Muslim leader says polygamy should be legalized after Italy approves gay marriage

An Islamic leader in Italy argued that polygamy should also be legally recognized as a civil right after the country approved the union among same-sex couples.

Hamza Piccardo, the founder of the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, stirred a heated debate when he posted on Aug. 6 a photo on Facebook of Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala at the Royal Palace celebrating the civil union of a gay couple and wrote, "If it's only a matter of civil rights, then polygamy is a civil right."

The leader of the country's largest Islamic association cited that the government's approval in May of the civil unions for homosexuals should stretch to the Muslims' rights to polygamy.

"Myself and millions of people don't agree with homosexual unions, and yet it's licit and we respect them. Those interested in them are a minority, as polygamists would be. Society as a whole can accept everyone," Piccardo commented on his own Facebook post.

According to Crux, Argentine newspaper Infobae also reportedly quoted the Islamic leader as telling the Italian state TV system RAI that he translated pope's silence on his statement as a silent acceptance of polygamy as civil rights.

However, Piccardo drew the ire of several politicians who responded negatively to his statements.

Debora Serracchiani, deputy chairman of the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD), denounced polygamy as "nothing to do with civil rights."

"Centuries of fighting for women's rights can not simply be brushed aside," wrote Serracchiani.

Jihad Watch, an organization that exposes jihad theology and ideology to apprise the world of the real situation, shares the same views with Serracchiani that polygamy serves as a tool for Islamic supremacists to encroach on the rights of women and push for the Sharia law.

Piccardo also raised that polygamy could help address the country's problems on low birthrate and need for foreign labor.

"Do not underestimate the demographic action of polygamy. It would rebalance population decline and the consequent need for foreign labour," Breitbart quoted Piccardo as saying.

Piccardo confined polygamy as the right of only Muslim men to have more than one wife and identifies polyandry as the right of Muslim women to have more than one husband.