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Sharia Law: 41-Year-Old Man Receives Measly Fine After Marrying 11-Year-Old

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If you need more evidence that the fundamentalist Islamic justice system known as Sharia law is incompatible with civilized society, read on.

Last month, a 41-year-old Malaysian man named Che Abdul Karim Che Abdul Hamid took as his bride an 11-year-old girl, The Guardian reported.

Hamid and the young girl were wed at a mosque just over the border in Thailand.

A Sharia court in the northern Malaysian state of Kelantan brought charges against Hamid — but not for marrying a child, which is perfectly legal under the Islamic law.

No, Hamid was charged with polygamy without permission. You see, he already has two other wives, and one of them complained to police about his third.

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He also got in hot water for conducting the marriage without the court’s permission.

On Monday, Hamid was found guilty of violating Sections 19 and 124 of the state’s Islamic family law.

Judge Mohd Surbaineey Hussain could have sentenced him to six months in prison.

Do you think an adult who marries an 11-year-old girl should go to prison?

Instead, Hamid was hit with a fine of 900 Malaysian ringgit — $224 in U.S. dollars — for each offense.

It’s disturbing to think about a society where the only penalty for taking an 11-year-old girl as your third wife is having to fork over 450 bucks.

Hamid told authorities he had the permission of the girl’s parents to marry her. However, an investigation found that the 11-year-old’s mother “had asked for the marriage to be consummated only when she turned 16, until which time it was agreed she would remain at home,” The Guardian reported.

This little girl is hardly alone. The report said there were at least 15,000 child brides in Malaysia in 2010.

Sadly, it’s far from the worst offender. According to the international group Girls Not Brides, more than 15 million women in India were married before their 18th birthday. Bangladesh ranked second at 4.5 million, followed by Nigeria at 3.6 million.

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The countries with the highest rates of child marriage are Niger (76 percent), Central African Republic (68 percent), Chad (67 percent) and Bangladesh (59 percent).

It’s long past time for the world to stop tolerating the horrific practice of grown men marrying little girls, no matter what Sharia law says about it.

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Todd Windsor is a senior story editor at The Western Journal. He has worked as an editor or reporter in news and sports for more than 30 years.
Todd Windsor is a senior story editor at The Western Journal. He was born in Baltimore and grew up in Maryland. He graduated from the University of Miami (he dreams of wearing the turnover chain) and has worked as an editor and reporter in news and sports for more than 30 years. Todd started at The Miami News (defunct) and went on to work at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., the St. Petersburg (now Tampa Bay) Times, The Baltimore Sun and Space News before joining Liftable Media in 2016. He and his beautiful wife have two amazing daughters and a very old Beagle.
Birthplace
Baltimore
Education
Bachelor of Science from the University of Miami
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Media, Sports




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