Polygamy 411

I read about polygamy in Switzerland at http://dictatorprincess.wordpress.com/some-thoughts-on-the-legal-aspects-of-polygamy-in-switzerland-for-foreigners. Although a bit lengthy, it’s very interesting so I thought I’d share:”I read case law when I am bored… I must preface this by saying that I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. However, I want to share my understanding of the current legal situation in Switzerland. As this is a hot topic in the Muslim community, I would like to make the following post as a public service to all those Pious Brothers just dying to fulfill the sunnah. Never mind the whole praying, eating halal, fasting Ramadan stuff (you know, that fard stuff), brothers who love this part of the sunnah and are considering polygamy in Switzerland, this is for you:

DON’T DO IT, YOU WILL GET CAUGHT, AND IT WILL BE NASTY. Even if you are one big happy family.

While I am not debating the permissibility of polygamy in Islam… I will give a little food for thought about reigning jurisprudence in Switzerland. And speaking of just dying to fulfill the sunnah I do believe in following the sunnah of following the laws of the land in which you live. Anyway:

Under Swiss law, polygamy is bigamy. If you are a born Swiss citizen there is not much that happens to you should you partake in this sunnah other than eventual welfare or tax fraud charges…oh and losing custody of your children. However, if you are a foreign brother, even if you don’t care about the laws of the koofaar, the following might give you an opportunity to twist your beard a bit:

If you are naturalized man who is Swiss through marriage and you contract a second Islamic marriage while being married to the Swiss wife who “naturalized” you and the authorities find out about it, THEY WILL STRIP YOU OF YOUR SWISS CITIZENSHIP AND KICK YOU OUT OF THE COUNTRY. The legal reasoning behind stripping you of your citizenship is that you came about the citizenship illegally because you broke your oath to your spouse, and you broke the oath to the commune, the canton and the country to abide by its laws and polygamy is against the law. How’s that for a koofaar law?

So if you are a first wife and your husband tries to spin that he is marrying the sister to get the papers to make a better life for everyone, it doesn’t happen. Not here… If it isn’t a “sham” marriage but a true loving p marriage, good luck getting the neighbors not to be nosy, good luck not getting caught when you “divide your time”, good luck justifying why you send money to the same person who is not legally related to you every month…if there is the tiniest suspicion that the second relationship is more than just for the kids, or that it is ongoing- guess what? The authorities assume you aren’t serious about your first marriage, which means you don’t fill or continue the fill the requirements for ongoing residence in Switzerland, or if you are naturalized, it means you got your naturalization while you are screwing around. Which means both your residence permit and naturalization can be GONE…Even if the brother tries to do your job by the sunnah, you can still get busted for p. In fact, the only way not to get busted for p is for the brother to not do his job by the wife he is not legally married to. No money, no contact, no time. Cool huh? Not.

Regardless of what your personal views are, the Swiss expect you to follow Swiss law. This is the country where private citizens yell at you for jaywalking. Even if the brother in the p marriage lies says to the cops, “Oh that 2nd wife? She’s just my girlfriend, that second marriage thing is just cultural so that we could do it”- that argument does not hold up in court here. Period. (What brothers, you think no one ever thought of saying that before? That was actually in one of the judgements).

Let’s say things don’t go south, and hubby found a nice Swiss lady who loves you and loves partaking in the sunnah. Well good for everyone. But if an informant calls the police to say you are “bigamists”- it doesn’t matter if she is ok with it or not. The case will be investigated and prosecuted independent of the parties. This could be your parents, your neighbors, your boss. So living in the same apartment is going to raise eybrows, and if your hubby tries to divide his time fairly (which they never seem do but whatevs)- guess what? There’s always at least one neighbor who notices who is or isn’t coming and going. And what if the Swiss co-wife’s mom doesn’t like it and calls the cops? Same result.

Bigamists, when they do get prosecuted (and if they are foreign, before they get kicked out of the country), are usually prosecuted for cheating social welfare. Guess what, the wives are parties too! Which is why I said above- the second your hubby starts talking p, if you have any kind of social assistance, GET A LAWYER so that you don’t go to jail for FRAUD and get kicked out of the country and separated from your children.

Don’t let the brothers lose sight of this very important fact. At let’s not lose sight of the essential here: while we are “following Islam” remember that when you get married, mainstream Sunni thought is that you marry with the intention of getting married forever. Marriage for a fixed time period is not permitted in mainstream Sunni Islam, and if you marry someone with the full intention of it being temporary, you will be accountable to Allah swt.

Personally I think Swiss case law is racist because nothing really happens to Swiss bigamists (some light jail time if that…oh and if you count LOSING CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILDREN) and also because the wives and kids get sent back to Back Home if the man decides to “partake in the sunnah”, but I can guarantee you that the tide seems to be turning and a man in Switzerland thinks twice about trying to pull a fast one on anyone. One of the major cases that did go to the Federal Court involved an imam officiating what he knew to be a second marriage. The p dude, instead of getting a little more booty, got a one way ticket back home…Reputable imams in Switzerland do not do a nikah without a Swiss family book. No Imam who wants to keep his mosque or masjid open will do it here. While the argument could be made that the Swiss are a little hardcore for this, I think the US and a lot of other countries would be served by doing the same, at least in the short term, because I am tired of seeing sisters getting hurt by ignorant brothers and ignorant “so-called” imams.

It has happened that a third party can call out a p marriage in this country. So even if you go into it fully conscious and your hubby is on board and your co wife is on board and the imam is on board and you are one big happy P family, things can go south here legally in ways you could never imagine and you, whether you are a first wife or a second wife, can get caught up in whatever bad choices your husband makes and the result can make a world of difference in yours and your children’s welfare… p is just NOT WORTH IT here. Even with the best of intentions, even with all parties being on board and it being all Big Love up in there, the authorities simply do not tolerate it, and it only takes one fight, one nosy neighbor, one MIL not happy with the situation to mess everything up.

The above was from http://dictatorprincess.wordpress.com/some-thoughts-on-the-legal-aspects-of-polygamy-in-switzerland-for-foreigners