RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Religion and Society ~ 423 ~ a crime to wrest someone’s honour from him by force. Conversely, just as one person’s property can be legally transferred to another provided both parties agree to the transaction, so when both parties agree to commit adultery, society sees nothing wrong in this. In fact, in cases of mutual consent, the law actually takes the side of the adulteress, and if a third party attempts to intervene, it is he who is regarded as the criminal. Islam has solved this problem by sanctioning polygamy, a practice which has been severely criticized by modern civilization as uncivilized. But experience has shown that this Islamic principle is in conformity with human nature. After all, if the doors of legalized polygamy were closed, it would merely open the floodgates of illegal prostitution. The U.N.O. Demographic Report of 1959, shows that the modern world is producing more children out of wedlock than ever before, the illegitimacy rate in Western countries being as high as 60%. In Panama, for example, three children out of four are born without the parents having had either a civil or a religious ceremony. Latin America, with an