According to the newspaper, this type of forced marriage is rooted in local rural traditions to safeguard the honor of girls who are raped.

Moroccan penal code exempts a rapist from punishment if he agrees to marry his victim.

This is culture, not Islam, though clearly most Moroccans are Muslim. I’ve heard of the same practice in other Muslim countries where there is no such law on the books. It is (obviously) a brutal, disgusting, and unjust law. In 20+ years of practicing and learning about Islam I have never encountered anything that would support or condone such a law.

Seeing how far-right fundamentalists in the U.S. are currently twisting Christian ideas, and witnessing recent events with extreme fundamentalists in Israel, I guess I have to say I’m really not that surprised that such things exist.