Australia: Muslim asylum-seeker from Myanmar jailed for marrying underage girl
“The man wedded the 14-year-old at an Islamic mosque in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park in September last year when he was 34.”
Has the mosque been investigated? Shut down? If not, why not? After all, the judge said: “To say that you come from a culture permissive of child marriage carries no weight and provides no mitigation as regards your offending.” So should Australia condone a mosque that approves of child marriage and conducts ceremonies to marry children?
“Myanmar asylum-seeker jailed for marrying underage Australian girl,” AFP, September 21, 2017:
SYDNEY (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE) – A Myanmar asylum-seeker was Thursday (Sept 21) sentenced to 18 months behind bars for marrying an underage girl in Australia in what is believed to be the nation’s first such prosecution.The man wedded the 14-year-old at an Islamic mosque in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park in September last year when he was 34.Parts of the ceremony were recorded and found on his mobile phone, the Victoria County Court was told, with the man giving the girl’s mother gold jewellery worth A$1,480 (S$1,600) as a dowry.“To say that you come from a culture permissive of child marriage carries no weight and provides no mitigation as regards your offending,” judge Lisa Hannan said at the sentencing hearing.“While religious tolerance and a firm embracement of multiculturalism are cornerstones of Australian society, it is not mitigatory to say your conduct was permitted within the rules of Islam or any other religion or belief system.“What you did was legally wrong and morally indefensible. The victim was entitled to a childhood you took from her.”…
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