What is the ruling on a Muslim studying in the West marrying a woman from the People of the Book?

The questioner : What is the ruling on a Muslim who is studying in the West marrying a woman from the People of the Book?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that the ruling in this matter is known in the text of the Qur'an: This makes it permissible, and this is the opinion of the majority of Muslim scholars in the past, and they agreed on it in the end. However, the ruling that is permissible by the Shari'ah is ... and is surrounded by factors that make it prohibited in some cases. I see that this type of marriage falls into this category. The reason for this goes back to the nature of the Muslims who marry women from the People of the Book on one hand, and to the nature of the women from the People of the Book on the other hand. I mean that these Muslims who go to those lands, the lands of disbelief and misguidance, are mostly, and we are not singling out a specific person or persons, mostly not protected by Islamic morals, nor even by the Islamic creed. If a person is stripped of anything, it is possible, regardless of anything else, except for the creed, because it is through the creed that one is saved from eternal abode in the Fire. As for what is below that, it is perfection for the human being. Many of these young men who go to those lands have not been educated in the correct Islamic culture, and perhaps it is permissible for me to say that they have not even been educated in the Islamic culture that is not correct, because they do not study Islam at all, whether what we call traditional Islam or the Islam based on the Book and the Sunnah. They study a type of scientific studies today, and then they go to those lands to complete their studies. So they are mostly not armed with this weapon of correct Islamic culture. It is rare for any of them to be characterized by correct Islamic morals, meaning living in a family atmosphere that still retains all Islamic customs. This is very rare in our lands. Therefore, when these young men go to those lands and want to add to themselves a wife from those lands, for example a Christian, as for a Jewish woman, they have brushed it aside and turned away and distanced themselves from thinking about marrying a Jewish woman, because the Jews have occupied a precious part of our Islamic lands. So this distinction was not based on knowledge, but on the current reality. What is the difference between Judaism and Christianity from the Islamic perspective? There is no difference at all. What is the difference between the Jews and the Christians in that they are all enemies of the Muslims, as the Lord of the Worlds said: And know the decision that was made to exonerate the Jews from the sin of killing and crucifying 'Isa (peace be upon him), which they claimed. So all of these are enemies of Islam; there is no difference at all between a Jewish woman and a Christian woman. But unfortunately, people still look at Christians with a different view than they look at Jews. These who go to those lands want to marry a Christian woman. First, this Christianity is not the description that Allah described when He said: Where are the chaste women today in the lands of disbelief? Corruption, lewdness, and fornication have spread there, and so on. I do not forget, and I was still a young man, perhaps forty years ago, that a Turkish officer who had fought in Romania during the time of the Turks would frequent my shop. They entered those lands in a battle that took place between the Muslims and the Romans. He said, "We entered some of the lands and stayed there for months. So he learned from some of the Christians there that it is the custom of the midwives in those lands that when the fetus first falls from the mother's womb, if the midwife sees that it is a girl, she breaks her virginity at that moment. Why? Because the society is entirely based on lewdness. So when the girl reaches the age of marriage and the young man marries her, she has already been taught beforehand that, in the Syrian expression, she has been 'used' since the moment she fell from her mother's womb. They find that acceptable and there is nothing wrong with it at all. So from where does this Muslim find this chaste Christian woman in a nation that has reached this nadir? He does not find her. And even if he finds her, and this is very rare, and the rare has no ruling, does he have this strong Muslim personality that helps him to attract her to him and to raise his children according to his religion and according to the principles of Islamic upbringing? Or will he leave the matter to her and she will raise her children and his children with European upbringing? We, without anything, raise our children in the lands of Islam with a non-Islamic upbringing, so how if a non-Muslim woman takes charge of this upbringing? For these reasons and for other reasons, we do not see that the Muslim should enjoy this ruling that Allah the Exalted has made permissible in the text of His Book, because the least that can be said is that the condition is that she be chaste, meaning modest and protected, and this is rare, and the rare has no ruling. And perhaps this extent is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.