Imam allows marriage of Muslim women to Non-Muslim Men.

You —

Imam bridges a wedding divide

MUSLIM women and their Christian fiancés from across Europe are travelling to Oxford to get married because imams in their own countries refuse to perform the ceremonies.

Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford, said he had performed about 36 marriages in the past two years between Muslim women and non-Muslim men.

More imams are happy to marry Muslim men to non-Muslim women.

Couples from Spain, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, France and Norway have all come to Dr Hargey after failing to find someone locally prepared to carry out the service.

Most had spent months looking for an imam, and many found Dr Hargey after contacting American Muslim leaders via the Internet.

Dr Hargey, who believes he is the only imam in the UK who openly performs the mixed marriages, said: “We do it because there is no prohibition in the Koran.

“Islam allows Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women and such marriages are common, but I am one of the only people who will do it the other way round.”

He said couples had to sign up to five non-negotiable conditions protecting the woman’s faith, and agree to counselling before he would perform marriages.

...

Dr Hargey said: “We have a social timebomb with Muslim women getting better educated than their male counterparts and becoming lawyers and doctors while the men are taxi drivers — the average woman is not going to find her partner from taxi-driving.”

Dr Hojjat Ramzy, a trustee at the Muslim Iqra School in Oxford and an Islamic registrar, said such marriages were not permitted in Islam.

He said: “It is not allowed under any circumstances for a Christian man to marry a Muslim woman, it is not acceptable.”

Read more @ Oxford Times

Forum

You — Sun, 7 Jun 2009 - 23:57

Would be a good idea to get some scholarly answers, but I had thought it was forbidden. Maybe in the qur'an. There are verses that relate to idolators, no idea if they would also apply to christians (and other religions) or not.

Noor — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 - 00:07

men are allowed to marry people of the book but how many now truly follow the books? they have been distorted.

a few years ago i went to some talk by shaykh hamza yusuf and he told us a story about a non muslim couple. the wife converted to islam whereas the husband didn't, the woman was in a dilemma, does she divorce her husband or stay with him. she consulted scholars, imams etc and most said divorce him, she came to shaykh hamza yusuf and he told her to stay with him so she did. he got slated for that because everyone was saying she was living in sin etc, a few months later the husband accepted islam. i thought id share that story.

Noor — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 - 00:23

[quote=wednesday]But being born into a Muslim family doesn't mean I'm a true Muslim (Mind and Body)...

The difference between me and the other potential kids is their origins isn't it?
Whether the child had his first athaan in his/her ear... and all teh other traditional religious ceremonial procedures.[/quote]

no. with muslim parents you are brought up as a muslim, you are brought up believing that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad ﷺ is the final messenger. there is no such thing as a true muslim, you either believe or you don't, how much you follow islam is a different matter all together.

Noor — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 - 00:32

[quote=wednesday]Yes you are taught all of that and it's repeated so many times that it has settled in your memory but if it actually helped us lift don't you think we would be hard core scholars by now? [/quote]

no. scholars study books of hadith, quran and issue fatawa. with constant dhikr like that, our hearts will be pure and free from evil!

[quote]What if you're a partial Muslim? You'll still learn all of that...[/quote]

what is a partial muslim?

The Lamp — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 - 10:48

[quote=Noor]men are allowed to marry people of the book but how many now truly follow the books? they have been distorted.

a few years ago i went to some talk by shaykh hamza yusuf and he told us a story about a non muslim couple. the wife converted to islam whereas the husband didn't, the woman was in a dilemma, does she divorce her husband or stay with him. she consulted scholars, imams etc and most said divorce him, she came to shaykh hamza yusuf and he told her to stay with him so she did. he got slated for that because everyone was saying she was living in sin etc, a few months later the husband accepted islam. i thought id share that story. [/quote]

Thumbs up! I think the general ruling is that it is better for the non-Muslim to convert because that way you're oth agreeing to raise your kids according to Islam and treat each other according to Islam, which is in some ways considerably different from Western or Christian norms.

Ya'qub — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 - 15:29

[quote=The Lamp]
Thumbs up! I think the general ruling is that it is better for the non-Muslim to convert because that way you're oth agreeing to raise your kids according to Islam and treat each other according to Islam, which is in some ways considerably different from Western or Christian norms.[/quote]

One of the conditions of marrying a christian or jewish woman is that she agrees that any children you might have will be raised as muslims. It's not dependent on whether she converts or not.

Also, I disagree with the way you say that raising kids according to islam is considerably different from western/christian norms. It's VERY similar. There aren't considerable differences until the child becomes an adult.