UPDATE: As is not surprising given that its source was PressTV, this story has now been widely reported to be an Iranian propaganda fabrication: the Saudi cleric denies having said these things. The material about temporary marriage remains accurate, to the detriment of innumerable women in Iran and elsewhere.
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Shi’ites justify temporary marriage, mutah, by their reading of Qur’an 4:24:
And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you. Lawful unto you are all beyond those mentioned, so that ye seek them with your wealth in honest wedlock, not debauchery. And those of whom ye seek content (by marrying them), give unto them their portions as a duty. And there is no sin for you in what ye do by mutual agreement after the duty (hath been done). Lo! Allah is ever Knower, Wise.
They see in this marriage as something contracted by means of payment (“give them their portions”) for a specified time by mutual agreement.
But when a Sunni Muslim cleric calls for the practice in Syria, it becomes an egregious crime, since the Syrian jihadist rebels are fighting against the Iranian-backed Assad regime. Maybe the Iranians want all the Syrian temporary wives for themselves.
“Militants can marry Syrian women: Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia,” from PressTV, December 31 (thanks to EZ):
A hard-line Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia has recently issued a special religious decree that permits the militants in Syria to engage in short-term marriages with Syrian women.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Arifi said that the marriages between the foreign-backed militants and Syrian women will satisfy the militants” sexual desires and boost their determination in killing Syrians.
He added that the marriages, dubbed by him as “intercourse marriages,” can be with Syrian females as young as 14 years old.
He also promised “paradise” for those who marry the militants.
Arifi has issued similar decrees in the past in support of the violence in Syria.
He has also been organizing a fundraiser for the militant groups fighting Syrian government forces.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country as there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.