Careful, Dr. Pipes...
Reader comment on item: Bridegrooms Who Marry in Fear

Submitted by Amjad M. Khan (United States), Aug 24, 2006 at 13:32

Dr. Pipes:

In this weblog entry, you obviously balk at the notion of arranged marriages in Islam (all of which seem "forced" by your logic). In your view, such marriages pose an obstacle to the "successful integration of Muslims in Western countries." This begs the obvious question: what, in your view, should change about Islamic marriage practices for Muslims in Western countries to integrate successfully in Western countries? Dating, free mingling of sexes, prostitution? Perhaps the successful integration of Muslims in Western countries will come when such Muslims have divorce rates at Western levels: over 50%.

I wonder also what's prompted you to have "grown accustomed to the idea of Muslim girls being forced into marriage"? One obscure study and one newspaper article? A few Western films?

Scholars rely on scholarship to advance serious arguments. Polemicists rely on isolated journalistic accounts to do the same.

If your intention is to attack marriage practices in Islam, or to draw gross generalizations from such practices, you can at least do it with the care of a scholar.

Respectfully,

Amjad M. Khan

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Daniel Pipes replies:

I don't know that I expressed an opinion on arranged marriages. But yes, I do acknowledge a strong antipathy to forced marriages. The difference is obvious: #1 is with the consent of both those married, #2 is without the consent of at least one of them.

As for my sentence, "We're all accustomed to the idea of Muslim girls, even those living in the West, being forced into marriage": that accustoming results not from a single study or newspaper article but a barrage of information on this topic. One place to start would be the voluminous writings of the Norwegian writer, "Fjordman."