A reply to Palitha Senanayake:

Religious blasphemy and polygamy

Eng. Ismaeel Marikar, President, Al Hidaayah Foundation, Colombo

My attention has been drawn to an article, in the Daily News of July 29, 2011, wherein, one Palitha Senanayke, signing as 'Thinking Cap', writes an article titled 'The Issues Concerning International Laws', in which he makes derogatory and false statements, Islam, Muslims and the Prophet of Islam, without any authentic proof. On reading it, the first conclusion I came to is that he was without his thinking cap.

The first question I would like to pose to him is; that if he is talking about laws, why pick on Islamic laws, which he has no knowledge of and should not be his concern.

As he says, bigamy is an offence in the West. He does not know that it is an offence even in the East. He is also ignorant of the fact, that there is fundamentalist Christian sect, in Utah, in America - Mormons, amongst whom there are thousands who practice polygamy. Those who look down on polygamy, see nothing wrong in having one legal wife, and many mistresses whom they can sleep with at will. Prostitution is rampant in these countries, and with that come all the issues from it - illegitimate children.

To say that polygamy is encouraged in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, is a blatant lie. There is no Muslim country that encourages polygamy.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, a man could take any number of women at his will and pleasure, and discard them, when he no longer needed them. It was in these circumstances, that Allah's revelation came to The Prophet Muhammad, restricting it to four.

The exact verse in the Quran is as follows; "And if you fear that you will not be able to deal justly with orphan girls, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if you fear that you will not be able to deal justly with them, then only one."

From this it is clear that all doors to injustice are closed and that monogamy is the rule, and polygamy the exception.

Palitha, sinks deeper in his own 'cess-pit' of lies, when he says that paedophilia, is a part of the Islamic Religious Code.

While referring to the marriage of Aishah, who was 12 years to the Prophet. Now let us examine the life of the Prophet, to see whether this is 'fact or myth'. Muhammad even before he was chosen by Allah as His Last Prophet, was known for his exemplary character, as admitted by his opponents and critics, which is recorded history.

Muhammad, was 25 years old, when he married for the first time Khadijah, who was 40 years old, 15 years his senior and they had several children. His second marriage was to Sawdah, only after the death of Khadijah. About time Palitha started eating his own words, it would have been easier if he had minced it in the first instance. Is this paedophilia? It would be relevant to mention here, that Ghandi married Kasturbai when she was 13 years, and she begat several children, after that he decided to lead a celibate life which caused much stress to his wife. He is called Mahatma. Paedophilia or what?

According to the ethics of journalism, reporters and journalists should verify facts, before publishing, as this sort of irresponsible journalism can bring about communal and religious problems. That is exactly I want to prevent.