An invitation by a mosque in Germany for girls as young as thirteen to take part in a “preparatory marriage course,” has sparked a huge backlash, with centre-right and right-wing parties demanding an explanation.
The invitation was sent out by a mosque in the western city of Mannheim for an event entitled “Girls’ Evenings in the Mosque.” This is part of a series of seminars whose aim is to prepare “girls and women from the age of 13” for marriage. The flyer includes a quote by 10th-century Islamic scholar Al-Tabarani, according to which: “He who marries has completed half of his faith.”
Daily tabloid Bild furiously commented:
A course that is openly intended to prepare children for marriage. And all this in the middle of Germany!
The centre-right CDU party wants an investigation by the city council, saying that “marriage from the age of 13 has no place in Germany!”
The right-wing, anti-immigration party AfD is also outraged:
What we are observing here is not only a direct attack on the rights and freedoms of girls and women, but also clear proof of the failure of the migration and integration policy of the old parties.
Some conservative Islamic scholars argue that Islamic law permits child marriage, as the Quran specifies that girls can be married upon reaching maturity, which conservative scholars define as puberty.
As Bild reports, the mosque, the Omar Al-Faruq Centre, is located in the Neckarstadt-West district, which has one of the highest proportions of citizens with a migration background.
The centre said that the the aim of the seminars “is to strengthen the self-confidence of the participants and to discuss topics such as education, self-determination, sexuality and equal partnerships openly and critically.” They apologised for the invitation which they say was misleading, and stressed that they have never allowed for child marriages to take place in the mosque.
“Early marriage is neither the goal nor the content of the course,” Khalil Khalil, a board member of the Islamic Workers’ Association said. Nevertheless, the backlash has prompted the centre to postpone the event.
The Omar Al-Faruq Centre was monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency following the arrest of a member of the centre in 2017 in Iraq. The man had fought for the Islamic State terrorist organisation, and the imam of the mosque had been known for spreading radical salafist ideology. The mosque says it has since distanced itself from extremist ideology, and the BfV confirmed they are no longer monitoring the centre.
Mannheim was the scene of a gruesome attack in May, when an Afghan man, a failed asylum seeker, stabbed six people at an anti-Islamism rally. A 29-year-old policeman was taken to hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
