Sharia In The Land Of Oz

The progressive and civilised nature of sharia law is on display again, this time emanating from, of all places, Australia, where a soon-to-be-published report, summarised by The Australian, will make clear that "Sharia law has become a shadow legal system...endorsing polygamous and underage marriages that are outlawed under the Marriage Act."

A system of "legal pluralism" based on sharia law "abounds" in Australia, according to new research by legal academics Ann Black and Kerrie Sadiq. The study finds that not all Muslims are registering their marriages and some are relying on religious ceremonies to validate unions that breach the Marriage Act.

This includes "polygynist marriages", in which a man takes multiple wives, and marriages where one party is under the lawful marriage age.

Even worse:

The latest research has found that while polygamy is unlawful, mainstream law accommodates men who arrive in Australia with multiple wives and gives some legal standing to multiple partnerships that originate in Australia.

"Valid Muslim polygynist marriages, lawfully entered into overseas, are recognised, with second and third wives and their children able to claim welfare and other benefits," they write.

Changes to the Family Law Act in 2008 meant that polygamous religious marriages entered into in Australia could also be recognised as de facto marriages. "It means a second wife can be validly married under Islamic law . . . and be a defacto wife under Australian law with the same legal entitlements as any other de facto relationship," they write.

The Australian concession to sharia law - a foreign system of totalitarian governance that seeks to destroy the values upon which the country was built - is disturbing, but not surprising. After all, all the precedents for it have already been set here in Britain, the land of many Aussies' ancestors.

Sharia operating as a shadow legal system? Check.

Muslims not registering their marriages, thus rendering them illegal under the laws of their host country? Check.

Polygamy? Check.

Child marriage? Check. ("The practice [of forced marriage] affects mainly young Asian [read "Muslim"] women, with more than a third of cases involving those aged under 18. One in six victims are under 16.")

Polygamous families being given benefits despite their illegality under national secular law? Check.

In related news Down Under, two Muslims have been arrested for whipping a recent convert to Islam 40 times with a piece of electrical cable as a sharia-sanctioned punishment for drinking alcohol.

The article at The Australian tries to put a brave face on things with the following nugget:

In their article, associate professor Sadiq and Ms Black note that research on Islamic marriage found in 2008 that 90 per cent of Muslims did not want to change Australian law.

While this figure sounds encouraging - it's better than over here, anyway - it's still worth pointing out that if "only" 10% of Australian Muslims want to replace Australian law with sharia, that still amounts, according to census figures, to around 37,000 Muslims who crave fascism and sedition (total population = 21,766,711; 1.7% of whom are Muslims = 370,034; 10% of whom want sharia law = 37,003).

All of which makes plain why anti-sharia measures of the sort which are being proposed in several US states today are needed just as urgently in Australia as anywhere else.