ASSOCIATED PRESS: RABAT, Morocco — Moroccan authorities have ordered the closure of dozens of schools and a Web site run by a Muslim religious leader who argued that girls as young as 9 could marry, local media reported Friday.
Sheik Mohammed Ben Abderahman al-Maghraoui had issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, on his Web site saying it was lawful for a Muslim man to marry a 9-year-old girl because Islam's Prophet Mohammed had done so.
Moroccan law, however, sets 18 as the minimum age for women to marry, and the Council of the Oulemas — the country's highest religious authority — denounced al-Maghraoui as an "agitator."
"What the Prophet can do is not open to ordinary Muslims," said lawyer Mourad El Bekkouri, who filed a legal complaint this month asking "the king's prosecutor to sue al-Maghraoui for promoting pedophilia and rape."
Government officials said at least three dozen Quranic schools would be shut, according to local media on Friday. Moroccan Sheik Hushed for Letting 9-Year-olds Wed >>> | September 26, 2008
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