Muslim Woman Marries Christian Man

Has it ever happened ?

I think you might have to specify where you set the bar for the terms ‘Christian’ and ‘Muslim’; do non-observant folks from cultures where those religions dominate count? i.e. nominally Christian and Muslim?

A nominally Christian friend of mine has a nominally Muslim wife. They celebrate Christmas and Easter in a secular fashion, but I’m pretty sure that’s the extent of the role religion plays in either of their lives.

Sure. Just a few…Simo Zaric, a Bosnian Serb accused of war crimes in the Bosnian civil war had a Muslim wife (he used that to claim he couldn’t have committed atrocities against Muslims…it didn’t work).

Historically, Alfonso VI of Castile had a Muslim wife (who was baptized as a Christian, but I believe that was a condition he had), His daughter, Sancha, also married a man who was the great-great grandson of a Christian husband and a Muslim wife. This doesn’t seem to be entirely uncommon among the upper classes in medieval Spain.

Apparently it is quite a widespread practice, according to this article on interfaith marriage:

It is more common, and more condoned by Islamic law, for Muslim men to marry Christian women than vice versa, but there certainly are many instances of Muslim women with Christian husbands.

I am not an expert on this but I was baptized Lutheran and married a Muslim woman. I came to understand that if she married a non-Muslim her faith would no longer consider her a Muslim. I converted to Islam in the process. YMMV.

My daughters best friend has a muslim father and Catholic mother. She seemed to be raised muslim.

Islam allows the members of the three Revealed Religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) to intermarry. Saudi national law prohibits local Women (only) from marrying non-Muslims.

There are lots of examples. Perhaps most notably was the ex-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He was an Egyptian, a Christian and was married to a Jew. Frankly, I think he was genetically engineered for the job.

I think you mean Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan is from Ghana. Though actually I thought Boutros-Ghali was Coptic Christian not Muslim.

But as far as the OP is concerned Muslims marrying Christians is common (no less common than any other interfaith marriage), both now and an in the past. Though I understand the disadvatage for males is the same as for those joining the Jewish religon. In that a certain medical procedure is required :slight_smile:

To clarify. I understand that interfaith marriages within the Abrahamic religions are common. I’m also aware that the wife of a Muslim man doesn’t have to convert to Islam for his sake.

I have read however that the Koran forbids a Muslim woman from marrying outside Islam. If you read the post by Cooking with Gas You’ll see what I’m suspecting as the arrangement that allows a Muslim woman to marry a Christian. As long as he converts.

So what I’m looking for are there Muslim societies that look the other way when one of their women marries and lives with a non Muslim man ?

One of my co-workers is Muslim. She’s engaged to marry a Catholic man real soon. She took him to the mosque near where I live to meet the imam, and the imam said it was OK for her to marry him.

The main problem with that website is that it seems to assume that Arab-American = Muslim. Something like 60 percent are Christian, although I’d imagine that newer immigrants are predominantly Muslim. Unfortunately they can’t link to the original article.

However - Apostates have it hard.

Egyptian feminist forced to divorce

Ever, ever, or ever in the last, say, 100 years? Points you toward a book of History of the Spanish Reconquista

When my brother decided to marry his current squeeze, my mother wanted a shindig in her local church

He got out of it pretty neatly by saying : ‘But Ma, she is a Moslem’

It seems that she is, but about as observant as my brother, who might write C of E on a census.