This is the kind of news that makes me sick to my stomach.

A Muslim judge in the Pakistani district of Muzaffargarh rules in favour of a group of Muslims who kidnapped and forcefully “converted” two Christian sisters to Islam. The two girls aged 10 and 13 were kidnapped June 26th.

The judge of the district of Muzaffargarh, Mian Muhammad Naeem ruled in favour of the Muslim criminals who kidnapped the children, stating that the Christian sisters “have converted in a legitimate manner to Islam”. Because of this the children cannot go home to their family. The judge upon request from the girl’s father for custody said the marriages had “validity”.

The sisters Saba Younas, aged 13, and her sister Anila Younas were kidnapped in the Punjab village of Chowk Munda whilst going to visit their uncle Khalid Raheel. The main perpetrator of the kidnappings is a Muhammad Arif Bajwa a fruit vendor who then gave the sisters to his friend Falak Sher Gill whom then went on to organise the marriage of the girls, the eldest “marrying” his son.

Falak Sher Gill and his son said the girls willingly converted to Islam and accepted the marriages.

A lot of the issue here is with Islamic ideology itself. The Koran for Muslims is an infallible copy of the “mother of books”, which has been beside Gods side for eternity and dictated to Muhammad via the Angel Gabriel. The laws in the Koran transcend time, i.e. they were applicable in the years of Muhammad, the year 2008 and every year to come – for all time!

Contained within the Koran is Sharia law, which states that in a court where Sharia is the law that you must have 4 male Muslim witnesses (Koran 24:13):

“Why did they not bring four witnesses to prove it? When they have not brought the witnesses, such men, in the sight of Allah, (stand forth) themselves as liars!”

The girls don’t appear to have fulfilled this requirement.

The girl’s conversion and supposed validity by the judge also invokes another key Islamic law – death for apostasy (the four major Sunni and the one major schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that a sane adult male apostate must be executed). If the girls were to go back to their family and continue with their Christian faith they should, according to Islamic law, be imprisoned or even executed. Islamic laws for apostasy differ for men and women, for once in Islam women get the upper hand as some schools of Islamic jurisprudence only require female apostates to be imprisoned.

What might strike some people as perverse are the ages of the girls (they are children) and what kind of culture (and religious ideology) permits marriages between children and between young girls and grown men. Well to answer that we can reference the following verse in the Koran (33:21):

“Surely in the Messenger of God you have a good example”

In accordance to my earlier explanation of the concept of the Koran, child marriages are acceptable because Muhammad (the exemplary figure all Muslim must strive to emulate) himself married a child, young Aisha at the age of 6 – the marriage being consummated when she was 9. In Islam, there is nothing more truthful than the infallible word of God and the example set by Muhammad.

The Catholic commission for justice and peace (NCJP) is reportedly pressing the issue, contesting the decision of the judge in the Multan high court and hoping to reunite the girls with their parents.