A Turkish cleric supports marriages between children and adults – but others in the country slam such unions as child rape.

Nureddin Yildiz, 58, president of the Social Fabric Foundation, said Jan. 10 that Islam imposes no age restrictions for marriages, Central European News reported.

“Children can even marry before puberty,” he said. “There can be marriages between children or between a child and an adult. For example, a marriage between a 7-year-old girl and a 25-year-old man, or a 7-year-old boy with a 25-year-old woman. There are no inconveniences preventing their marriage.”

Yildiz’s Islamic group in Istanbul primarily focuses on family and education issues.

“For Muslims who believe the Quran, there is nothing such as an age limit for marrying. There aren’t any obstacles for marrying at 10, 7 or 6,” he added.

His proposal was harshly rebuked by the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP.

“The statement made by that individual clearly incites child rape,” said party lawmaker Nur Serter, CEN reported. “There is no other understanding. You cannot marry a 6-year-old child. You can only rape that child. I call on the foundation to remove that individual from his position.”

Serter and another CHP lawmaker, Aylin Nazliaka, and other officials filed a criminal complaint in Ankara against the cleric, according to Today’s Zaman, a Turkish news organization.

“We have seen many conservative and authoritarian initiatives with remarks such as ‘pregnant women shouldn’t walk in the streets,’” Nazliaka said, CEN reported. “Now Yildiz says women shouldn’t work, there shouldn’t be anchorwomen on TV screens, and 6-year-olds can marry. These individuals are trying to impose on society their psychopathic views by using religion.”

Nazliaka said the Turkish Statistics Institute’s statistics show that there have been 181,000 child marriages in Turkey in the last four years. In 2013, girls between the ages of 15 and 17 also gave birth to 20,374 babies.

After the backlash, Yildiz tweeted that he did not mean that 6-year-olds can consummate a marriage – only that their marriages can be arranged with their parents’ approval, Today’s Zaman reported.