Saudi Islam, misuse of Seerat-e-Nabwi allowed: No protection to young girls, some awful news stories

Islam and Human Rights

27 Sep 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com

Saudi Islam, misuse of Seerat-e-Nabwi allowed: No protection to young girls, some awful news stories

Saudi Arabians claim to be Wahhabis, followers of what they claim is the purest version of Islam. One of the main blessings of the advent of Islam, we are told is liberation of women. But from time to time we keep getting evidence of the extreme oppression women have to face in this society, as they had to in the Afghanistan run by the Taliban who were products of the Saudi educational system. We in India too have a large number of madrasas run with Saudi largesse and presumably following the same system of education. We know that these madrasas are creating obscurantists with contempt for not only religions other than Islam but also Islamic sects other than their own. Indeed they consider the vast majority of Muslims who belong to other sects or schools of thought as Kafir, and not only that but also as people who should be eliminated from the face of the earth. NewAgeIslam.com would love to be contradicted on this point. Concepts like forgiveness, tolerance, pluralism, multi-culturalism are alien to the Saudi version of Islam being propagated in India at great expense to the sponsors. If this radical Islamism also spawns terrorism, which may not have been intended to begin with, there should be no surprise. After all Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are the hottest products of Saudi Isalm. Fifty-Something Saudi Refuses to Annul Marriage to his Eight-Year-Old Wife   Father was 'swapping' her for a 13-year-old bride   Dr. Ahmad Al-Mub'i, a Saudi Marriage Officiant: It Is Allowed to Marry a Girl at the Age of One, If Sex Is Postponed. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Whose Model We Follow, Married 'Aisha When She Was Six and Had Sex with Her When She Was Nine URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=815 ----------------------- Fifty-Something Saudi Refuses to Annul Marriage to his Eight-Year-Old Wife A Saudi man in his 50s has announced that he refuses to annul his year-and-a half-long marriage to an eight-year-old girl, because he claims never to have done anything forbidden by Islamic law.   He said that Islamic law does not set a specific age for marriage, and that the Prophet Muhammad married 'Aisha when she was nine. Source: Al-Hayat, London, August 13, 2008 Posted at: 2008-08-14  http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/9193.htm URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=815 ----------  Saudi girl drinks bleach to escape marriage: Father was 'swapping' her for a 13-year-old bride  Saudi girl drinks bleach to escape marriage Shura Council member says marriage contract violates Sharia law (File)  DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)  A 16-year-old Saudi girl drank a bottle of bleach in an attempt to commit suicide to escape a forced marriage to a 75-year-old man, press reports revealed Sunday.  The girl identified only as, Shaikha, said her father was forcing her to marry the old man so that he could marry his 13-year-old daughter in an exchange deal, Bahrain's Tribune reported.  Shaikha described how her father took her to meet the old man and his 13-year-old in a marriage office where they all had pre-marital tests done, the Tribune quoted the Saudi Gazette as reporting.  Shaikha told the paper how she begged and pleaded not to be forced into marriage but both of the men ignored her pleas.  The 16-year-old appealed to the National Society of Human Rights to intervene and stop the marriage, the Tribune said, adding Shaikha, whose parents are separated, asked to live with her mother.  Shaikha's mother said she should be protected from her father and demanded the marriage contract be cancelled because Shaikha was threatened to marry the man, the paper said.  "Judges can punish men who force their daughters to marry like this," Sheikh Abdul Mohsin Al Obeikan, Shura Council member said, adding the marriage contract was void because it violated Shariah law, the Tribune reported.  Islamic law states that for a marriage to be legal both parties must consent. If a marriage is performed without consent or under coercion the union is considered void and must be annulled. http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/08/17/55012.html -------------  Dr. Ahmad Al-Mub'i, a Saudi Marriage Officiant: It Is Allowed to Marry a Girl at the Age of One, If Sex Is Postponed. The Prophet Muhammad, Whose Model We Follow, Married 'Aisha When She Was Six and Had Sex with Her When She Was Nine Source: http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1798.htm URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=815 ----------- Excerpts from an interview with Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi, a Saudi marriage officiant, which was aired on LBC TV on June 19, 2008: Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi: Marriage is actually two things: First we are talking about the marriage contract itself. This is one thing, while consummating the marriage – having sex with the wife for the first time – is another thing. There is no minimal age for entering marriage. You can have a marriage contract even with a one-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of nine, seven, or eight. This is merely a contract [indicating] consent. The guardian in such a case must be the father, because the father's opinion is obligatory. Thus, the girl becomes a wife... But is the girl ready for sex or not? What is the appropriate age for having sex for the first time? This varies according to environment and traditions. In Yemen, girls are married off at nine, ten, eleven, eight, or thirteen, while in other countries, they are married off at 16. Some countries have legislated laws forbidding having sex before the girl is eighteen.  [...] The Prophet Muhammad is the model we follow. He took 'Aisha to be his wife when she was six, but he had sex with her only when she was nine.  Interviewer: When she was six... Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi: He married her at the age of six, and he consummated the marriage, by having sex with her for the first time, when she was nine. We consider the Prophet Muhammad to be our model. Interviewer: My question to you is whether the marriage of a 12-year-old boy with an 11-year-old girl is a logical marriage, which is permitted by Islamic law. Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi: If the guardian is the father... There are two different types of guardianship. If the guardian is the father, and he marries his daughter off to a man of appropriate standing, the marriage is obviously valid.  [...] People find themselves in all kinds of circumstances. Take, for example, a man who has two, three, or four daughters. He does not have any wives, but he needs to go on a trip. Isn't it better to marry his daughter to a man, who will protect and sustain her, and when she reaches the proper age, he will have sex with her? Who says all men are ferocious wolves?  URL of this page: http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=815