it was a guy?). His starting point is the Islamic tradition that in the last days before the Mahdi returns, women will greatly outnumber men worldwide. This Muslim Hugh Hefner opines that "the West will not consider mut`ah as marriage but more at par [sic] with mistress or girlfriend though we consider it a valid form of marriage."The MUMs (what is this? MUM's the word?) point out that as a practical matter, no one goes to jail for polygamy in the United States. (Well, unless you're a fundamentalist Mormon, or a member of a group that isn't feared by the people who run our lives.... Yes, it is a double standard.) I'm not sure most American men are quite so weak as to flock towards Islam simply because of the promise of a sexual loophole. It's like, who needs a piece of paper purporting to "allow" what the West doesn't consider legitimate anyway, but which you can already do? But I suppose there are some who would join a religion to get approval of what they want. As a practical matter, how many men manage having multiple women they actually provide for, married or not? What intrigues me about this movement, though, is the offer to bestow religious "legality" on that which is illegal. Polygamy. Yet there's nothing to stop men from screwing as many women as they want, and taking care of the kids who result, and (I suppose) executing partnership agreements. They just can't marry legally. In that respect, it's a bit analogous to same sex marriage. And while there are already plenty of religious groups and churches that will perform the latter, does that really cause people to join them? Why would a different result obtain in the case of heterosexual polygamy temptation? Still, it's a fascinating read, and the author contends this movement is more dangerous than WMDs: I fear that our mut`ah advocate may have hit upon a policy more dangerous to American civilization than WMDs or even the intellectual appeal of Islam purely as a religion: the siren song of sex. Men are notoriously weak in this regard, and if mut`ah is allowed to exist, even sub rosa, how long will it be before irreligious, or even lapsed Christian, American males begin to see the sexual advantages of Shi`i Islam? Some would certainly argue that mut`ah is a more realistic marriage institution for the male of the species than that rather more demanding serial monogamy which Christianity has mandated. And even in these days of rising ethanol demand, a handful of corn is not that hard to come by.Not to sound like a theological Machiavellian, but why can't the Christian churches offer a little competition? The Episcopal Church, for example, has shown itself to be theologically and liturgically creative, right? A little more revisionism might be called for. Why, the foot in the door might be bisexual couples in need of, um, "relationship expansionism." Clearly, Islam has nothing to offer them. Not now, nor in the immediate future. That's just off the top of my head, and please bear in mind that this is just a quick blog post and I have not yet begun to seriously theorize* about other possibilities for religious/sexual hedonism competition. However, I think it's safe to say that if these desperate "MahdiUniteMuslims" imagine that they can beat the West at the hedonism game, they've got something else coming....
posted by Eric on 06.28.08 at 09:11 AM |
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even polygamy is not prohibited on Islam, but polygamy is not a rites command. some muslims said, it is the better ways than being free sex but it must be the last decision.