Quran Does Not Forbid Muslim Women From Marrying Non-Muslim Men: Professor Of Islamic Philosophy At Al-Azhar University, Amna Nosseir
By Amr Emam
Nov 29,
2020
An Islamic
scholar has stirred up major debates by backing the marriage of Muslim women
and non-Muslim men, an issue always dealt with nervously by the religious
establishment and pro-establishment scholars.
Amna
Nosseir is a philosophy professor at Al-Azhar
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Amna
Nosseir, a professor of Islamic philosophy at Al-Azhar University and a member
of the Egyptian Parliament, said there is no text in the Quran that bans the
marriage of Muslim women and non-Muslim men. Islam permits Muslim men to marry
non-Muslim women, provided that they do not prevent them from observing their
faith.
There are
many instances of Muslim men, including celebrities, who have married
non-Muslim women. Egypt's former minister of religious endowments, Mahmud Hamdi
Zakzouk, who died in April this year, was married to a German Christian woman.
Ragab
Uwais, 29, poses for a picture with his bride for their wedding video along
al-Gamaa bridge connecting the Egyptian capital Cairo with its twin city of
Giza, on June 11, 2020. Photo by KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images.
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Speaking on
al-Hadath al-Youm TV Nov. 17, Nosier added that the question is especially
clear if the men are Christians or Jews, which Islam calls “people of the
book."
A day
later, Nosier told the state-run Channel One TV that the Quran only forbids the
marriage of Muslim women and "idolaters." She called on religious
scholars to study and reconsider the issue.
Nosier's
remarks were met with a round of fatwas from the nation's religious
establishment and pro-establishment scholars.
Al-Azhar,
the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, said the marriage of Muslim women
and non-Muslim men is not permissible.
“This is an
issue on which all scholars agreed in the past and agree in the present,”
Al-Azhar said in a Nov. 18 statement.
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Abdullah
Rushdi, a researcher at the Ministry of Religious Endowments, which oversees
the work of the nation's mosques, described this type of marriage as a form of
adultery and "invalid" in a video uploaded Nov. 18.
Ahmed
Kerima, a professor of comparative jurisprudence at al-Azhar University, said
all Muslim scholars are united against this form of marriage.
“This is a
well-established opinion at all times and everywhere,” Kerima told Sada
al-Balad TV Nov. 18.
Whether
Muslim women should be allowed to marry men who do not follow their faith is an
issue that has always been the subject of anxious and acrimonious discussion.
The
religious establishment says the Quran speaks against this marriage beyond any
doubt, citing verses from the holy book of Muslims that ban the marriage of
Muslim women and “idolaters.”
Nevertheless,
those calling for sanctifying this form of marriage draw a line between
"idolators" and "people of the book."
Beneath
this row lies a need for the re-examination and reinterpretation of religious
texts, say religious reformists, especially concerning issues on which the
scriptures do not offer clear rules.
“The fight
over interfaith marriages is now within Al-Azhar,” said Khalid Montasser, a
medical doctor, writer and staunch campaigner for religious reform. “It is
between those who want renewal and those who want to keep things as they are
with the aim of controlling the public,” he told Al-Monitor.
Historian
and researcher Maged M. Farag, one of thousands of people debating interfaith
marriages in cyberspace in the past few days, said he knows of dozens of Muslim
women who married non-Muslim men.
“They
register civil marriage contracts in Lebanon, Cyprus and other countries,”
Farag said. “Some non-Muslim men even convert to Islam on paper only. Those
living outside Egypt do not care a whit about the fatwas of these sheikhs,”
Farag wrote on Facebook.
Nosier says
these problems are why there is an urgent need for religious scholars to
discuss modern issues and guide believers on dealing with them.
“This is a
very serious issue that affects the lives of millions of Muslim women living in
the West,” Nosier told Al-Monitor. “Some of these women have to live with their
non-Muslim partners without being married to them, as their religion prohibits
it. We must renew our understanding of religion to keep up with the changes
happening in our life.”
The issue
became a hot topic in Egypt after Tunisia overturned a law that prevented
Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims in 2017.
Muslim men
being permitted to marry non-Muslim women gives rise to accusations that men
interpret religious texts in their own interests.
“Men
dominate the interpretation of religious texts,” feminist writer and equality
campaigner Dena Anwer told Al-Monitor. “Women can no longer be ignored,
especially with the major role they play in society.”
TV host
Yasmine el-Khateib expressed the view that allowing Muslim women to marry
non-Muslim men would be the “correction” of a mistake men make by giving
themselves rights they deny women.
The ongoing
debate is likely to continue and deepen, but may or may not lead to social
change.
Cases of
interfaith marriage often elicit shock and condemnation among a large number of
Egyptians. Under this shock is the unwavering stance of the religious
establishment that these marriages are unacceptable in Islam, especially if
they are of women marrying non-Muslim men.
Mohamed
Gamal, a civil servant in his early 40s using a pseudonym, said he married a
non-Muslim woman even as everyone around him opposed it.
"My
family opposed it and her family opposed it, too," Gamal told Al-Monitor.
He said he
has to hide his wife's religious identity to avoid trouble. "Everybody is
against interfaith marriages, even as Muslim men are permitted to marry
non-Muslim women," Gamal said.
Al-Monitor
contacted several Muslim women who have married non-Muslim men, but none were
ready to talk.
“Muslim
scholars prohibited the marriage of Muslim women and non-Muslim men at all
times and everywhere, having based their judgment on strong evidence,” said
Osama al-Hadidi, the director of the Al-Azhar Fatwa Centre, the website through
which Al-Azhar reaches out to Muslims around the world. “They did this for the
welfare of families,” he told Al-Monitor.
Original Headline: Interfaith marriage fatwa feeds debate in
Egypt
Source: The al-Monitor
URL: https://newageislam.com/debating-islam/quran-forbid-muslim-women-marrying/d/123640
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