A MUSLIM with two wives who was clocked speeding in a 30 mph zone in Glasgow was spared a driving ban because he told a court he needed to retain his licence in order to sleep with the women on alternate nights.
Restaurant owner Mohammed Anwar said a ban would make it difficult for him to commute between his two wives and fulfil his matrimonial duties.
Airdrie Sheriff court heard that Anwar has one wife in Motherwell and another in Glasgow – he is allowed up to four under his religion – and sleeps with them on alternate nights.
He also needed his driving licence to run his restaurant in Falkirk, Stirlingshire.
The court had heard that Anwar was caught driving at 64mph in a 30mph zone in Glasgow, fast enough to qualify for instant disqualification.
He admitted the offence, but Sheriff John C Morris accepted his plea not to be banned and allowed him to keep his licence. Instead, he was fined £200 and given six penalty points.
Lorna Jackson, from the road safety charity Brake, called the decision “astonishing”.
She is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying:
Regardless of the number of wives or businesses this man drives to, he broke a law which is there to protect everyone. Travelling just a few miles over the limit in a 30mph zone can be the difference between life and death if you hit someone, let alone driving at more than twice the speed limit. Drivers know the law, and they know the punishment they could face when they break it.
For the courts to allow someone to keep their licence when they have so blatantly flouted the law and put peoples’ lives at risk, on the basis of an excuse such as this, is astonishing.
Anwar had made no comment during his five-minute court appearance, apart from confirming his identity. But last night, speaking from his restaurant Sanam, he said:
It is true I have two wives. Muslim men are allowed up to four. But I am not a religious leader and it is not my place to comment. As a matter of respect to my wives I would not comment on my home life. The sheriff did not ban me because I need my licence to run my business, although my wives were also part of the decision.
The court had heard that Anwar was on his way home from Falkirk to his Glasgow wife on August 21, 2007, when he was caught by city police using a hand-held speed camera.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
April 6th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Aye Caramba! Are people going to be given religious exemptions on any conceivable basis from everything now? Why have laws and rules at all?
Yet atheists are supposedly the ones people have to fear, for we’re the ones who are immoral and have no objective morality.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:04 am
So, an eminently sensible road safety rule ignored because of a bit of hand-wringing by the defendant. Unfortunately, not that uncommon. I remember a case where a woman kept her licence after killing a cyclist because she “needed her car” to take her kids to school. A journey of about 2 miles.
I was going to say that I trust he is being investigated for bigamy. But what’s the point? He’d use a bit of it’s-my-faith-so-grant-me-privileges-denied-to-others special pleading to get out of that too.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:01 am
No chance of a bigamy conviction, I’m afraid. He only has two wives under Islamic “law”, presumably. This is not legally recognised (unless you’re calculating benefits payments, bending immigration rules or getting of driving bans, obviously…)
April 6th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
To be fair,a certain amount of turning a blind eye goes on when it comes to powerful Christians too.
Some years back as a young local paper reporter, I noticed that a prominent clergyman in my neck of the woods was over-fond of the communion wine, so sermons later in the day were always good for juicy quotes.
My editor – a devout Christian – was invited by said clergyman’s staff to ‘search his conscience’ as to whether such reports were ‘helpful’ to the church’s image.
Something good did come of it though – I pointed out that the clergyman in question was driving himself from church to church to save on expenses, and the scandal if he ever hit someone while drunk would not be one a local paper or court could bury. The agreement reached was that I did not file reports of his drunken ramblings which might later make their way to the national press and in return one of his juniors always drove him about until he subsequently retired.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Shouldn’t he be banned from driving and then be charged with bigamy…
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
one rule for some. one rule for others.
i wonder what would have happened if he had have killed or injured another road user?