m-

maybe this will alleviate your fears about how blindly catholics are following the vatican's guidelines.

--raf*

I've had a look at the article and the Vatican seems to be giving some pretty good practical advice regarding non-Muslim/Western women marrying Muslim men. They typically are in for a big shock if they marry in the West and then move back to Iran or wherever.

Well looks like the pool of prospective husbands for Muslim women might get even smaller now.

IIRC, sharia already forbids Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men.

BTW, not, I suppose, that it matters, but this story is about six months old.

sharia already forbids Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men

so THAT'S why my advances never work on veiled vixens!

*note: previous comment is very much a joke in bad taste.

Anon
- Was hardly disputing the quality of the advice. If anything I support it resoundingly.
- Sharia does NOT expressely forbid a Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim man and the issue is still subject to some controversey. (See Egyptian blogger/Azhar student who was imnprisoned for stating precisely that, go to Miss Mabrouk)
- Your supposition is right, why raise it in the first place? The report is actually more than a year old (this is 2005 anon) but had been re-ignited in the past two days in Italy and has been widely reported in the press hence the posting of dated article for provenance.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1898451,00.html

raf-

As a devout Muslim, I would settle for nothing less than a devout Catholic.

Sharia does NOT expressely forbid a Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim man and the issue is still subject to some controversey. (See Egyptian blogger/Azhar student who was imnprisoned for stating precisely that, go to Miss Mabrouk)

Do you have a cite for this? Because I don't believe it to be correct. Everything I've seen suggests that he was arrested after making some extremely inflamatory posts after some riots in Alexandria near his home. Here's a partial description of his post.

He cussed Islam and the Prophet and he also described us as "cattle".

http://www.manalaa.net/node/4475

Do you have a sight, Meph, for the proposition that Sharia does not forbid a Muslim woman marrying a non-Muslim man? AFAIK, that's a pretty standard reading (though a rule quite often breached, no doubt.) Here's an example.

Question: Please let me know if a new Muslim female convert must divorce her husband when she accepts Islam
Response By: Muhammad Al-Hanooti
Responded On: Friday, October 24, 2003 1:30 PM
Response: Before a marriage occurs it is not allowed for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim man, but if a woman reverts to Islam after marriage, she has the right to wait for sometime to evaluate whether her husband will take on Islam or not.

http://www.masnet.org/fatwa.asp

AFAIK, the Muslim American Society is not neo-salafi at all but is actually relatively liberal.

-He was imprisoned for that AMONGST OTHER THINGS, if it must be spelled out.

- The prohibition in the Quran is for Muslim women not to marry unbelievers, i.e people of non-Abrahamic faiths. That prohibition still stands for Muslim men who wish to marry Non-Jewish or non-Christian women. "Do not marry unbelieving women until they believe. A slave woman who believes is better than an unbelieving woman, even though she allures you.... Unbelievers beckon you to the Fire. But Allah beckons by His Grace to the garden of bliss and forgiveness. And He makes His signs clear to mankind, that they may receive admonition" (Qur'an 2:221).

- My statement that sharia does not EXPRESSELY forbid the marriage of Muslim women to non-Muslim men. That is the conclusion arrived at through the principle of omission and hence generalisation."Nor marry your girls to unbelievers until they believe. A man slave who believes is better than an unbeliever."
The hijab, another perceived unequivocal command, was also arrived at through the same route and controversey still surrounds that as well. If you consider sharia to be the sum of heavenly command, human postualtion and (generally male) consensus, then the forbidden status stands, along with others on hijab, the burka and the Wahabist prevention of shape suggesting abayas.

Feel free to browse the various cites (or sights) where the ayas are debated albeit never EXPRESSELY ruled upon in favour of the alliance.

He was imprisoned for that AMONGST OTHER THINGS, if it must be spelled out.

Have you seen a translation of the whole post that he wrote? I'd be really interested in reading it. It was supposed to be pretty bad!

I read his entire Arabic blog. He is an exuberant youth whose irrerevent approach to Islam and Egyptian politics was construed as a general desecration of the religion. That's no excuse to reject everything he said outright, nor to embrace it as a refreshing attack on the status quo. 'Pretty bad'is how the authorities reacted. His imprisonment will further polarise opinion and deny people the chance to look into statements he made that may dispel some of the cattle minded reluctance to question.