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We’re in the fast lane to polygamy What’s my line on legalized polygamy? Oh, I pretty much said it all back in 2004, in a column for Ezra Levant’s Western Standard. Headline: “It’s Closer Than They Think.” Well, a mere half-decade down the slippery slope and here we are, with the marrying kind of Bountiful, B.C., headed for the Supreme Court of Canada. Five years ago, proponents of same-sex marriage went into full you-cannot-be-serious eye-rolling mode when naysayers warned that polygamy would be next. As I wrote in that Western Standard piece:

ELDORADO, Texas — It was a year ago that the outside world got its first glimpse beyond the battered green gate of the YFZ Ranch. And the view was mesmerizing: Women in pioneer-style dresses, their hair swept up in braids. Men who married multiple times — sometimes, it was said, to underage girls. Children snatched by authorities from their mothers, for fear that they might be abused. Officials had come looking for an abused teenage girl named "Sarah." Since then, it's become clear Sarah didn't exist, that calls made to a domestic abuse hot line were probably faked. And since...

Mar. 26--When Park City filmmaker Jill Orschel met DoriAnn, the polygamist's wife featured in her short documentary "Sister Wife," it was at a women's empowerment workshop. "She and I totally hit it off when we met, really made this wonderful human connection," Orschel said this week. It was four days later that someone told Orschel that DoriAnn was part of a polygamous family in a fundamentalist Mormon sect. "I didn't see her as a victim, but as a totally empowered woman who contradicted the stereotype," Orschel said. The 11-minute documentary -- which plays Saturday as part of the first Documentary...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003. He is currently the Director of the Mapping Sharia Project and the Owner of DG Counter-terrorism Publishing (dgaubatz.blogspot.com). He can be contacted at davegaubatz@gmail.com. FP: Dave Gaubatz, welcome to Frontpage Interview. You have been conducting some Counter-Terrorism (CT) field research during the last month. Tell us the results. Gaubatz: I want to thank FPM for the opportunity to bring an issue to the attention of the American public. In early Feb 2009, I went to a prayer and lecture at a...

British Columbia has charged two fundamentalist Mormon men with violating the Criminal Code provision against polygamy. The defendants will argue "God made me do it," claiming their practice of polygamy is part of the religious freedom guaranteed by Section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms... ...What the U.S. Supreme Court said in its 1878 Reynolds decision is still compelling: Religious freedom means the state cannot punish people for religious opinions, but it can certainly regulate secular institutions such as marriage. The justification for prohibiting polygamy is that it leads to treating women and children as chattels and undermines...

Quest to legalise polygamy in Utah Kody Brown introduces his three wives and 12 children Some 40,000 people in the US state of Utah live in illegal polygamous families in which a man takes more than one wife. These fundamentalist Mormons have now begun a campaign for a change in the law they regard as discriminatory and unfair. Humphrey Hawksley met some of the families involved. "All right everyone, listen up," shouted Kody Brown, brushing his shoulder-length hair clear of his face. He put both hands out in front of him, pointing towards 12 children aged between four and 14...

Some 40,000 people in the US state of Utah live in illegal polygamous families in which a man takes more than one wife. These fundamentalist Mormons have now begun a campaign for a change in the law they regard as discriminatory and unfair... Under US law it is a felony, and technically the adults could be jailed and the children taken into care. But there are simply too many... Kody and Christine Brown live in a polygamous relationship...I had met the Browns a few hours earlier at the Utah State Legislature where they had joined a campaign to legalise polygamy....

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — A Kansas man faces a bigamy charge after allegedly being married to two women who lived in the same apartment complex. Charles L. Clemens Jr., 61, of Overland Park is charged with bigamy and other felonies, according to authorities.

Full disclosure: I am a big fan of "Big Love." And I find the LDS (Latter-day Saints, aka Mormon) faith fairly baffling. That said, I thought this was an interesting, detailed and reasonable take on the whole HBO vs. the Mormons controversy. (And if this sounds a little like a press release, the author owns a PR agency; he probably can't help it.) [EDITED TO ADD: I've posted a LDS-sanctioned video, "Why Mormons Build Temples." Equal voice and all that. Thanks to commenter HiveRadical for the suggestion.] Dear Daily Variety and Daily Variety Readers: As a devout member of the...

Polygamy came to Parliament Hill on Wednesday, as opponents of decriminalization opened a political front in their campaign to ensure that marriage remains a union limited to two people. Immediately apparent at the news conference on Wednesday were the strange alliances that form around this issue. Charles McVety of the Institute for Family Values is an outspoken evangelical leader from the Christian right, who was vocal in his oppositon to same-sex marriage. Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, an organization that represents secular and progressive Muslims, supported gay marriage but opposes polygamy. Dr. McVety believes the two are...

4,000 men in the United Kingdom are now polygamists, although some say the figure is higher. Muslim man can claim state support of more than £10,000 a year to keep his wives, if the wedding took place in one of those countries where polygamy is commonplace, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia and across huge tracts of Africa. Therefore, if he has four wives he can claim nearly £800 a month from the British taxpayer. Controversially, a polygamist is also entitled to more generous housing benefits and bigger council houses to reflect the large size of his family. He...

College enrollment in a northern Arizona polygamous community has dropped more than 50 percent in the past five years -- a decrease a school official says is tied to a government center that shares the property. "We've had many, many people tell us they will not come to the college because of that," Chancellor Michael J. Kearns said. Mohave Community College in Colorado City, Ariz., is now asking the county officials to stop use of the multi-use facility that is home to police and social service agencies.

GROWING numbers of Muslim men are “marrying” up to four wives in Britain, a leading Muslim peer warned last night. Tory Baroness Sayeeda Warsi fears a sharp increase in polygamy in the UK is becoming a threat to community cohesion. And she accused Labour ministers of turning a blind eye to the practice, which is common in some Islamic countries. The Government must make it clear to Muslims that “in this country, one married man is allowed to marry one woman,” she said. Most Muslim polygamous arrangements are not illegal because the “weddings” are private religious ceremonies that are not...

Aguanga man to serve seven life sentences Friday, February 20th, 2009. Issue 08, Volume 9. An Aguanga polygamist received seven life sentences for torturing and endangering seven of his 19 children and abusing and imprisoning his three wives. Mansa Musa Muhummed, 55, also known as Richard Boddie Jr., sat in the courtroom last Friday looking unmoved as the judge issued his decision. A jury found Muhummed guilty of such acts as beating his children with hoses and boat oars, starving them and forcing them to eat their own vomit and feces. In addition, he imprisoned two of his wives in...

-SNIP- On Thursday, more than 130 men, women and children from various polygamous groups were on Utah's Capitol Hill, learning first hand how to lobby state lawmakers and help shape the legislation that could either destroy or preserve their way of life. -SNIP- Today, polygamous groups enjoy an unprecedented dialogue with state government, from the Utah attorney general's office to state services agencies. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff encouraged Thursday's group to continue to engage with state officials. "The result of isolation, separating oneself out, is that it breeds mistrust, it leads to ignorance and I'm talking about on both sides,"...

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail February 11, 2009 at 4:18 AM EST VANCOUVER — The B.C. government has relied on selective use of flawed legislation to persecute a religious minority led by polygamists Winston Blackmore and James Oler, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association says. In a public appeal to have criminal charges dropped before they are heard in court, the association says in a prepared statement on its website that Canada's anti-polygamy law is archaic, overly vague and unconstitutional. Using the law to address concerns about child abuse and sexual interference "is extremely ill-advised," the association also said. Mr. Blackmore,...

If the past is a window to the present, then a new book about polygamy among early Mormons could be a portal to understanding where some contemporary Utah polygamists have found inspiration for their way of life. From child brides and secret ceremonies to their defiance of marriage laws, the narrative in George D. Smith's "Nauvoo Polygamy" illustrates the development and breadth of polygamy as it was first practiced in the 1840s by the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living in Nauvoo, Ill. "It changes our understanding of a plurality of wives," polygamy historian Martha...

OTTAWA, VANCOUVER -- Same-sex marriage, they said, would be the slippery slope to polygamy. Just a few short years after Canadians engaged in a caustic debate over whether two men, or two women, should be allowed to marry, the prognosticators will find out if they are vindicated - however unhappily. The lawyer for Winston Blackmore, the man with 19 wives in the B.C. religious community of Bountiful who is to appear in court today on polygamy charges, says he will cite Canada's gay-marriage laws as part of his defence. It's an argument that people on both sides of the same-sex...

Canada's decision to legalize gay marriage has paved the way for polygamy to be legal as well, a defense lawyer said Wednesday as the two leaders of rival polygamous communities made their first court appearance. The case is the first to test Canada's polygamy laws.

Lawyers warn that religious freedom would protect multiple marriagesSomewhere, right now, Winston Blackmore must be smiling. The self-styled "Bishop of Bountiful" - Canada's most high-profile polygamist leader - is being handed a show-trial platform to prove what he's been saying for years: Taking multiple wives is a religious right and freedom, protected by the constitution. As counter-intuitive as that might sound to people, he will have a very strong case. In fact, he will probably win, delivering the polygamist leaders in Bountiful a huge moral and legal victory. B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal's heart is in the right place. He cares...

Polygamy charges may bring religious freedom challenge OTTAWA - Canada’s law against polygamy may soon face a religious freedom challenge now that British Columbia has charged members of a breakaway Mormon sect. Winston Blackmore, one of two men charged with polygamy under Canada’s Criminal Code, has told news media his religious freedom is under attack. An array of constitutional experts has agreed, telling various newspapers they believe the anti-polygamy law could not withstand a Charter test. “The people who say it will be very hard to uphold this as a criminal offence are right,” said Margaret Somerville, McGill Centre for...

Jacob Zuma’s extended family will be a protocol nightmare for his government minders should he become president. Widely tipped to become the first polygamist to occupy the Union Buildings after elections this year, Zuma plans to wed his fifth wife, and has fathered more than a dozen children. Regardless of who the ANC president picks as first lady, taxpayers may have to cough up for some of the perks his wives or their children could be entitled to. These include: Medical aid, for which the state would pay two-thirds of Zuma’s monthly contribution; Flying on the presidential jet and having...

When questions of morality arise, “slippery slope” arguments follow close at heel. No surprise, then, that fear ran wild this morning that Canada’s criminal prohibition of polygamy will soon fall to a constitutional challenge—our weakness for religious freedom being what it is. Then what? A nationwide rash of multi-spouse relationships? Half-siblings for everyone? Chaos in the family courts? Anarchy? None of the above, actually. It is true that B.C.’s attorney general has decided to put long-dormant criminal laws to the test by laying charges against Winston Blackmore for running the equivalent of a wife farm in the province’s southeastern corner....

If you’d asked me last week, I’d have said that a polygamy prosecution against the leaders of the fundamentalist Mormon community in Bountiful, B.C., had two chances: slim and none. On Wednesday night, the B.C. government — or, rather, an independent special prosecutor — finally took the step that has been dithered over for years and charged Winston Blackmore and James Oler under section 293 of the Criminal Code. After giving myself a quick refresher on the legal arguments, I’m no longer so sure about “slim.” One might wonder why B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal refused to refer section 293 to...

VANCOUVER-- Winston Blackmore can seem the epitome of grace, even when facing criminal prosecution and a prison sentence of up to five years. He demonstrated this again this week, after his arrest on charges of polygamy. He was firm but pleasant with assembled reporters. He was eager to share the truth about Bountiful, at least as he sees it. He has become expert at public relations. Mr. Blackmore handled himself adroitly in recent interviews with CNN talk-show host Larry King. He has extended to media invitations to visit his polygamous community near Creston, B.C., deep in the province's interior.

VICTORIA, B.C. ” Charges of practising polygamy against two leaders of a fundamentalist religious sect in Bountiful, B.C., will give Canadians an unprecedented look into the controversial lifestyles of one of the most private communities in Canada. The charges against Winston Blackmore and James Oler will also test the legal boundaries of religious freedom in Canada, says a legal expert.

VANCOUVER -- While the discussion on polygamy has largely focused on B.C.'s polygamist community of Bountiful, a long-time Canadian activist says she believes it is also being practised among a minority of Muslims in Canada. Homa Arjomand, a Toronto-based activist who has campaigned against the use of Shariah law to resolve family disputes in Canada, said she is hopeful the Bountiful case will open the door to other polygamy investigations. Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44 -- two leaders in the breakaway Mormon sect living in Bountiful -- were arrested by the RCMP on Tuesday and charged with practising...

L-R: Winston Blackmore, leader of the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., with Edith Barlow, Marsha Chatwin and Zelpha Chatwin. CRESTON, B.C. -- Winston Blackmore, one of two men from a B.C. Mormon colony charged with polygamy, shot back Thursday that the charges against them are an attack on religious freedoms and accused the B.C. government of grandstanding as a provincial election looms later in the year. "I am what I am, we are what we are. We are descended from a long line of Mormon-believing people," Mr. Blackmore, 52, said in a statement to reporters at the Mormon Hills...

The charges brought yesterday against two leaders in the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., are likely the first steps in a process that could see Canada's anti-polygamy law struck down as unconstitutional. Over the past two decades, four attorneys-general in British Columbia have been reluctant to lay a charge because of a fear that their cases would have no chance of surviving a religious freedom defence under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Last April, Wally Oppal, the current Attorney-General of the province, said the criminal justice branch believed any prosecution would fail because of a possible violation of the...

On Wednesday around 7:45 a.m., eight plainclothes RCMP officers in unmarked cars drove up to the homes of polygamous leaders Winston Blackmore and James Oler in southeastern British Columbia. They arrested Blackmore, 52, and Oler, 44, and charged them with the criminal offence of practising polygamy. It may not be the first time that anyone in Canada has been charged with polygamy. But it is definitely the first time anyone has been charged since the 1800s.

Allegations that members of a southern Utah polygamous sect are guilty of widespread welfare fraud were raised repeatedly this summer during a U.S. Senate judiciary committee hearing. They surfaced frequently, too, in messages sent to Texas Gov. Rick Perry after an April raid on the Eldorado ranch occupied by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "Please pull the plug on the freebies for the cult. Why are the taxpayers of your state paying for this illegal group?" wrote a Michigan couple on April 17. But welfare data from Utah, Arizona and Texas do not support the...

The death of a model who learnt that her husband was already married has shone a light into the murky world of Muslim polygamy in Britain. Sahar Daftary, 23, fell 150ft from the twelfth storey of a block of flats where she had gone to collect her belongings at the home of a businessman whom she had married in a religious ceremony last year. Her husband, Rashid Jamil, 33, was arrested on suspicion of murder but bailed by police after they found no evidence that the death was anything other than an accident or suicide.

A SPEEDING driver has avoided a ban after his lawyer argued that he needed his licence to visit both his wives. Mohammed Anwar, 51, was caught driving at more than twice the speed limit on his way home from work in Falkirk. The restaurant owner, who has two wives under Islamic law, was clocked driving at 64mph in a 30mph zone on the Cumbernauld Road, Muirhead, Glasgow, on 21 August, 2007. Yesterday at Airdrie Sheriff Court, Anwar, of Clouston Street, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to speeding, but his lawyer, Paul Nicolson, said: "He realises his licence is at risk, but this...

The Iowa Supreme Court has heard arguments from homosexuals in a challenge to the state's marriage laws. Douglas Lapier, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, argued against homosexual marriage." "For over 170 years in Iowa, marriage has been defined as a union between one man and one woman," he explains. "It's [a] well-settled law in the state of Iowa." Lapier notes that a member of the court asked the pro-homosexual attorney what would happen in terms of polygamy and incestuous marriage if the court ruled in favor of homosexual marriage. "The plaintiffs simply could not satisfactorily answer that question,...

Disguised in a man's hat and coat, Louisa Beaman stood on the banks of the Missouri River on April 5, 1841, and recited vows that made her the plural wife of Joseph Smith Jr. Over the next 30 months, secret marriages followed as Joseph Smith added orphaned teenagers, middle-aged spinsters, sisters, mothers and daughters and other men's wives to his burgeoning clandestine family -- all while establishing a community, economy and religion. -SNIP-Smith said he began compiling lists of the church founder's wives more than a decade ago; his research was spurred on by the limited information offered in the...

The 72-year-old presiding elder of a breakaway polygamist Mormon sect and two other church members surrendered to Schleicher County authorities on Monday to face felony charges relating to the underage marriage of girls to older men. Fredrick Merril Jessop, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, faces one count of conducting an unlawful marriage ceremony involving a minor, a felony. According to authorities, one of his daughters was married to jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs at age 12 and is now the only child from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in foster care after...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is becoming a potent political force. Last year's story was that Mormons had risen to some of the highest offices in America -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid belongs to the church, as does former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. This year's headline is that, with the encouragement of their religious leaders, Mormons gave loads of money and man-hours to pass Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. Indeed, they were probably the most organized and consequential force behind the measure's passage. But in the face of post-election protests...

That is probably the best news from an otherwise difficult election for conservatives and Republicans. In very large part, we Evangelicals must thank our Mormon cousins for that fact. They, along with our Catholic brethren, were better organized than us and that provided a base from which we could ALL work together to get this job done. What more, as we have chronicled here, Mormons took the brunt of the abuse, derision, and even threats of physical harm that came with this effort. And like us, they have given thanks to the Almighty that is ultimately in control, even if...

A grand jury in West Texas handed down eight more indictments Wednesday in the criminal investigation into abuse allegations involving members of a polygamist sect. Jailed sect leader Warren Jeffs and three other members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were charged with eight different felonies, including aggravated sexual assault, bigamy and tampering with physical evidence, according to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. FLDS members have been under investigation since April, when Texas Child Protective Services removed more than 400 children from the group's Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, south of San Angelo. The...

The latest rants from the left are claiming that there is a constitutional right to do whatever you want, whenever you want, and if you disagree with them, they will hold a protest rally, trespass on your property, and even vandalize it. They claim a constitutional right to "marry anyone you want" but do not actually reference this particular constitutional clause. Some claim the 14th amendment infers such a right, but cannot explain why that amendment provides a right to homosexuals, but simultaneously does not provide that right to polygamists and incestuous couples. Now, some are claiming that you cannot...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- More than one-third of California's lawmakers added their voices Monday to the chorus calling on the state's highest court to overturn the prohibition on same-sex marriage approved by voters last week. Forty-four members of the California Legislature filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support one of the three lawsuits seeking to invalidate Proposition 8. The case, brought on behalf of gay couples who have not yet married, argues the ban should be tossed out because voters did not have the authority to make such a dramatic change in state law. The brief argues that the gay...

Man attacks wife for not getting him new spouse  29 Oct 2008, 1314 hrs IST, AFP KUALA LUMPUR: A 57-year-old Malaysian Muslim man assaulted his wife and threatened to shoot her after she failed to secure him a young second wife,   news reports said on Wednesday. Mohamad Haris Daud, a local police chief in Kuantan in central Pahang state, said the man forced his 60-year-old wife to seek the consent of a woman in her 30s to be his second wife. The frightened wife then went to the woman's house but found out that she was already married, he...

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, October 28, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democratic Attorney General candidate Jean Welch Hill has told Utah voters that polygamists should never have to fear being prosecuted for their religion.According to an AP report she said that the Utah bigamy statute is unconstitutional in the wake of the 2003 Supreme Court ruling Lawrence v. Texas. That case struck down the Texas sodomy law, saying it violated the due process clause and that the state had no justifiable interest intruding into the private lives of consenting adults."Our bigamy law still stands but, frankly, it's indefensible based on that...

  (Edited to fit FR excerpt limits) A voter guide is being circulated in polygamist circles, detailing the candidates in this year's election and where they stand on issues such as ethics and equality. Carlene Cannon, a member of the Davis County Cooperative Society (also known as the Kingston group), helped create the 12-page newsletter. Members of Utah's polygamist communities have become increasingly united and vocal in recent years against perceived attacks on their lifestyle. Their numbers could impact an election: An unofficial census by Principle Voices counts 37,000 people in Utah and surrounding states who self-identify as fundamentalists....

Published online: 24 October 2005Charlotte SchubertY chromosomes reveal founding fatherDid conquest and concubines spread one man's genes across Asia? The Manchu warriors took control of China in 1644. © Punchstock About 1.5 million men in northern China and Mongolia may be descended from a single man, according to a study based on Y chromosome genetics1. Historical records suggest that this man may be Giocangga, who lived in the mid-1500s and whose grandson founded the Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1912. The analysis is similar to a controversial study in 2003, which suggested that approximately 16 million men...

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A new population genetics study may have identified history's greatest lover, at least as measured in millions of descendants in his direct male line. This mighty progenitor was not a celebrated expert in the amorous arts like Casanova. Instead -- and this might say something about human nature that we'd rather not know -- he owed his lineage's staggering reproductive success to his being perhaps history's greatest fighter. The 23 co-authors of a paper published electronically by the American Journal of Human Genetics examined the Y-chromosomes of 2,123 men from across Asia. The Y...

A US accountant has proof that he is descended from the Mongol warlordTHEY seem the unlikeliest of relatives. One was a fearsome warlord whose name became a byword for savagery. The other is a mild-mannered accountancy academic from Florida. Yet Tom Robinson, 48, has become the first man outside Asia to trace his ancestry directly to Genghis Khan, the 13th-century Mongol leader whose empire stretched from the South China Sea to the Persian Gulf. And, since his paternal great-great-grandfather emigrated to the United States from Windermere, Cumbria, many more descendants are probably scattered across the Lake District. Genetic tests have...

Genghis Khan: Father to Millions? By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery Newshttp://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040621/gallery/genghis_goto.jpg> Statue of the Mongol Emperor June 22, 2004 —Genghis Khan left a legacy shared by 16 million people alive today, according to a book by a Oxford geneticist who identified the Mongol emperor as the most successful alpha male in human history. Regarded by the Mongolians as the father of their nation, Genghis Khan was born around 1162. A military and political genius, he united the tribes of Mongolia and conquered half of the known world with a cavalry riding on grass-fed ponies. By the time Genghis died in 1227,...

Beijing shopgirl could be descendant of Confucius By Richard Spencer in Beijing (Filed: 20/06/2006) Kong Tao is a 24-year-old sales assistant from a humble village background in eastern China, living in Beijing. But popular belief has it that she is a descendant of Confucius, the Great Sage. Now Miss Kong, with three million other people worldwide, may be able to find out whether her claim to fame is well-merited, or whether she can return to obscurity. The Chinese Academy of Science has said it is willing to offer DNA tests to anyone claiming Confucius as an ancestor. Since Confucius's proper...

Dublin: Scientists in Ireland may have found the country's most fertile male, with more than 3 million men worldwide among his offspring. The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in twelve Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland. His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16 million descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research. "It's another link...