chicky_pie
POTATO HEAD ROXON
SOME Muslim imams condone rape and domestic violence within marriage, exploitation of women, welfare fraud and polygamy, a report has found.
The report was based on a study commissioned and funded by the former coalition government and produced by the Islamic Welfare Council of Victoria, Fairfax newspapers report.
The report, presented on yesterday at a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies conference at the University of Melbourne, alleged that some Victorian imams:
* Apply Sharia law only where it benefits men;
* Hinder police investigations of domestic violence claims; and
* Knowingly perform polygamous marriages, which allow a second wife to claim Centrelink payments because they are regarded as de facto wives under Australian law.
The study was based on extensive community consultation; interviews with police, lawyers, court staff and academics, and meetings and interviews with the Victorian Board of Imams, Fairfax said.
The report said the 24-man board ignored or did not directly answer many of the questions put to it.
Women, community and legal workers and police said they were concerned about domestic violence and said imams put the interest of families ahead of women.
Relatives and community members sometimes pressured women to drop domestic violence cases, the report said.
Former husbands entered the houses of their separated but not religiously divorced ex-wives, demanding sex and, in some cases, committing rape.
"Workers who have assisted women in this situation said that the advice women received from the imams was that it was `halal' - permitted - because there was a valid - `nikah' - marriage," it says.
Melbourne Muslims were increasingly accepting polygamous marriages while police in Shepparton say many de facto relationships were really polygamous marriages, the report said.
The imams' narrow religious training, lack of life experience, poor English and a lack of understanding of Australia caused problems, some quoted in the report said.
The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, denied the complaints "absolutely".
"They must have heard stories here and there and are writing about them as though they are fact," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24684221-29277,00.html
like seriously.