Clerics at 18 mosques are caught agreeing to marry off girls of 14: Four imams investigated after undercover operation

Imams at 18 British mosques agreed to marry a 14-year-old girl

They were told by undercover reporters that the 'bride' did not consent

The legal age for marriage in the UK is 16 - the same for sexual consent - but under Islamic sharia law, girls can marry once they reach puberty

More than a dozen Muslim clerics have been caught agreeing to marry off girls as young as 14.

Four imams are now under investigation, after they offered to arrange the illegal ceremonies.

Undercover reporters, posing as the mother and brother of a 14-year-old, contacted 56 mosques across the country and asked clerics to perform an Islamic marriage ceremony, known as a nika.

Imams at 18 mosques agreed – including one who has advised the police.



The preacher was prepared to arrange the nika despite being told that the ‘bride’ was being forced to move in with a man against her wishes.

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Exposed: Khan Misbahi, preacher at Jamia Masjid Kanzul Imam Mosque near Leeds agreed to marry the pair

The revelations will raise questions about how prevalent underage marriage is in Britain.

Campaigners claim thousands of girls are forced into the illegal ceremonies every year, in a boom fuelled by the ‘moral blindness of cultural sensitivity’.

Such weddings are not recognised by UK law.



Marriages can only be officially registered if both parties are over 16, which is also the age of sexual consent.

However, under Islamic or sharia law, a girl can get married as soon as she reaches puberty.

One imam openly mocked English laws while speaking to reporters from ITV’s Exposure programme .

When told the girl did not want to get married, Mohammed Shahid Akhtar, of the Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif in Birmingham, replied: ‘She’s 14. By sharia, grace of God, she’s legal to get married.

‘Obviously Islam has made it easy for us. There is nothing against that. We’re doing it because it’s OK through Islam.’

ITV's Exposure undercover reporter posing as the mother of the girl. She visited 56 mosques and 18 agreed



'We're doing it because it's OK through Islam'

- Mohammed Shahid Akhtar, a cleric in Birmingham

He then revealed his contempt for English laws on marriage, referring to sharia law which allows men to have up to four wives.

‘You’ve got the kaffirs [non-believers], the law, the English people that ... you know, you can’t get married twice but, by the grace of god, we can get married four times,’ he said.

Akhtar’s Birmingham mosque – one of the UK’s largest with a capacity of 6,000 – has suspended him pending an investigation. It denies that any underage marriages have been carried out there.

Another cleric, Shams-ul-Huda Khan Misbahi, who preaches in Heckmondwike near Leeds, assured reporters that the marriage would be ‘real’. Despite being told that the girl had only met her future husband once, the cleric condoned making her move in with the man against her wishes, claiming ‘everything is jaiz’, meaning lawful.

Misbahi, who has previously spoken out against forced marriage and advised West Yorkshire police on community outreach, admitted that he would not be able to attain a UK wedding certificate, but added: ‘We’ll make everything OK by Islam. We’ll write their names down and put it in our records.’

The Jamia Masjid Kanzul Iman mosque said it had launched a ‘thorough investigation’ into his comments.

Angry: Assistant Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, here with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, blasted the schemes. He said: 'In this country, it is illegal, it is forbidden and no imam should be allowed to conduct the marriage of an underage child'

‘This organisation does not condone forced or underage marriages,’ it said in a statement.

Two other imams, at mosques in Manchester and Birmingham, are also under investigation after they were caught on camera agreeing to hold the ceremonies.

The Muslim Council of Britain’s Ibrahim Mogra said: ‘UK law does not allow the marriage of underage girls and that’s all that matters to us here. In this country, it is illegal, it is forbidden and no imam should be allowed to conduct the marriage of an underage child.’

The charity Karma Nirvana, which supports forced marriage victims, says it has helped with girls as young as eight. It receives more than 600 calls every month.

Founder Jasvinder Sanghera told the Sunday Times that the issue had become ‘wrapped up in this moral blindness of cultural sensitivity’.