Permissible, but…!
Dr. Nasr Fareed Waasil, former Mufti of Egypt, says that the Sharee‘ah has permitted marrying foreign women from the People of the Book, meaning, Jewish and Christian women. However, this marriage has to fulfill several conditions, the first of which is that such a woman has to be religiously and morally committed in a way that makes the man feel secure about his family and honor and about his children, and that they will not be subjected to anything that corrupts their religion and upbringing in the future. Moreover, the Muslim man who wants to marry a foreign woman has to take into consideration the woman's origins so he will not find himself harming his country and community unknowingly, especially in this age that is riddled with temptations, conspiracies and plots that aim at afflicting and weakening Islamic countries and spreading spies throughout the Islamic world and recruiting people of weak faith to harm the security and future of their peoples.
Dr. Nasr Fareed Waasil adds: A person who intends to marry a foreign woman has to think carefully and consider cautiously his future and the future of his children. Although the Sharee‘ah has permitted this kind of marriage and laid conditions for it, jurists have differed about it. Those who rejected it were considering the general welfare of the Muslims. Nowadays, we are in dire need of this general outlook because the number of Muslim spinsters has increased and, also, the children's upbringing has become very difficult and requires the constant presence of the mother. Consequently, if this mother is not a Muslim woman, we can never feel secure about their future or the establishment of the Islamic creed in their hearts and souls. All this makes us prefer marrying Muslim women to marrying non-Musilm ones, especially because the latter mostly results in problems of custodianship as a foreign wife may rebel against her life sooner or later, even if she bore it and tried to show her husband her contentment and coexistence with the new society. This will have a disastrous effect on the future of the children who will be lost between two conflicting parents who settle their disputes via courts and lawsuits.
Dr. Nasr Fareed Waasil advises every Muslim man who intends to marry a foreign, non-Muslim woman to think a hundred times before concluding such a marriage, and to especially think about the future of his children. He should take into consideration the necessity of them having a religious upbringing and teaching his children the values, teachings, and principles of Islam as well as the customs and traditions of his conservative community, which undoubtedly differ completely from others.
Dr. ‘Abdus-Saboor Shaaheen, a professor at Cairo University and caller to Islam, says: It is true that Islam does not forbid marriage to women of the People of the Book, but the Muslim must consider his goals behind this marriage. His goal should be the formation of a stable family and having righteous children who are committed to their religion. If this is his purpose for marriage, could it be achieved if he marries a foreign non-Muslim woman? Reality and logic say that this is impossible. In many cases, the Muslim wife fails to bring up religious generations that adhere to their religion because of the scarcity of awareness and the absence of correct religious concepts in many of the children in our time. If this is the case with the Muslim woman, what should we expect of a non-Muslim woman? Undoubtedly, the gap will widen and the loss will be deeper and more harmful. It is not only likely but also expected and in fact a reality that the child resulting from such a marriage will be completely isolated and kept away from his religion because the mother is the first and foremost person who is responsible for the children’s upbringing.
He wonders, sorrowfully: Where are the prophetic principles and directions which the Prophet, , ordered us to abide by when we intend to marry or choose a wife, or when we accept to give our daughters in marriage? Glorious Quranic verses stress the fact that a believing woman is better than a polytheist, even though she might please us. Also, the Prophet, , said: "A woman is married for four reasons: her beauty, her money, her noble ancestry and her religiousness. So, be victorious by [marrying] the religious woman - otherwise, you will be a loser."The Prophet, , also said: “If someone comes to you seeking marriage [to your daughter] and you approve of his religiousness and morals, marry him [to her]. If you do not do so, there will be a Fitnah [great trial] on earth and great corruption." These verses and Hadeeths are directed to women as well as men to show them that it is necessary to choose the religious spouse and prefer the religious person to the beautiful, wealthy or the powerful. However, the problem is that our choices have deviated from the principles upon which marriage should be based, and this is the reason behind the social and economic problems from which we suffer today. If our religion orders us to choose the religious and the stronger in faith, could this include non-Muslim women?
He adds, “We have to wake up before we find ourselves afflicted with a disaster and find that we have generations of youth who belong to non-Muslim countries and nationalities which may also be conflicting with Islam. There are wicked schemes to recruit our sons as a fifth column and make the new generations feel they belong more and are more faithful to the countries of the foreign mothers. All of this comes as part of the hostile campaign against Islam and Muslims. Should we not wake up before we find ourselves bringing up our enemies at our own hands?”