Momofthree wrote:And a side note it was my understanding that only Muslim women have to marry a Muslim man but that Muslim men could marry Jewish, Christian or Muslim women. Can any Muslims on board let me know if I am wrong on that one?
I'm not a muslim but I hope I'm allowed to answer this based on my discussions with muslims, what I have read from the quran and legal websites.
From a PURELY religious perspective...
According to Q5:5, Muslim men are allowed to marry Jewish and Christian women.
And according to Q2:221, a woman is NOT allowed to marry an 'unbeliever'. Some view Christians and Jews as unbelievers and some don't. This is clearly stated in their tafsir (quran commentary)
http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option ... iew&id=192. However, it also mentions that the hadith "The Muslim man marries the Christian woman, but the Christian man does not marry the Muslim woman" has a stronger, authentic chain of narrators than the previous hadith.
But generally, a muslim woman marrying a christian/jew is strongly discouraged because according to Islam, men are maintainers of women and women are expected to be obedient to their husbands(Q4:34). So, having a christian/jew man might result in a woman having to follow christian/jew practices. And children might end up following the father's non-islamic practices.
From a PURELY Singapore's legal perspective...
Muslim men and women ARE legally allowed to marry from a different religion under the Singapore civil law. Under Singapore's Syariah law, a muslim can marry ONLY a muslim.