From Progressive Secular Humanist: http:www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/01/attempt-to-stop-child-marriage-in-saudi-arabia-fails/
by January 5, 2015
Islam:
Religion of pedophiles? Despite efforts by human rights activists to
end the barbaric practice of child marriage, Muslim men will continue to
marry girls under the age of 15 in Saudi Arabia.
The push to
raise the legal age of marriage to 15 was crushed after the Grand Mufti,
Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the most senior religious authority in
the country, ruled that Islam supports men marrying underage girls.
The Grand Mufti ruled
that it’s acceptable for men to marry girls under the age of 15,
despite strenuous efforts by human rights activists and the Saudi
justice ministry to set 15 as a minimum age for brides in the kingdom.
Grand Mufti Abdulaziz declared
there is nothing prohibiting Muslim men from marrying girls under the
age of 15. Abdulaziz is president of the Supreme Council of Ulema
(Islamic scholars) and chairman of the Standing Committee for Scientific
Research and Issuing Fatwas, which makes him the final authority in
Saudi Arabia on Islamic teachings.
In Saudi Arabia, Muslim clerics
have been fighting a successful battle to preserve the legal right of
men to marry underage girls. In recent years reformists have been
working to prevent and prohibit the abhorrent and barbaric practice of
child marriage sanctioned by so many Islamic scholars. However, attempts
to prohibit child marriage has met strong and sustained resistance by many Muslim scholars.
For example, in 2011, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.”
Most
Muslim scholars in support of child marriage note that nowhere does
Sharia (or Islamic law) set an age limit for marrying girls.
Continue reading at: http:www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/01/attempt-to-stop-child-marriage-in-saudi-arabia-fails/
Monday, January 19, 2015
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