Following the British coalition government’s launch of the consultation process to change the legal definition of marriage, the UK’s largest Muslim body on Mar 19 spoke out in support of Church leaders’ concerns.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said that it agreed with sentiments expressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury (in his recent address to the Council of Churches in Geneva), and by two senior Catholic leaders, Archbishop Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Peter Smith, in a letter read out to Catholic congregations, backed up by Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s recent letter to the Sunday Telegraph, in support of traditional marriage.
Speaking on Mar 19, Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the MCB, said: “Whilst we remain opposed to all forms of discrimination – including homophobia – redefining the meaning of marriage is in our opinion unnecessary and unhelpful. With the advent of civil partnerships, both homosexual and heterosexual couples now have equal rights in the eyes of the law. Therefore, in our view the case to change the definition of marriage, as accepted throughout time and across cultures, is strikingly weak.”
“Like other Abrahamic faiths, marriage in Islam is defined as a union between a man and a woman. So while, the state has accommodated for gay couples, such unions will not be blessed as marriage by the Islamic institutions.”