Twofer:

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Lawyers: Extend cuddle ban to non-Muslims

Kuala Lumpur - Islamic lawyers meeting in Malaysia want an existing ban on unwed Muslim couples from cuddling or holding hands to be extended to non-Muslims caught flirting with the faithful, a local newspaper said on Thursday. Experts in sharia law, which currently applies only to Malaysia's majority Muslims, proposed at a seminar that there should be a civil law to deal with non-Muslims found committing the Islamic crime of khalwat, or close proximity, with a Muslim.

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Italy: Polygamous Muslim marriages 'on the rise'

Rome - Polygamous marriages are illegal in Italy yet are reportedly on the rise. While few Muslim immigrants or Italian converts to Islam admit such unions, Muslim scholars put the number nationwide at 15,000-20,000, La Repubblica daily reports. (Snip) The Italian state does not issue family welfare cheques to more than one wife per husband, unlike in Britain, where the government has since February been issuing family welfare cheques to all of a polygamist's wives resident in the country.

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