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Don’t do it! Cardinal tells women who want to marry Muslims
Published: 06 March, 2009, 08:57
Edited: 24 September, 2009, 10:35
TAGS: Conflict, Religion, Scandal, Protest
In Portugal, a Catholic Church leader has caused offence by warning women to think twice before marrying a Muslim. The cardinal claims such weddings will only lead to problems.
Portugal may boast a socialist government but it does remain a largely conservative and Catholic country, where growing Muslim immigration has become a thorny issue for Lisbon's Catholic church.
Its leader, Cardinal Jose Policarpo has spoken out with advice for Portuguese women.
“Be careful with love,” he said. “Think twice about marrying a Muslim… Because such unions cause a whole host of problems, and even Allah can’t tell what might happen.”
This has caused a ruffle of controversy among Lisbon's Muslim community. Lisbon’s Imam Sheikh David says he would never dream of giving such advice to Muslims.
“I don't advise Muslims not to get married to a Christian woman just because she is a Christian,” he said. “No, I tell Muslim men, that you're getting married to a Christian women, so please respect her faith.”
Muslims in Lisbon say they do feel integrated in Portuguese society, but now they are worried Cardinal Policarpo's words could incite intolerance and discrimination.
Portugal is an 85 per cent Catholic nation and there are only around 40,000 Muslims in Portugal. Many are immigrants from North Africa.
The cardinal says dialogue is difficult with the Muslim community because “they think their truth is the only truth.”
Christians are defending the Cardinal.
Manuel Marujao, a spokesperson for the Episcopal Community in Lisbon said that the cardinal has given no more than just “realistic advice to be prudent and cautious about marrying people of different religion and culture” and for women “to be aware of how women are treated in Muslim society.”
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Christians know that in the next five or six years the european society will be overturned, so they shout to everybody: "Be careful". They have done the same thing for the divorce and the abortion and now they are practicing the same strategy for the biological testament. But it's ineffective. The reason has defied the superstition.
True love lies in the heart, not the faith. If love is there, so is respect for where the partner has come from. When there are kids, you would teach them values from both religions, and let them decide what they want and what they don't. The main element in marriage, whether someone between two religions or cultures is COMPROMISE. If this is gone, the relationship will eventually whither away, if not fast, then gradually but surely. This goes for the "like" couples as well.