Tuesday, July 13, 2010
[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]
As this snippet from Gulfnews shows, it is forbidden for a Jewish man to marry a Muslim woman, but perfectly acceptable for Jewish women to marry Muslim men (invariably they convert to Islam). The reason for this curious double standard, and the Kuwaiti scholar's wrath, could simply be that the wife is expected to take on her husband's religion, and Islam must never defer to Judaism.
(Manama:) A Kuwaiti religious leader has rejected the marriage of a Muslim woman to a Jewish man, saying it amounted to adultery.
"The Islamic text about such marriages is very clear: A Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim even if he is Christian or Jewish," said Dr Anwar Shuaib, the head of Islamic jurisprudence at the University of Kuwait.
On Saturday, former US president Bill Clinton officiated at the wedding of US Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a 45-year-old Jew, and his bride, Huma Abedin, a 34-year-old Muslim.
Huma, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, had been dating the congressman for about two years. They announced their engagement last summer.
However, the Muslim scholar said that the union should never happen.
"This marriage is null and void and amounts to adultery."
