A top Muslim fundamentalist leader in Malaysia has urged women to let their husbands practice polygamy as a way of helping spinsters who would otherwise become "aged virgins," party officials said yesterday.
Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, spiritual leader of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, was commenting on two separate incidents this month involving wives who attacked their husbands when they tried to marry other women.
Wives should consider the plight of other women "who would become aged virgins until they die because ... the men who want them are blocked from marrying them," Nik Abdul Aziz was quoted as saying by local media. His aide, Anwar Bakri, confirmed the comments made on Saturday.
Nik Abdul Aziz, who is also the chief minister of northeastern Kelantan state, said "wives should give their husbands room if they have the financial means and ability to marry more women."
Islam allows a man up to four wives, but most Malaysian states require them to fulfill various requirements before they can marry again. Nevertheless, polygamy is common in Malaysia, where 60 percent of the public are Muslim.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia