Lebanese Court Orders Muslims to Learn Quran Verses About Virgin Mary

TEL AVIV — In a highly unusual ruling, a judge in Lebanon has ordered three Muslim men to learn passages from the Quran by heart that praise and glorify the Virgin Mary after they were found guilty of insulting the religious figure, according to a report by the Al Arabiya television network. Lebanese law allows for prison sentences on charges of insulting religions, but the judge decided instead to order the three to learn the relevant Quranic passages.

According to the report, the unusual punishment got a positive response from the Lebanese public and even received support from Lebanon’s Muslim Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his predecessor Najib Miqati. Both wrote that the sentence is evidence of the judge’s wisdom because her decision gave preference to the teaching of shared values over punishment.

Other ministers also praised the judge and noted that beyond the cultural nature of the ruling, “It is a precedent-setting ruling that opens a window for other creative judgements in order to solve social problems and deal with religious extremism.”

When the three appeared before the judge Jocelyne Mata in the city of Amshit located 37 kilometers north of the capital of Beirut, Mata decided that the three must learn the verses “to learn the values of tolerance in the religion of Islam and Islam’s love for the virgin. The law is a school and it can’t be reduced just to prisons.” READ MORE