muslims demand gay marriage exemption by the state

[the last donut of the night]

Muslim leaders have demanded the same legal exemptions as the Church of England in legislation to introduce gay marriages.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), with more than 500 affiliated mosques, charities and schools, said it was "appalled" by "utterly discriminatory" legislation on same-sex marriage set out by the government.

The proposals would allow faith groups to conduct gay marriages but would ban the CofE and the Church in Wales from doing so.

The MCB secretary-general, Farooq Murad, said his organisation had strongly opposed gay marriage alongside other religions and was seeking an urgent meeting with culture secretary, Maria Miller, to express the concerns of many Muslims over the proposals. "No one in their right mind should accept such a discriminatory law," he said. "It should be amended to give exactly the same exemption to all the religions."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/18/muslims-demand-gay-marriage-exemption

how do we approach this? personally, i feel that this just highlights the inherent problem in multiculturalism -- a state policy that ends up exacerbating racism and discrimination as it crystallizes society into various little cultural ghettoes. and the situation just goes to show how it's linked to the instituted powers; after all, the first organization to be exempt from gay marriages was the church of england. alongside with being a very effective way of eliminating the discussion of class in the political sphere, multiculturalism is increasingly a way to diffuse any tension in society, of weakly covering up much bigger problems. discuss

[Questionable]

Get rid of the stupid policy that couples must ask a religious institution to marry them and the problem solves itself with everyone being happy.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

What's this you say, religious institutions pissing and moaning about what the state does... why I am shocked. My position: religionists have no place in governments which are secular. No expert in England's system but this sounds little different from the complaints in the America which follow the same formula.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Get rid of the stupid policy that couples must ask a religious institution to marry them and the problem solves itself with everyone being happy.

That's already the case, I think. What if you're a gay Christian/Muslim and wish to get married in a religious ceremony?


What's this you say, religious institutions pissing and moaning about what the state does... why I am shocked. My position: religionists have no place in governments which are secular. No expert in England's system but this sounds little different from the complaints in the America which follow the same formula.

Unfortunately the UK does not have a secular government. The Queen is the head of the Church of England and we have bishops in the House of Lords.

[Sasha]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/18/muslims-demand-gay-marriage-exemption

how do we approach this? personally, i feel that this just highlights the inherent problem in multiculturalism -- a state policy that ends up exacerbating racism and discrimination as it crystallizes society into various little cultural ghettoes. and the situation just goes to show how it's linked to the instituted powers; after all, the first organization to be exempt from gay marriages was the church of england. alongside with being a very effective way of eliminating the discussion of class in the political sphere, multiculturalism is increasingly a way to diffuse any tension in society, of weakly covering up much bigger problems. discuss

They are stupid idiots who should have read the law before opening their mouth, all religious institution CAN refuse to gay marry under this law, the novelty is that they don't HAVE too, I.e. Quakers, reform jews and other progressive religious groups can CHOSE to not discriminate and perform gay marriages and if so these marriages would be considered legal.
The only reason the CoE is explicitly banned by law is exactly because they are the state religiin and as such could potentially be open to lawsuits.
Mosques and all other congregations are exactly as free as before to be stalwart reactionaries.

[hetz]

how do we approach this?Easily, by being a modern secular state whose laws are universally applied and in which churches, sects and denominations have no say in the creation or application of these laws. Separation of church from the state, though, also means that states also should not interfere with the internal workings of churches up to a certain point.
Besides, why would you marry in a church that obviously doesn't want you?
Fuck them and go have a proper civil marriage.

[Cyclone1776]

All I gotta say is Separation of Church and State. It's one of the few good things we still have here in the United States. No extremist fundamentalists groups trying to establish a theocracy.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

All I gotta say is Separation of Church and State. It's one of the few good things we still have here in the United States. No extremist fundamentalists groups trying to establish a theocracy.
Actually, there are quite a lot of those groups, almost entirely Christian.

[TheRedAnarchist23]

Unfortunately the UK does not have a secular government. The Queen is the head of the Church of England and we have bishops in the House of Lords.

Even Portugal is secular. The UK really is behind on politics.