A reader sent me a link to this story and I forwarded it on and had my good friend Ahlam sit with me to come up with a response.
So there are so many issues here, lets just take them one at a time.
Lets first talk about the writing itself. We LOVE how the media portrays religious authority and human rights organizations as being opponents. The very idea that you can be both religious and support basic human rights seems to be an alien concept to the masses of the world, and yet they forget that it wasn’t the secular humanists who championed human rights, but the religious institutions that first asked how do we respect and guard human life and dignity? The secular social Darwinists would have been happy to let us all rot; because we are all animals after all and only the strong should survive!! So we take umbrage at the whole tone of this article.
That not withstanding lets look at content. Should children be married off? Absolutely not!! In even the most rural of villages, girls aren’t considered marriageable until after they begin to menstruate and even then (in most cases) the prevailing wisdom is to wait for a few years for her womanhood to fully develop. Even the Prophet Muhammad didn’t consummate his marriage with Aisha until she was in her teens. Several hadith state that while marrying a child (the drawing up of the legal contract) was permissible, she was free to break that bond once she reached the age of consent (puberty) if did not want to consummate the union. And while we know that many women (of all ages and worldwide) stay in marriages they don’t want under duress, the fact that you fail to exercise your rights doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. NO FORCED MARRIAGES IN ISLAM!! A union made under duress is annulled under Islamic law, as it was never a valid marriage in the first place. Consent is one of the arkan (pillars) for a valid marriage contract. A child cannot give consent and her guardian must wait to seek her consent when she reaches the age of consent.
Secondly, the salafi issue. Look, a lot of good brothers and sisters prescribe to the salafi dawah. They are great people and very sincere in their religion. But there are some people out here who are trying to exploit any opportunity for power. The salafis are a strict, literalist movement who has their roots in the work and writings of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab, who saw himself as following in the footsteps of Shaykh al Islam Ibn Taymiyah, may Allah have mercy on them both. Since being sponsored by the Saudis, the salafi ideology has gained prominence. Its strict and literalist views give comfort and stability to those looking for a genuine and authentic Islamic identity in a world saturated in heedlessness and violence. Where there is great poverty, political instability and attacks on traditional values, there will be the salafis.
They do a lot of great work, but some of the features of the ideology make it easy for the sick and twisted to gain prominence. The one hinted at in this article is that the strictest wins. The more repressive, literalist the practice, the more pious the person. So, by reviving a tradition that made sense 1400 years ago, but doesn’t really serve the needs of today’s Muslims, this “Shaykh” was seeking to prove that he was the most strict and therefore one of the most pious defenders of Islam.
The REAL issue here is this:
In his comments, Mourad Bekkouri, a lawyer from rabat, says that due to “Morocco’s high number of illiterates, the effect of this action among the rural population remains unknown. Parents could marry off their small children should they think that the fatwa is officially binding, although it has not been approved by the Superior Council of ulemas”.
Ignorance.
Ignorance and illiteracy are running rampant through the developing nations and nobody seems to really care. Little girls get sold into brothels and bad marriages to perverts not because some nut job with a website issues a “fatwa” but because families with too many children, little Islamic education, and NO secular education see no real future for their families. They get rid of daughters to guard their honor and to secure what little comfort they can for their children, or perhaps to lighten the load of too many mouths to feed. Morocco. Like many countries in North Africa has a huge youth population, many have little or no education, the few that are lettered have no real prospects. The educated turn to fanaticism out of discontent and boredom. The illiterate turn to radical and repressive regimes in the hopes of a better, more stable life. Nobody wins.
When the population enjoys political stability, access to education and health services, and a stable economy then we see fewer incidences of gross human rights abuses. So, while this guy is obviously a pig, the real bad guys here are the men and women in power who allow an entire generation of young people to stagnate. The bad guys are the powers (that you and I are equally effected by) that perpetuate the divide between the have and the have-nots.
As Muslims the shame is that we have deteriorated to the point where there is no redress for economic disparity. We continue to fail to stand for any sustainable social justice. We fail to understand the mission handed to us to forbid the evil and enjoin the good; to stand for justice and be kind to the weak.; to pray AND work…not just because it creates a better world but because good actions and right intentions have eternal rewards. This is the sunnah of the Prophet pbuh!!!
