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Dec 8, 2010 Calls to end child marriages rejected
KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S law minister on Wednesday shot down calls to ban underage marriage, despite an uproar over the recent wedding of a 14-year-old Muslim school girl.
Siti Maryam Mahmod wed 23-year-old teacher Abdul Manan Othman last weekend in a mass wedding at a major mosque, after being given permission in an Islamic Sharia court.
Malaysian Muslims below the age of 16 are allowed to marry as long as they obtain the permission of the religious courts. Sharia law runs in parallel with civil law in the multi-ethnic country.
Nazri Aziz, a minister in the premier's department in charge of legal affairs, said the government has no plan to review laws allowing for underage marriages because the practice is permitted under Islam.
'If the religion allows it, then we can't legislate against it,' he told a press conference.
'Islam allows it as long as the girl is considered to have reached her pubescent stage, once she has her menstruation,' he added. -- AFP
Muhammad, a "beautiful pattern of conduct" is what stands in the way of ending the practice of child marriage in Muslim countries. If Muhammad did it, it is not only lawful, but laudable, and to condemn it would be to imply Muhammad did something wrong, or at least that his example is not as relevant for all time.
Posts: 1365 | Registered: Dec 2010
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Unfortunately many muslims have chosen to wind their faith between the Quran and politically/culturally motivated legends: hadith are unreliable and many are simply evil. Children are not capable of committing to a lifelong contract, period!
Posts: 195 | From: Nottingham, England | Registered: Jan 2009
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It is not only the hadiths that have a bad influence on Muslims, the Quran too can be a bad influence.
For example this was on the news today: "Man sentenced to be blinded with acid by Iranian court" NewsCore From: NewsCore December 11, 2010
"IRAN'S supreme court has upheld a sentence of blinding with acid for a man who blinded his lover's husband, under the Islamic "eye-for-an-eye" justice code, a government daily said."
It's in the Quran: "We ordained therein for them: 'Life for life, eye for eye, nose or nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds equal for equal.' But if any one remits the retaliation by way of charity, it is an act of atonement for himself. And if any fail to judge by (the light of) what Allah hath revealed, they are (no better than) wrong-doers." -- Qur'an 5:45
Now some will say "Wait a minute, that's in the Hebrew Scriptures, too." So often we hear that the Bible and the Quran are equivalent in their messages, something that only someone who hasn't read either one could say. But in any case, it's true: "an eye for an eye" appears in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. However, this phrase has always been understood in Judaism as limiting excessive vengeance, not encouraging it, and has never been taken in Jewish tradition as being a warrant for maiming anyone. It is likewise limited in Christianity by Jesus' statement: "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:38-39). But in Islam, the literal force of the Quranic passage is paramount. One may remit the retaliation "by way of charity," but is not commanded to do so. And so we get cases like this, which are entirely in accord with Sharia.
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