09 October 2013

UK Imams agree to perform underage marriages

Religious leaders appeared willing to agree to perform underage marriages at some mosques across the UK, an ITV investigation has discovered.

Two undercover reporters called 56 mosques for Exposure to ask whether they would perform the marriage of a 14-year-old girl.

Two-thirds of those contacted refused to perform the marriage, and many of them made clear they found the request abhorrent. But 18 of the respondents spoken to agreed.

An undercover reporter called the Al Quba Mosque and Shahporan Islamic centre, in Manchester, posing as a single mother who wanted to have an Islamic marriage, known as a nikah, for her 14-year-old daughter. [ITV] Read more