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Daily Mail
32 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Revealed: 'Deeply disturbing' Muslim matchmaking site operating in Britain advertising virgin brides and polygamous marriages
A Muslim matchmaking site advertising virgin brides and polygamous marriages is operating in Britain, it has been revealed. NikkahGram describes itself as a service for Muslims who want a 'shy, untouched spouse' and men that are looking for more than one wife. The company, which has been registered in the UK, promotes virgin women under the age of 35 as ideal first wives, The Telegraph has reported. Videos shared on NikkahGram's social media profiles suggest that men should beat their wives as a 'wake-up call' for continued disobedience. In a clip posted on the topic of divorce on Instagram last week, men are told: 'From those wives whom you fear arrogance, first advise them. '[After] one month of advising, then if they persist, forsake them in bed - don't have any intimacy. Show them that you don't desire them. 'And if they persist, finally strike them lightly, not with a baseball bat, not from the very beginning boom, no. This is gradual.' NikkahGram's website also lists Dr Asif Munaf, who was suspended from the medical register after making anti-Semitic remarks, among its staff. The former Apprentice star faced a furious backlash after he called Zionism a 'satanic cult' and Zionists 'odiously ogre-like' in the aftermath of Hamas' October 7 attacks. Mr Munaf is now described as NikkahGram's associate coach who clients can book a call with for advice on Muslim marriages. He also features in several of the company's social media videos, alongside other Islamic influencers. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick told The Telegraph: 'This vile site promotes domestic abuse. It shouldn't exist. 'The fact it does shows yet again how our immigration and integration policies have failed. Mr Munaf's views are abhorrent and should have no place in public life.' Chief executive of the Muslim Women's Network UK Baroness Gohir also described the 'extreme ideology' promoted on the site as 'deeply troubling'. She said it was targeting vulnerable women and insecure Muslim men who are struggling with their identity. NikkahGram was first founded in 2023 'to facilitate marriage for Muslims who stick to core Islamic values of modesty and submission to Allah without modern excuses'. It operates on a subscription basis but virgin women are able to access its services for free. NikkahGram's site includes a description what it means to be a virgin Once signed up, users can browse other people's profiles but all contact with the women must be channelled through their legal guardian. According to an explainer on NikkahGram's website, a 'complete virgin' means 'you never been intimately/sexually touched by anyone else'. Its definition adds: 'This includes any form of sexual intercourse. 'If you decide to register as a Virgin, you must swear by Allah that you are telling the truth about being a complete virgin as described above. 'Lying in this oath is a severe sin with serious consequences in this life and the hereafter.' NikkahGram also promotes polygamous marriages, where men can opt for a second, third or even fourth wife. It advises men not to register Islamic marriages in the West, where polygamy is a crime. NikkahGram's Instagram page has more than 7,000 followers and it has posted more than 520 times. In one post, that features Hocine Based, a Muslim fitness influencer, it is claimed that non-virgin women can cause cancer. He says in the video, despite there being no medical evidence to support the claims: 'Even the exchange of saliva, even exchange of looks, and eyes, and even pheromones, a woman will be adaptive, because she's a host, so she prepares her body which adapts to the man's DNA… because a baby is an external organism that's actually growing within her. 'And if it doesn't align with her DNA, guess what? We get cancer!' The company also wrote in another post from last September: 'We encourage brothers to get married from overseas, second wife especially but first wives too. 'Less prone to feminism, more traditional, and many virgins! If you're tired of Western sisters and want a wife (or second/third/fourth wife) who respects your role as a man and a provider, and hers as a homemaker, you should consider this.' NikkahGram has defended its position, saying it operates fully within UK law. A spokesperson for the company said: 'NikkahGram operates strictly within UK law and Islamic principles. We provide a religious matrimonial service that reflects the values and preferences of many practicing Muslims. 'All participation is voluntary, and our platform facilitates lawful introductions between consenting adults who seek to marry in accordance with their faith.' 'We do not promote abuse, coercion, or illegality. We only discuss and endorse faith-based preferences that are protected under religious freedom laws,' they added.


Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Reform's tough-on-crime candidate who could save London from Sadiq Khan
Parliament sprawls below like a model village underneath Reform's new offices in the heart of Westminster. The vista acts as a daily reminder of what the growing team of campaigners is working towards and where their desks may one day be located. But first they must raise their gaze six miles east towards City Hall, where Sir Sadiq Khan is facing growing criticism over the state of the capital and its crime epidemic. Leading the attacks will be the Reform's latest recruit, Laila Cunningham, a councillor and former public prosecutor who has defected from the Tories. Already being spoken about internally as a rising star, she is being tipped by some to run as the party's candidate in the next London mayoral election. It is a contest that is set to be fought against the backdrop of a gathering narrative that the city has been plunged into terminal decline under Sir Sadiq. Having seen the justice system from the inside, Mrs Cunningham is uncompromising about where she thinks things have gone wrong. 'There's too much emphasis on hate speech in the criminal justice system and it's a waste of the courts' time,' she tells The Sunday Telegraph. 'I've prosecuted so many people who are completely drunk and say horrific things and it's just a waste of time. A lot of them are homeless. 'I just think there are a lot more serious crimes that we need to address.' As a mother-of-seven, she speaks openly about how 'scared' she is that one of her teenage children could come to serious harm on the capital's streets. She warns there is an 'epidemic' of knife crime in London and says she cannot understand why tackling it is not more of a priority for the Mayor. 'It's a real dereliction of duty on behalf of Sadiq Khan, what he's done to the city,' she says. 'People are moving out. They're leaving the country.' 'My kids were mugged many times and I had to do the leg work for the police. My husband's always telling me you're going to get killed, but what else are you supposed to do?' She backs stop and search, which she describes as a 'great tool', and says that any criticism around discrimination should not prevent its wider use. 'It's really wrong to shy away from it, because we really let our youth down,' she warns. 'I see so many teenagers on a hot August day walking down the street with a balaclava and it's ignored. That should be a reason for stop and search immediately.' Mrs Cunningham speaks fiercely in defence of free speech, admitting that she is worried about the direction it is heading under Labour. She says that Britain must be 'a symbol of freedom' as it was in the 1960s, when her parents moved here from Egypt to escape Communism. Calls to cut red tape As a Muslim she has no time for Angela Rayner's plans to adopt an official definition of Islamophobia, warning it risks a slide into authoritarianism. 'If you want to criticise Islam, then it's up to you,' she says. 'Everyone has their own opinions. People criticise Christianity. 'I don't think there should be any law legislating how and what people can say in relation to different religions, different cultures. 'We don't need more government, we don't need more legislation. We need less.' Mrs Cunningham is guarded when asked whether she believes Britain now has two-tier justice, saying she was never directly instructed to treat any case differently. But she says that if such a culture does exist then it 'comes from the top' citing the significant increase in hate crime prosecutions she oversaw. She is also scathing of Sir Sadiq's controversial campaign to tackle 'microaggressions' in the workplace including at Transport for London, which he runs. Examples of such behaviour given by the Mayor include asking people where they are 'really from' and complimenting them on their English being good. 'He's really focused on dividing us and creating grievances,' she says, adding that she regularly gets asked where she is from when taking taxis. 'We need to focus on the things that matter, which is what Reform is about.' Mrs Cunningham was a rising star at the CPS, where she worked as a prosecutor while also sitting on Westminster council as a Conservative. Everything then changed last month, when she announced that she was defecting to Reform in an interview with the London Evening Standard. In it she said it was a 'dereliction of duty' that there are not more police on the streets and expressed concerns about new online safety laws curbing free speech. She also said she was 'very, very angry' that there are 'certain communities in this country that have totally destroyed the image of British Muslims'. The piece did not mention that she worked at CPS, where employees are bound by rules on political neutrality, but it was brought to the attention of her boss. Mrs Cunningham says she was swiftly called in for a 'fact finding disciplinary hearing' and was told she may have breached the civil service code of conduct. 'I know what a fact finding disciplinary hearing means,' she says. 'It either means, because the code is so wide ranging, that they're going to drive me through an HR process and then find a reason to get rid of me, or they gag me. 'And I didn't want either of those, because I think what's going on in the country and what Reform wants to do is too important. It means too much to me, to my family, to the country, and I didn't want that.' Does she believe she was forced out because she joined Reform? 'To be fair to them I don't know, and I don't want to judge,' she replies. 'All I can say is the one thing that changed was that I joined Reform.' She is now expected to play a leading role as her new party gears up for elections across the 32 London councils taking place next May. Party officials have high hopes they can make another breakthrough, especially in outer boroughs where anger over policies like Ulez is still strong. If they do then they will displace many of Mrs Cunninghan's former Tory Colleagues, and take seats from Labour. Given the scathing terms in which she talks about the party, it is unlikely that she will lose much sleep over the prospect. She says: 'Mass migration, tax, all the woke agenda, all the DEI, a ballooning public sector, it flourished under the Tories. Net Zero was madness. 'I'd knock on someone's door, and they'd say 'Laila go away, I'm not going to support the Conservatives, they're rubbish.' These are our voters. 'And I'd kind of agree. There's nothing I could disagree with them about.'


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Man arrested after death of woman found injured on Dundee street
A man has been arrested after the death of a woman who was found seriously injured on a Dundee Scotland said officers were called to South Road in the city at about 16:25 on Saturday. The woman, who was in her 30s but has not been named, was treated by paramedics but pronounced dead at the scene.A 20-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the incident. Det Supt Peter Sharp said: "My thoughts are with the woman's family at this time and there is no doubt this was a distressing incident for those who witnessed and attended the incident."Extensive inquiries are ongoing and I am satisfied that the incident has been contained and there is no wider risk to the public."Anyone with information is asked to contact the force.