While most people agree that Fez is a conservative city a local imam has gone too far according to some locals. The imam in Fez has caused controversy by making remarks in contradiction of Moroccan law and the 2005 reforms of Moroccan family law (known as the Mudawana) when he suggested that a European who converts in order to marry then abandons Islam should be killed.
In an interview broadcast on Arabic satellite TV network al-Arabiya Sheikh Mohammed al-Tawil pointed out that marriages between Moroccan women and European men who are not Muslims are forbidden under Islam. "This kind of marriage, between Moroccan women and European men, is forbidden by the Qu'ran and the Sunna," the imam said."A Muslim woman may not marry an unbeliever while a Muslim man may marry Christian and Jewish women."
However, according to al-Tawil, Moroccan women may however marry European men who convert to Islam shortly before the wedding. "Islam only required two witnesses for someone to be able to convert and such a marriage is valid," he said. "If a European then decides to abandon Islam, Mohammed's words apply to him: those who renounce their own religion must be killed, as they are an apostate."
It is this last statement that has been condemned but fortunately such views are not widely held and the tide of history is on the side of the Family Law -each summer in a growing number of local women are reportedly marrying young European men. Almost 6,000 such marriages were registered in Morocco in 2007, almost all of them in the summer - an almost six-fold increase over the previous decade.
A total 4,320 Moroccan men married foreign women last year.
Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
3 comments:
As far as I know, it is necessary according to Moroccan law for a non-Muslim man to convert to Islam if he wants to marry a Muslim woman. I checked with Fatima Sadiqi, expert on family law in Morocco, and she confirmed this. The business about being killed if you decide to change your religion, is against Moroccan law, however.
Which views aren't widely held? If you meant those that Moroccan (Muslim) women should only marry other Muslim men, than I disagree. Nearly every Moroccan I've ever met believes that a Muslim woman must marry a Muslim man (even a convert). I do realize that it's becoming more commonplace, but even then, it tends to be between older Moroccan women who may otherwise not "have a chance" at marriage.
I for one don't want to marry a Moroccan man, but if the man I do marry is a Muslim, then that would be good, but not of greatest importance. What is more important is love and respect. Thank you for your stories.
kind regards
Mira Slaoui
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