Muslim Scholars Slam Charbel over Civil Marriage Approval
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The Committee of Muslim Scholars lashed out on Friday at Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel after he signed last month the civil marriage certificate of Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish.
The scholars considered in a statement inking the certificate a “clear violation of the constitution, the laws of personal affairs and all the laws that are linked to the matter.”
The committee called on the minister to cancel his decision as it “threatens the Muslim family and contradicts the law.”
The statement also called on Muslim Spiritual leaders to confront the decision, describing it as “dangerous.”
It also called on scholars to file an appeal before the competent judiciary and to inform the public during Friday's sermon to warn the people of the threats imposed by such a decision.
In April, Charbel signed the civil marriage certificate of Succariyeh and Darwish, which is the first civil marriage registered in the records of the Directorate General for Personal Affairs in Lebanon.
Following the spread of the news, President Michel Suleiman congratulated the couple via Twitter over the official registration of their civil marriage.
The Lebanese Supreme Council in the Ministry of Justice took an unanimous decision in February to consider legal all civil marriages conducted in Lebanon by people that do not have any religious affiliation.
Succariyeh and Darwish announced in January they had wed as a secular couple by having their religious sects legally struck from their family registers under an article dating from the 1936 French mandate.
Suleiman has since lobbied for a civil marriage law as a "very important step in eradicating sectarianism and solidifying national unity."
Meanwhile, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani rejected it.
Qabbani issued a fatwa against moves to legalize civil marriages inside the country, where couples of different faiths have to travel abroad to tie the knot.
03 May 2013, 12:37
221
to all you so called Scholars, religion is a personal thing that you can not impose on others ,..if a person choose to get married in civil ceremony then it is his/her right.
03 May 2013, 18:14
16
It is about money and power! They want to control us from the day we are born to the day we die and in the process milk us.
03 May 2013, 12:58
00
Muslim scholars? Shhhh.... We dont care what you think. Nobody wants to know what you think. I'm muslim.
03 May 2013, 13:18
215
I wouldn't call them retards. I'd just state that they are living in the 15th Century whilst the rest of the country is well into the 21st.
03 May 2013, 16:57
25
i repeat: religious people mixing with politics are just retards... whatever their religion and YES i am a racist against any religion that take people backwards...
the country is in such a state precisely because all the religious people maintain their sheep under their control and manipulate them by making them fear the other religions... so yes, religions are the root of all the lebanese problems....
03 May 2013, 17:37
05
Peace- I think rodzil called you a racist because you use the word "muslim" instead of "religious figures" in your comment.
rodzil- the article is about muslim scholars rejecting civil marriage and that’s why he made his comments. Peace hates all religious figures and religions equally. And no peace and I are not the same person (It’s pretty much a guarantee that someone will state that).
03 May 2013, 17:55
13
correct lebanonfirst: the article is about muslim scholars, i would have said the same thing if it was about christian scholars...
and to make it clear i believe in God but not in religions!
03 May 2013, 13:33
213
religious doctrine is a dying breed - it's because real love is breaking all barriers
03 May 2013, 13:36
04
The question is, what will happen to them when they die? will they bury them in moslem/chirstian/druze/whatever cemetery or a new one for this new 'sect'?
03 May 2013, 14:51
16
i wouldn't think they care ...cremate and splash the ashes in the wind..
03 May 2013, 14:34
08
This is not an issue of religion...it's an issue of control...more like loosing control!
03 May 2013, 15:03
19
these scholars are wrong, so are Christian priests, and the like.
religion is not by force, it is by conviction.
this is also where sincere politicians are known: from all of our politicians, only the president Michel Suleiman and Saad Hariri voiced their support loud and clear. all the others caved in.
03 May 2013, 15:15
00
I agree with the1Phoenix. My dad used to say the khouri opened his dkan. All these dkakeen are still open and pray on simple people's minds and emotions to stay alive. These dkakeen are very profitable where the cost of material is zero (god and angles and other farry stuff) so it is all profits!!! They are smart and will not allow these dkan to be closed.
03 May 2013, 15:18
25
@Muslim Scholars, move to Iran or KSA and practice your outdated, archaic, inhumane slavery principals to your heart's content there. you're not welcome in the Lebanon!
03 May 2013, 16:50
07
The state has no business in your bedroom. If people want to get married civil, the state shouldn't have the right to stop you.
03 May 2013, 16:57
06
Yes for civil Marriage, Everyone is free to get married the way he want,,,,,inchallah the Zimbabwe way......
03 May 2013, 16:57
05
none of the clergy in Lebanon really want civil marriage because they know that they would lose their influence over the everyday affairs of the citizens of Lebanon. Actually, that would be much better off for us since political differences seem to be religious in nature also.
03 May 2013, 17:31
18
A man and a woman who love each other are the only conditions to marriage. Religion or politics have no right to object or interfer to such a union! This is God's commandent!
A state that forbids it's citizens from marriage based on their religion is no state at all!
03 May 2013, 18:00
06
and especilally in islam before those "scholars" took over the religion to their own profit, marriage was very very simple! it takes only two witnesses and the vows of the groom and bride and they are married! no need for all these religious bling bling....
04 May 2013, 08:09
02
the problem is not with the concept. the problem is:
- for clerics of all confessions (actually all of them came out against civil marriage, whether they be sunnis, shia, maronite,...): with civil marriage, they lose mainly a large income, as well as control over people. they can no more have a say in divorce,...
- for politicians of all sides: they exist because of sectarianism. most of them would not be elected as they are sectarian to the root.
actually this is the first step to abolish sectarianism and eliminate all those that profess it.
04 May 2013, 00:08
10
I can't wait for the day Lebanon signs gay marriage into law to hear what these people have to say. And believe me when I say, the day will come, some day in the future, but it will come.
04 May 2013, 00:11
03
Also, I'd like to remind everyone that the UK allowed civil marriages in 1875, just so you how far back we are.
04 May 2013, 02:13
31
I assume these are Sunni scholars. I therefore also assume they are as corrupt as the rest of the Sunni establishment which cooperates in the confessional system that condemns Muslims to inferior status (last election: March 8 got 55% of the vote and 45% of the seats, March 14 got 45% of the vote and 55% of the seats). I won's speculate about this Sunni establishment's status as Muslims assuming that Noam Chomsky and others are right to say that Shias in Lebanon are, on their own, more than half the population, which would make them the special target of the racism of the confessional arrangement.
04 May 2013, 03:27
00
Dear "Scholars"
Your days are numbered. A secular Lebanon will arise from the ashes that you have helped instigate. You WILL be held accountable. You WILL pay the consequences in a secular court of law very soon. Good luck in jail one day, you terrible backwards people who leech off the state.
We are legion
-Anonymouse Secular Humanist
04 May 2013, 10:47
00
congratulations!
Finally it seems that this forum has at last found a topic where most commentator agree upon. I would also wish the language used to be more intelligent and less testosterone profanities with bad humour.
05 May 2013, 00:21
00
The wahabiits and salafists control even the muslim schoolars in Lebanon nowadays. Every moderate muslim and christian knows that religion does not come by force.
Just look at thte saudis that go abroad. They totally stop abiding by their religious rules. Same when it comes to the iranians.
Everything put on people by force is doomed to lose.
If your religion is strong, it will survive not being "forced" into peoples lifes.
