Islam_in_Focus_text

view of Afro-Asian bishops who prefer polygyny to infideli-
ty, fornication, and mate swapping. In the United States
alone, mate swappers are estimated to number hundreds of
thousands.
It will be revealing to examine the high correlation be-
tween strict formal rnonogamy and the frequency of prostitu-
tion, homo-sexuality, illegitimacy, infidelity, and general
sexual laxity. The historical record of the Greek-Roman and
the Jewish-Christian civilizations is even more revealing in
this respect as any Standard sociological history of the fami-
ly will show. ^
Turning to the case of Islam we find many people in the
Western world who think that a Muslim is a man who is pos-
sessed by physical passions and himself in possession of a
number of wives and concubines, limited or unlimited.
Many more among these people show a feeling of surprise
when they see a Muslim with one wife or a Muslim who is
unmarried. They believe that the Muslim is at full liberty to
shift from one wife or a number of wives to another, and that
this is as easy as shifting from one apartment to another, or
even as changing one's suit. This attitude is aggravated part-
2) S. D. Goitein, Jews and Arab s: Their Contacis Through the Ages.
(New York: Schoken Books), 1964; L.T. Hobhouse, Morals in Evohttion:
a Stttdy of Comparative Ethics. {London: Chapman and Hall). 1951; E. A.
Westermark. A Short History of Mamage. (New York: The Macmiliian
CoA. 1926.