South Africa Mosque Holds First Interfaith Marriage
A controversial South African mosque has performed its first interfaith marriage between a Muslim woman and a Christian man, in a ceremony denounced by local Islamic leaders. The imam of the Cape Town mosque, which bills itself as pluralistic and gender-equal, is challenging the idea that Islam bans such marriages, in defiance of traditional teachings on the issue.
Imam Taj Hargey, who founded Cape Town’s “Open Mosque” last year, is calling for Muslim clergy to prove that marriages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men are not permissible given the Quranic acceptance of marriages between Muslim men and women of other religions.
“The reason why the Open Mosque allowed the historic occasion to occur is because in Islam, we either have gender equality or we don’t,” he told South Africa’s Eyewitness News on Monday.
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