The elderly man asked in a solemn voice if she accepted Ubaydullah as her husband.
She replied yes.
He read some verses from the Koran. Ubaydullah gave her an item of jewelry. They were now wed.
Dilal’s family was outraged. Their only daughter had left them. There was talk of revenge.
The way Ubaydullah had ridden roughshod over the family, not asking for Dilal’s hand, led to discord in the Prophet’s Ummah. His lifestyle on the whole was a divisive theme within the group. He had been involved in many conflicts and scandals and left a trail of broken hearts in his wake. Many disliked the negative headlines he generated. He had thundered against the Norwegian state for demanding taxes from Muslims while at the same time engaging in war against Islam. The only problem was that he himself lived off that same state, which others paid taxes to, even as he was receiving 19,000 kroner, almost $3,000, a month in welfare payments after resigning from his job. His Facebook page was filled with outbursts against different groups. On the subject of Jews who felt threatened and expressed a desire for police protection, he wrote, “I’ll give them protection all right, inshallah. As soon as I pass the hunting exam and get my hands on an AK-47.”
Arguments and interpersonal conflicts threatened to destroy the unity of the group, and in early March 2013 Ubaydullah stepped down as leader. On Facebook he offered numerous reasons: “Among other things there has been too much focus on me personally and not enough on the ideology and message of the group.” He added that even though elements within the Prophet’s Ummah had clearly been opposed to his style of leadership and to him personally, they were all brothers in Islam, as long as they worked in accordance with the Koran.
Their reputation as righteous Muslims had been tarnished due to the Islamists’ philandering and casual attitude to marriage: a proposal, a few verses from the Koran, followed by cohabitation for a week, or a month or maybe two. Then everything ended in a straightforward divorce by the husband saying, Talaq—“I divorce”—three times.
One of the members who had been particularly opposed to this womanizing was Egzon, the leading Kosovo Albanian of the group. Dilal’s brothers had been good friends with him while growing up. He let them know how angry he was: “If it was my sister Ubaydullah had taken, I’d have killed him.”
He warned the members against these hasty marriages and quickie divorces.
“An Islamic marriage is a beautiful thing and is not to be treated as a Shia mutah marriage that is declared null and void in the face of a little adversity,” Egzon wrote, using his online moniker of Abu Ibrahim, and received a host of likes and hearts, as well as comments like “agree” and “not a disposable toy” in response.
Mutah, which Egzon referred to, literally means “pleasure,” and nikah al-mutah is used in Shia Islam to denote a temporary marriage that is not fixed for any particular period of time, long or short. The woman must be chaste but not necessarily a virgin. Some deem the practice religiously approved prostitution. The Prophet, who himself had twelve wives, was said to have been opposed to it, and fourteen centuries after his death the debate still continued in Oslo.
Several of the Islamists’ former girlfriends felt affronted, used, and fooled. Some, like Emira, had been secret lovers, led along by promises of marriage. Others, like Aisha, had wed in the Muslim way, without the knowledge of their parents and then been dumped. Some, like Hisham’s pregnant wife, had just been abandoned.
“Brothers! Treat your wives as you would want your sisters and daughters to be treated,” wrote Abu Khurosan, aka Arfan Bhatti. “And do not marry in secret, it is meant to be a joyful day to be shared, not kept under wraps.”
They called themselves the Prophet’s Ummah but followed the Prophet only when it suited them.
13
HALAL DATING
The classes with the Koran teacher grew ever more intense. Sundays were filled with death and the wrath of God. Bliss and salvation would come later.
Due to Mustafa’s increasing popularity, the Somali mothers had looked around for larger premises. They had managed to borrow Rykkinn recreation center, a house owned by the local authorities in Bærum. The Somali Women’s Association was listed as the group using the facilities. The contract explicitly stated that the premises were to be used for cultural activities and not religious or political purposes. The Women’s Association gambled that no one would check.
There were now around twenty students in the class. In addition, Mustafa tutored some of them at their homes in the afternoons. He gave lessons over the entire city now. His reputation was growing.
He drew students close. They admired him. He made them feel special when he turned his attention to them, one after the other, and picked holes in their pronunciation of Arabic words. He repeated himself constantly. Now and again someone had to stay behind after the lesson because Mustafa had been unhappy with a recital. The two of them would then practice alone.
Those selected felt fortunate.
“Just think, he’s taking the time to read with me on my own,” a girl said before her extra lesson.
When the others left, the two of them remained behind. A Koran teacher was the only male outside of a family member who could be alone with a young girl without rumors starting.
Ayan was among the most dedicated of students. Besides the Koran recitations, she read about the Syrian rebel force Jabhat al-Nusra. She watched what the group had posted and viewed videos of Assad’s assaults. She excelled in fasting and prayer, covering up and virtue. But what really interested her was something quite different: getting a boyfriend.
Salafism required that a woman wait to be set up with someone, and that was difficult. But online she was free. She added a video to her YouTube playlist called Halal Dating.
