I don't have time to get into details, but polygamy is one of those issues that comes with a baggage of historical context/misinterpretation.
At least those are some of the arguments of Islamic feminists who condemn the practice as unnecessary and harmful to modern day society and are fiercely working to change it.
Full article
here (but not all about polygamy) This is the most relevant quote:
In the case of polygamy, most assume it is an Islamic right for men to marry up to four wives. Few people know that in the late 19th and early 20th century, Egypt's grand mufti Muhammad Abduh, along with other Egyptian ulema, interpreted the verse on polygamy as one that actually advocated monogamy as the ideal state of marriage. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the modern English interpreter of the Quran, shared this view. But according to Anwar, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a private, non-profit group based in Herndon, VA, removed Ali's comments on the verse when it revised the translation in 1989.
Then there is also this article, whose basis I'm a bit more iffy (I don't know on which authority it stands even though on the 'net that's never a guarantee, but it's someone practicing as far as I can tell), but which has a pretty in depth interpretation that works with the current translation (for better or worse).
Here is the article , below is its conclusion.
Islam does not allow marriage of multiple wives for males' sexual privileges and desires as Anti-Islamics claim. A normal man who makes enough money to keep him surviving in life can not provide a fair quality of life to all his wives, which means that he must not be allowed to marry multiple wives because he will only make his society worse.
Noble Verse 4:3 came to solve social problems. Unfortunately today, some Muslims intensify the Muslim's social problems in the Islamic poor countries by marrying multiple wives and bringing more and more illiterate and poor kids into the society which on the long run will only keep their entire society below the level of poverty. Therefore, Noble Verse 4:3 doesn't allow polygamy just for anyone or any reason and Noble Verse 4:129 certainly nullifies the excuse Allah Almighty gave to Muslim men to practice polygamy. Therefore, unless we have social or personal dilemmas where too many Muslim men were lost, or there is problems with the wife toward her husband, then polygamy should not be allowed nor justified in my Islamic view.
Wikipedia's page and several other more legit websites have comprehensive background on this subject as well. I just don't have the time to link to them all.
I guess my mini point is that this is one of those issues (of many) that is hotly debated within the community. And that it's good to know that these conversations are taking place.
Going by what I've read and heard on the subject, the political situation in a lot of these countries has placed fundamentalists in a position where they have had the power to intervene and coopt Islam to better serve them. What we are seeing through the incendiary eye of the media is then a twisted version of this religion, which is at base no better or worse than any other. It's a repetitive thing to say, but it's important to keep in mind all the same.
The issue of interpretation is also important to keep in mind, considering the sheer diversity within any given group religious or otherwise.
alcyone
