« India: Islamists Attack Rally In Kashmir - Five Dead |
| Thailand: Buddhist Shot, Set On Fire In Muslim South »
May 22, 2006
Sudan: Muslim Woman Marrying Christian Breaks Taboos
We mentioned earlier that Sudan's controversial cleric, Hassan al-Turabi had issued a fatwa last month in which, among other items, he declared that it was permissable for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian or Jewish man.
Traditionally, sharia law allows for a Muslim man to marry a Christian or Jewish woman, but not vice-versa, and therefore such marriages for Muslim women are almost unheard of in the Muslim world, even in Western societies.
Today, Khaleej Times reports that Turabi's decree has led to the first such marriage of its kind in modern Sudan.
The Muslim woman married a Christian man in a church in Al Qadarif on Sudan's eastern border, adjoining Ethiopia. According to Asharq Alawsat, those attending the wedding claimed that the bride was "happy with her marriage to a Christian man and is convinced of the legitimacy of the idea that is backed by the fatwa of Dr Al Turabi."
The woman's relatives were split over the move, which in Islamic tradition would usually see her labelled as an apostate.
Abdul Fattah Idris, professor of comparative religious laws at Al-Azhar University in Cairo said: "Muslim women are prohibited by the Shari'a (Muslim law) from marrying people of the book (i.e., Jews and Christians)."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at May 22, 2006 9:12 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)