Marriage in God's/Allah's Plan

[A second update below, given new testimony in this tragic case]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains marriage this way:

"The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage."The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life."

God who created man out of love also calls him to love—the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love. Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: "And God blessed them, and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it'" (CCC, 1603, 1604).

The term "mutual love" is important, because the free consent of both parties is essential, and the success of such a union depends on their mutual respect for the dignity of the other.

In that regard, what is the Muslim view of marriage that allows the Islamic penal code demand the following?

Article 475 of the Moroccan penal code allows for the 'kidnapper' of a minor to marry his victim to escape prosecution, and it has been used to justify a traditional practice of making a rapist marry his victim to preserve the honour of the woman's family.

In particular, it was applied to a 16-year-old girl, whose family was pressured into it by court officials. The ensuing marriage would allow the rapist to evade his 10-year prison sentence, and although he balked initially, he only agreed to it when face with prison.

The family of the girl agreed to it because of the shame attached to rape, which makes it difficult for a girl who has been assaulted to find a husband. So there is the coalescence of family honour, a wider culture that values it, and a legal code that enables it. None of those three elements has any regard for marriage as the freely-chosen covenant between two mutually attracted people. And what is the result?

Amina complained to her mother that her husband was beating her repeatedly during the five months of marriage but that her mother counselled patience... [but that wore thin and resulted in] the suicide of Amina Filali, who swallowed rat poison on Saturday in protest.

At least there is an outcry of rage in Morocco, demanding a change in the code. But it is obvious that there will have to be a substantial cultural shift as well, so that family honour and feminine "virtue" are not fatally undermined by men behaving badly.

UPDATE: Robert Spencer explains the case to Michael Coren of SunNews:

 

UPDATE II: Amina's parents have just now come forward to reveal that their daughter said, with her dying breath, that she had not committed suicide but was forced to eat the poison -- but she didn't say by whom. Thus, her abusers have gotten away with rape, battery and murder.

Hassan Al Fillaly, Aminah's father, said he objected to his daughter’s marriage to the man who raped her at knife-point, but that he bowed to tribal pressure which puts pressure on a family's honor to be preserved. Under Moroccan law the rapist was granted immunity from prosecution by marrying his victim.

Well, tribal pressure is a fierce thing, and he must live with his acquiescence -- accomodation that cost his daughter her dignity, her hopes of marital happiness and, ultimately, her life.