ALGIERS, September 6 (IslamOnline.net) – Algerian mosque imams and minority sect leaders have added a voice to those calling for abolishing proposed amendments to the family Law of the Arab Maghreb Muslim country.

An Algerian Justice Ministry’s committee has put forward several amendments to the 1948-enacted Family Law.

But the amendments, to be put to vote in the parliament, have drawn deep controversy, as they rule out the role of wali (a woman’s guardian) in concluding marriage contracts and for a prior judicial consent for polygamy.

"These amendments, in principle, run counter to Shari’ah, as they are based on misunderstanding by a committee which has even no jurisdiction to take such a step," said a statement by imams of the capital, Algiers.

The statement, a copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net, said the committee conclusion that the Wali to seal the marriage contract is a social habit is a misleading claim.

"For this is an established part of marriage tenets in Islam," read the statement.

A guardian should be a relative Muslim male and is usually the father. Next to the father comes the closest male relative.

The order, according to many is: father, paternal grandfather, son, grandson, full brother, paternal half-brother, paternal uncle.

In a further step against these amendments, imams of the National Prayer Halls Society in Constantine, eastern Algeria, slammed the changes as un-Islamic.

"They are against the teachings of Islam, which say the marriage contracts of women without the guardian are null and void," said Al-Amin Al-Waley, the society’s secretary general.

Officials of almost all other prayer halls agree, hoping the amendments would be abolished.

Islamic parties, such as the Peace Movement Society and Nation Reform, had rejected the amendments, citing the Constitution which clearly stipulates that Islam is the official religion of the state.

Followers of the Ibadiya, a moderate Shiite mahdhab of Kharijite sect, also slammed the amendments, saying the Ibadi principles deem a marriage without a Wali nothing less than a "adultery".

According to the founder of the Ibadi rules, no wali makes the marriage contract invalid and the couple should be thus separated.

Sheikh Abdul Rahman Shayban, the chief of Algeria’s Muslim Scholars Association, had told IOL that a guardian is a must for a proper marriage contract, but is not required should a woman be a consenting adult and the man is known for his good manners and reputation.

The scholar added, however, that in case such criteria are not met, the woman's guardian "has every right to seek the marriage annulment unless she has given birth."

The syndicates of justices, lawyers and Islamic-oriented civil society organizations also joined the fray, saying no to the amendments.

Algerian Islamic parties believe the amendments came in response to a growing "foreign current" in the country meant to strip the society of its Arab and Islamic identity and to impose European secular values.