Epigraph:
This day all good things have been made lawful for you. And the food of the People of the Book is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. And lawful for you are chaste believing women and chaste women from among those who were given the Book before you, when you give them their dowries, contracting valid marriage and not committing fornication nor taking secret paramours. (Al Quran 5:6)
Four far-right Jewish protesters have been arrested at the wedding of a Jewish-born woman who converted to Islam and an Arab Muslim man in Israel.
Several hundred demonstrators rallied outside the reception hall in Rishon LeZion on Sunday, amid high security.
The groom, Mahmoud Mansour, had sought a court order to try to stop the protest from taking place but failed.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has condemned the demonstrations against the couple’s union.
Supporters of the far-right Jewish Lehava group, who oppose the intermarriage of Arab Muslims and Jews, were granted permission to picket the wedding as long as they did not come within 200 metres of the wedding hall.
But four protesters were arrested for failing to follow police instructions, Israel’s Ynet News website reported.
A counter-demonstration of left-wing protesters was also staged in support of the couple’s marriage, with hundreds of police deployed to keep the two sets of demonstrators apart.
The bride, Morel Malka, and her husband invited 500 guests to celebrate their marriage on Sunday. Ms Malka, 23, had converted to Islam ahead of the ceremony.
“We live in true coexistence, and I don’t really care what people say,” Mr Mansour, 26, told Israel’s Channel 2 ahead of the wedding,
Judaism, like Christianity and Islam, bases its spirituality in human compassion: