speaking on `Mohamedanism' at the Church congress at Wolverhampton...

speaking on `Mohamedanism' at the Church congress at Wolverhampton, on 7th October, 1887, said:- "Owing to polygamy, Muslim countries are free from professional out-casts, a greater reproach to Christendom than polygamy is to Islam.

The strictly regulated polygamy of Muslim lands is infinitely less degrading to women and less injurious to men than the promiscuous polyandry which is the curse of Christian cities, and which is absolutely unknown in Islam." (The Times, London, Saturday, 8th Oct., 1887) And recently, such a personality as Dr. Billy Graham said:- "Christianity cannot but compromise on the question of polygamy. If present day Christianity cannot do so, it is to its own detriment.

Islam has permitted polygamy as a solution to social ills, and has allowed a certain degree of latitude to human nature but only within the strictly defined framework of law. Christian countries make a great show of monogamy, but actually they practice polygamy. No one is unaware of the part mistresses play in Western society.

In this respect Islam is a fundamentally honest religion, and permits a Muslim to marry a second wife if he must be strictly forbidden all clandestine amatory associations in order to safeguard the moral policy of the community." (quoted in The Position of Woman in Islam, published by the Islamic Foundation, Karachi) Does Polygamy Injure The Feelings of Woman? The third objection is that polygamy has social disadvantages, and injures the delicate feelings of women.

We have already seen that far from creating social disadvantages, polygamy cures the social disadvantages, and that it is the pretended monogamy which is the rootcause of the vast array of the social abuses in the Western countries. Now, we may briefly explain the subject of the supposed injury to the delicate feelings of the women.

One wonders if the prevalent permissiveness of the Christian countries does not injure the delicate feelings of the wives who see their husbands flirting with all types of `emancipated' women. So far as Islamic societies are concerned. the instances are not uncommon, where a wife herself persuades the husband to marry a second wife. Often, she herself chooses the bride-to-be.

The writings of Westerners do not carry any weight on this subject, because they do not live in a Muslim society, and whatever they write is based on mere presumption and imagination.