My Thoughts On Interfaith Marriage

I was reading Dr. Craig Considine’s Twitter profile where he briefly commented on Interfaith marriage. See original tweet here.

This idea has puzzled me often. We live in an area where things are already pretty tough: 1) Some Muslims are abusing other Muslims rather harshly; and, I have come across a couple of such cases; 2) According to Wikipedia, 65.4% of people are Christians; and, only 6.7% of the population are Muslims.

So after reading Dr. Craig’s tweet, I researched a bit. I replied a couple of times on this tweet. Here are all my replies.

I have thought about this often. Quran refers to Christians as believers and states that marriage between believers is allowed. This article states that only some of the scholars are saying Muslim women may marry only Muslim men but Quran does not say this. Read Dr. Asma Lamrabet’s article, “What Does The Quran Say About The Interfaith Marriage?“
According to Dr. Asma, some scholars justify why Muslim women must not marry non-Muslim men by saying that women are weaker creatures so that they may end up leaving Islam due to their non-Muslim husband. I believe it is misogynistic to refer to women as weaker creatures. Read Dr. Asma Lamrabet’s article, “What Does The Quran Say About The Interfaith Marriage?“
I believe God knew that some Muslims were going to oppress Muslim women. That is one more reason why God allowed for marriage between Muslim women and Christian/Jew men. Obviously, some Muslim men are forbidden on Muslim women because they have “bad” influence.
You should read “Imam’s Daughter” by Hannah Shah. It a true story that shows how an entire Muslim community did not help Hannah who was being raped by her father (an Imam). She later became a Christian and married a Christian. What she did is totally halal!
There is a well-known prophecy about how Islam will spread to West. In some areas of West, there are less Muslims and more Christians/Jews. Writer of “Imam’s Daughter” lived in England and her Muslim community allowed for her abuse; it was a small community so people found it easier not to protest against the Imam. Christians helped her. Thus the correct Islamic ruling is that Christian/Jew men are allowed on Muslim women through marriage. Islam will spread due to various factors including Muslim-only couples but also through interfaith marriages.
Quran only forbids marriage between a believer and a polytheist. Christians are considered believers; i.e., “closest to Muslims”. Quran has 1 or 2 verses that state that marriage between believers is allowed. These verses apply to both men and women.
Some scholars are misinterpreting these verses; and, teaching them in a narrow-minded way. How can these scholars say that Christians/Jew women are believers but Christian/Jew men are not? I have always wondered about this; and, I know that I am naturally inclined towards Christians and Jews besides Muslims. Read Dr. Asma Lamrabet’s article, “What Does The Quran Say About The Interfaith Marriage?“
Islam also says that rules of country also apply to things like marriage. So if an imam is unwilling to marry a Muslim woman to a Christian/Jew man due to advice offered by some scholars, then go to court to get wed. Choose a court that lets you. That is how you fight oppression.

Note that I mentioned Hannah Shah’s book “Imam’s Daughter” as a reference. It offers a real story about how mistreatment of some Muslim girls/ women can go undetected because it is taking place in a secretive manner. I really love the whole book; but, I disagreed with how she says that the Islam allows for men to beat their wives and to kill apostates. Both of these are controversial issues and my research shows that the Quran does not ask wives to be beaten or apostates to be punished. I think Hannah was referring to a wrong translation of the Quran or Ahadith. That’s not her fault because 1) her father and community were very abusive; and, 2) there are some confusing interpretations available. Read my blog post “How Do I Handle Different Data Collected From Different Islamic Sects?” Saying all this, it’s still an eye-opening experience to read this book.

Also note that in point 7 above I stated that the Muslims are not allowed to marry Polytheists. This makes sense! It makes more sense because it’s very tough to digest polytheism when one is monotheistic and a lot of Polythiests of India (Hindus) are currently trying to murder, abuse, and defame Muslims. Read Dr. Asma Lamrabet’s article, “What Does The Quran Say About The Interfaith Marriage?”. You will notice that even this scholar is debating that the verse about not marrying Polytheists is related to how Muslims were being abused by the Polytheists of that time. I really do not know too many details on this issue but for now I am content with my interpretation.

Now let us go back to the original topic. I moved to Ottawa just around 2 years ago; and, I have been mistreated/abused by around 5 Muslim employers. I am new here; and, I cannot believe that they attemped to mistreat me. I told whoever I could; I also made sure to get as far away as possible; and, I have also blocked some new mean Muslim friends and not just abusive Muslim employers. I am happy that I chose to publicly share some of these experiences here on my blog. See posts under category “Women Abuse“.

I am actually very glad that I read Craig’s tweet; and, researched the stuff. Reality is that the Quran is written for common folks; and, it can be easily interpreted by common folks especially when it comes to very basic needs like marriage. This is why I am now fully open to marrying among Christians or Jews. Truth is that I have been looking among the Muslims for a really long; and, I still have not met anyone compatible yet. And, I strongly feel that God guided me to say all this by finding out what exactly is going on inside some of the Muslim community of Ottawa.