Comment about recent update written by Dr. Pipes

Submitted by Straight_Talk_Luigi (United States), Aug 23, 2008 at 15:50

Dr. Pipes wrote:
"This kind of marriage, between Moroccan women and European men, is forbidden by the Koran and the Sunna. A Muslim woman may not marry an unbeliever while a Muslim man may marry Christian and Jewish women."

If the European men convert to Islam, that changes everything, he went on; then, Moroccan women may marry them. "Islam only requires two witnesses for someone to be able to convert and [then] such a marriage is valid." But this is not to be undertaken lightly: "If a European then decides to abandon Islam, Muhammad's words apply to him: those who renounce their own religion must be killed, as they are apostates."

I thought this was an interesting excerpt.

In the Catholic Church the official teaching is that if a Catholic marries a non-Catholic, the children must be raised Catholic, regardless of which sex the Catholic spouse is.

I think the difference with Shiek al-Tawil's view on Muslim marriages is pure, plain and simple: It's just another aggressive way to spread the Islamic faith. The theory is that eventually, all other religions will be diluted out via marriage to Islam, among the other means of spreading the faith from peaceful da'wa to terrorism.

I suppose you could make the same argument of substance for the Catholic faith, except that the Church has a dim view on a Catholic marrying a man or woman who is not baptized. Also, Mr. Tawil feels that it is important enough for a man to be killed over it he changes his mind. Punishment by death isn't something that the Church accepts. In fact, it is murder.

The different view promoted by Sheik al-Tawil regarding the rules for Muslim women and Muslim men can also be attributed to biology and statistics. If there is to be any change, the woman will be the one making the change. I would say this is because historically and traditionally, men take the leading role in the relationship. That is why we see radical shieks like Mr. al-Tawil promote everything possible (presumably) to see that a Muslim woman doesn't leave her Islamic faith, even in marriage to someone of a different religion.

Ironically, this type of tight control can backfire. I can think of one case off the top of my head where a Christian woman married a Muslim man from Iran and raised the child Christian behind his back.

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