Mosque in The Hague facilitates exploitative 'pleasure marriages'

A mosque in The Hague is willing to arrange short-term marriages between women who need money and men who will pay them for sex, a Swedish research program discovered. Such transactions are known as "pleasure marriages" and are considered to be prostitution and human trafficking, according to RTL.

The investigation found 20 different mosques in Sweden and at least one in The Hague that facilitate pleasure marriages. A woman pretending to be in need of money phoned imams at these locations, asking for help.

The imam at the mosque in The Hague, which is part of the Alcauther Foundation, agreed a marriage could be arranged. "I have a suggestion," he said. "How about me?" Then he offered her over 1,200 euros for a month of marriage.

Pleasure marriages are also known as "nikah mut'ah" and only occur among Shia Muslims, Muhsin Köktas, chairman of the Contact Body for Muslims and Government (CMO), told RTL. "I was surprised that this also occurs in Europe, and especially in the Netherlands," Köktas said.

He pointed out that such arrangements take advantage of vulnerable people. "As a CMO, we find it unacceptable that an imam and mosque are involved in this exploitation," he said. "We urgently ask those involved to stop this immediately and to combat any form of exploitation on religious grounds."

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) told RTL it was not aware that the mosque in The Hague had facilitated pleasure marriages. In the Netherlands, religious leaders like priests, rabbis and imams are prohibited from entering into a religious marriage without first participating in a civil marriage.