Marriage between a Muslim Man and a Christian Woman in a Church

Q: I am a teacher and an imam of congregational prayer in one of our local masjids. Sometime people ask me to make a marriage contract between Muslim men and Christian women and I do that according to shar'. Recently I had been invited to attend a marriage contract ceremony between a Muslim man and a religious Christian girl. He wanted the contract to be recited in the masjid. The girl did not refuse that, but asked the man to go, after that, with her to make their marriage rites in a church according to Christians. The man refused that but she begged him to just attend there without doing any of their rites along with the attendance of their two families and a representative of the Muslims’ community (the imam).

Q1: Am I allowed after concluding the shar‘i contract in our masjid to just attend the church as a representative of the Muslims community? Or can I deliver a speech there about harmony among different religions?

Q2: The young man is totally against going to the church without me. In general, are he and his family allowed to just attend the church without participating in their worshiping rites?

A: For a Muslim man it is problematic to permanently marry a Christian or Jewish girl, while there is no harm in marrying them temporarily provided that the marriage contract is made in accordance with the Islamic law by the agreement of both parties. After the marriage is concluded according to the correct Islamic method, making it again pursuant to Christian teachings is meaningless. However, there is no objection to going to a church and holding artificial marriage ceremonies according to their method, in itself.