Muslim Council of Britain: Civil partnerships were a ploy to attack marriage

The Muslim Council of Britain has launched a website, Muslims Defending Marriage, which describes the civil partnerships system as a ‘ploy’ designed to ‘attack traditional marriage’ by giving gay couples the same legal rights as straight couples.

The site says "many people now recognise” that the purpose of the civil partnerships system was in fact to "attack traditional marriage” by allowing people to argue that marriage is "just civil partnership by another name”.

With just over a fortnight until the public consultation on marriage equality between gay and straight couples in England and Wales closes, the Council said the Muslims Defending Marriage website is not intended to be homophobic, but to promote an Islamic view of marriage.

In language similar to that of the Coalition for Marriage’s anti-equality petition, which the group says has been signed by over half a million people, the MDM website encourages readers to sign up to the statement: "I disagree with the government’s proposed re-defining of marriage. I fully support the long-standing legal definition of marriage as the voluntary union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others.” (...)