Morocco: Morocco’s top body of Islamic scholars condemned on Sunday a Muslim theologian for issuing a religious decree that girls as young as nine years old can marry.
Morocco’s High Council of Ulemas “denounces the utilisation of religion to legitimise the marriage of nine-year-old girls”, it said in a statement.
Sheikh Muhammad Ben Abderrahman Al Maghraoui said earlier this month that Islam allowed the marriage of nine-year-old girls. Sheikh Maghraoui derided criticism of his claims as “part of a secular attack against the Islamic nation and its theologians”.
The High Council of Ulemas, which is presided over by Morocco King Muhammed VI, called Sheikh an ‘agitator and mystificator’. A Rabat-based lawyer, Mourad Bekkouri, has filed a complaint against Sheikh Maghraoui and his fatwa, which he said damages children’s human rights, and the family and criminal code by increasing the risk of rape.
AFP
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