Morocco: Women must not marry non-Muslim European men, says imam
Rabat, 25 June (AKI) - An imam in Morocco's eastern city of Fez has said that marriages between Moroccan women and European men who are not Muslims are forbidden under Islam.
Each summer in Morocco, a growing number of local women are reportedly marrying young European men.
"A Muslim woman may not marry an unbeliever while a Muslim man may marry Christian and Jewish women," he told Arabic satellite TV network al-Arabiya.
Moroccan women may however marry European men who convert to Islam shortly before the wedding, according to al-Tawil.
"Islam only required two witnesses for someone to be able to convert and such a marriage is valid," he said.
"If a European then decides to abandon Islam, Mohammed's words apply to him: those who renounce their own religion must be killed, as they are an apostate."
Each summer in Morocco, a growing number of local women are marrying young European men. Al-Tawil's position however contravenes the 2005 reforms of Moroccan family law (known as the Mudawana).
These reforms gave women greater freedom to choose their husbands and made it easier for a foreigner to marry a Moroccan woman.
Almost 6,000 such marriages were registered in Morocco in 2007, almost all of them in the summer - an almost six-fold increase over the previous decade.
A total 4,320 Moroccan men married foreign women last year.