Is there really a difference between arresting someone for bigamy and naming a teddy bear Muhammed?

Question

Assuming the people involved in the marriages don't object and are all of age.

Both are religious based laws, neither really make much sense, yet one is accepted (here in the US and the other is considered 'barbaric')

so, does that mean that if we want to take the moral high ground, we have to make bigamy/polygamy legal?

Answer 1

Hmm. As a muslim, I believe it is okay to be bigamous but not okay to make fun of the prophet. However I thought the arresting the teacher for naming a teddy bear muhammad was wrong. She did not do it maliciously, she just let her students, who were muslim, name it. But the justice system in Islamic countries sucks. Anyway I think you're right about the bigamous thing though. In times of war and need, women can't support themselves AND their children. If a man is able to treat two women equally (in the rare case that he can..) and the two women are happy with the arrangement, then its fine, in my personal and moral opinion.

Answer 2

Yes, there is a difference. Bigamy does not use the name of a central religious figure. It is an issue in civil law.

Your assumption is also very important, because the most recent high-profile bigamy case involved "wives" who were NOT past the age of consent.

Arresting someone for naming a bear Mohammed is just plain barbaric - because of the double standard it imposes on many levels. If the person who had done this act had been a native Sudanese male with religious credentials, I would bet that the punishment would have been far less. But because the "perpertrator" was a foreign woman not necessarily having religious credentials, there was an outcry.

Answer 3

How many people were running through the streets saying "cut the throat of the person that committed bigamy!!!!"?

None?

Well, I guess that settles that question.

Answer 4

If I had named a bear after a religious figure, I doubt anyone would have ever known.

Strange.