Recently an HP commenter linked here – pointing out that it seemed to show Haitham Al Haddad recommending, in a slippery, ‘plausible deniability’ way, underage marriage/sex. The original has now been removed, but it showed Haddad at a meeting answering questions. He was asked whether there was a particular teaching in Islam about the right age to marry. Haddad said no, but went on to note that girls, in particular, should marry young. Here is a transcription I made of one section of the clip:
There are many laws in the country here that not Islamic – not Muslims– not Islamic laws – no – so if there is a way by .. to live avoiding those anti-Islamic laws then, and providing you don’t put yourself into troubles – yeah? – you should go for that choice –what can you do? Yeah, normally the younger is the better, the younger is the better – but you have to take into consideration the legal side.
Now – you could argue that Haddad was not encouraging people to do anything which might break the law. And you could also argue that a recipe I once saw in a mushroom cookbook which included the ingredient ’50 imaginary magic mushrooms’ was not encouraging people to take drugs.
Update: The video is now available with subtitles.
