No surprise here. Child marriage has abundant attestation in Islamic tradition and law.
Turkey’s directorate of religious affairs (Diyanet) said in January 2018 that under Islamic law, girls as young as nine can marry.
“Islam has no age barrier in marriage and Muslims have no apology for those who refuse to accept this” — Ishaq Akintola, professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern, Nigeria
“There is no minimum marriage age for either men or women in Islamic law. The law in many countries permits girls to marry only from the age of 18. This is arbitrary legislation, not Islamic law.” — Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-‘Ubeidi, Iraqi expert on Islamic law
There is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.” — Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council
“Islam does not forbid marriage of young children.” — Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology
These authorities say these things because hadiths that Muslims consider authentic record that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the marriage:
“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).
Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old.
Marrying young girls was not all that unusual for its time, but because in Islam Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct (cf. Qur’an 33:21), he is considered exemplary in this unto today. And so in April 2011, the Bangladesh Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini declared that those trying to pass a law banning child marriage in that country were putting Muhammad in a bad light: “Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, [putting] the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge.” He added a threat: “Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women.” The Mufti said that 200,000 jihadists were ready to sacrifice their lives for any law restricting child marriage.
Likewise the influential website Islamonline.com in December 2010 justified child marriage by invoking not only Muhammad’s example, but the Qur’an as well:
The Noble Qur’an has also mentioned the waiting period [i.e. for a divorced wife to remarry] for the wife who has not yet menstruated, saying: “And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women, if you doubt, then their period is three months, and [also for] those who have not menstruated” [Qur’an 65:4]. Since this is not negated later, we can take from this verse that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl. The Qur’an is not like the books of jurisprudence which mention what the implications of things are, even if they are prohibited. It is true that the prophet entered into a marriage contract with A’isha when she was six years old, however he did not have sex with her until she was nine years old, according to al-Bukhari.
Other countries make Muhammad’s example the basis of their laws regarding the legal marriageable age for girls. Article 1041 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that girls can be engaged before the age of nine, and married at nine: “Marriage before puberty (nine full lunar years for girls) is prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission of the guardian is valid provided that the interests of the ward are duly observed.”
According to Amir Taheri in The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (pp. 90-91), Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini himself married a ten-year-old girl when he was twenty-eight. Khomeini called marriage to a prepubescent girl “a divine blessing,” and advised the faithful to give their own daughters away accordingly: “Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house.” When he took power in Iran, he lowered the legal marriageable age of girls to nine, in accord with Muhammad’s example.
“Katsina’s child law sets adult age at 18, but says those younger can marry,” by Abubakar Ahmadu Maishanu, Premium Times, December 5, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
The Katsina State House of Assembly has passed a bill to protect children from abuse, but says the legislation will not regulate the age of marriage.
The decision means although the Child Right Protection Bill defines a child as a person below the age of 18, people who should by that definition be considered underage can still marry.
In what appears a contradiction, the sponsors of the bill say it is meant to guarantee children’s right to education and check underage marriage, cruelty and sexual assault against children….
According to a United Nations survey, 43 per cent of Nigerian girls are married before they are 18. The problem of early marriage is particularly endemic in the North East and North West regions.
With more than 80 per cent of its girls married off before their 18th birthday, Katsina State has one of the highest prevalence of child marriage and street children (Almajiri) in the country….
The first article of the bill, which awaits the assent of the governor to become law, gives the Sharia law supremacy over the child protection law. It says the Sharia will take precedence if any matter in the new law concerning a Muslim child goes against the religious law. Islam is the predominant religion in Katsina….
somehistory says
It is not “marriage.” it is bondage to being raped as often as the rapist chooses. It can mean death quickly, or it can be torture and death over the course of a long time…however long the child can withstand the demonic treatment.
As long as it is called “marriage,” it is given credibility. As long as moslims get to choose how children are treated, children will be horribly mistreated, abused and murdered.
Jesus Christ had some things to say about how children should be treated. Millstones and drowning are easy compared to what is to come when these sons of satan are standing before The Divine Judgment.
John Spielman says
Islam is of the devil and muhammed, being an unrepentant pedophile pervert, committed statutory RAPE on little Aisha beginning when she was only 9 y/o
( sahih Bukhari 58 /236)
And because muslims consider muhammed as sinless and the perfect man of Islam worthy of imitation, countless children have been subject to child rape by 50y/o Muslim men imitating muhammed
revereridesagain says
Do see if you can persuade “HIM” to give those little girls and abused women a bit of a break here on Earth before “HE” punishes their wicked rapists out of sight of all. Unless you believe that old tale about the blessed in Heaven sitting around laughing at the tortured in Hell. I always thought that was a nice touch for the All-Loving, but I understand it is out of favor.
I know you won’t forgive my mortal sin of making fun of the Imaginary Friend but the smug assertion that those Muslim males — there are no Muslim “men” — will get their punishment in some other dimension which we will never see tends to annoy me as a woman. Just a little teensy bit. But I know being raped and brutalized and robbed of all joy for life is nothing compared to the pain of having to read slight to the Imaginary MALE GODS.
It’s no use telling you Christians how smug you are or the pain you can cause with your fairy tales that brush off this kind of suffering, but sometimes I just can’t resist at least annoying you.
somehistory says
You don’t “annoy” me, because I see you as so very ignorant, and yet, believe you are so intelligent, just because you don’t Believe in Someone Who made you and Who deserves your respect and obedience.
I feel sorry for your children…if you have any…because you are such a hypocrite. If you own a business, or have supervision over others, how do you feel when those people who are paid to listen to you reject your instructions or even your authority? How would you want them to treat your words of instruction?
Ever made anything? Ever baked a cake or sewed an article of clothing, balanced a checkbook? No, of course not. Those things just happened by chance; you had no part in any of it. No designer, no baker, no one to work, no maker.
You may be “woman” and you know how to “roar,” but that is all you know. You have decided that anyone who relies on a Grand Creator, Judge, Lawgiver, Loving Father for True Justice and an end to the evil is “smug” and enjoys “hurting” you with their belief.
My belief doesn’t hurt you. You are just a miserable person, and as the saying goes, “misery loves company,” or in your case, “misery lusts for others to be miserable.”
Sorry, but I’m not miserable. And I just have to remind you: Paul Revere was a MAN!!
Now, you just go on out there to whatever country full of moslims you choose, and put an immediate stop to all of the pain, suffering, murders, rapes. and whatever else these slime are doing. As for me, I’m waiting on Someone Who can actually put a stop to it all; Someone with the Power and Authority you don’t have.
revereridesagain says
NO.
Do not dare put your nose in the air and lecture me about your GreatCreatroJudgeLawgiverLovingFatherTrueJustice Imaginary Being when “He” is portrayed as ignoring suffering little girls and women in the real world but you can stick your nose in the air and chatter about the Life To Come WHICH YOU NEED TO MENTALLY SURVIVE OR FOR YOU LIFE IS MEANINGLESS. YOU HATE ME BECAUSE FOR ME IT IS NOT.
You call me a “miserable person”? You are a childish coward clinging to a repellent father figure because it satisfies your childish emotional needs. You do not give one damn about those women and girls, all you care about is your Grand Creator fantasy and I am sick and tired of taking this kind of abuse from you Christians. YOUR DAMN “CREATER GOD” IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALL POWERFUL AND THEREFORE CAPABLE OF “STOPPING ALL THE PAIN, SUFFERING, MURDERS, RAPES AND WHATEVER ELSE THE SLIME ARE DOING” AND. “HE”. DOES. NOTHING BECAUSE “HE” DOES NOT EXIST. And the joy you people take in verbally abusing anyone who points that out just shows what petulant, childish people you are.
somehistory says
And one more bubble I can burst for you. The “punishment” these are facing will not be “out of sight” and no one is Heaven will be laughing. There will come to be joy on earth though when it is all over. You should do yourself a favor…a huge one…and look into getting over yourself and finding out the Truth. You’d feel a lot less hatred toward others and maybe even stop hating yourself for whatever has happened to you.
Wellington says
revereridesagain: You seem awfully bitter. Anthropomorphic depiction of a deity is understandable and so what if it is described in male or female terms? Would the deity described as a female make you feel better?
Christianity carries nothing in its theological blueprint which is a menace to liberty here on earth, contra Islam big time and this is what should be focused upon. I write this to you as the complete agnostic that I am but I do wish, as I have written many times before here at JW, that every Muslim would wake up tomorrow a devout Christian. The world would be infinitely better off were this to occur. Or don’t you grasp this?
Christianity also honors above all other humans a woman, the mother of Jesus. And it was in the West that the most powerful piece on a chess board went from being a kind of prime minister to a queen. The Judeo-Christian ethic, I might add, works far better with democratic tenets than the Islamic ethic ever will. And nowhere in the world have women achieved more rights than in the Western world and which world is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Respecting women’s rights and the Judeo-Christian tradition, there is a major link here and not just something coincidental.
somehistory says
Oh, you poor baby. You chose to try to “annoy” me and just made yourself that much more annoyed and angry because you can ‘dish it out,’ but you can’t take it.
I made a simple comment about a terrible, horrible practice that moslims everywhere engage in, and you tried to make me feel “annoyed”…your own word, “annoy,”…and it didn’t work.
You only have yourself to blame. As for shouting at me….I can’t hear you as your voice is full of arrogance and lies. You’ve been too busy learning the tactics of moslims.
You are fighting a war you can’t win. Christians are not like moslims…Christians “wait for God.” He will see that your get everything coming to you…Whatever He decides. I don’t have to do a thing.
And since for you, He does not exist, you don’t have a thing to worry about, do you?
Except the evil of islam and the hatred in your soul for those you don’t even know. Just like moslims hate all those they don’t even know simply because others disagree with your views.
You poor, poor, thing.
gravenimage says
revereridesagain, that you are blaming Christians for Muslims raping children is just really bizarre. And the idea that Somehistory is brushing off this suffering makes no sense at all, whether your believe in the Christian God or not.
Hoi Polloi says
I’m with graven and the rest. Christianity is a bizarre target as a followup to this of all articles. The gulf between the two in their treatment of and outlook regarding women is vast. The idea that heaven is an eternity of gloating over suffering in continuation of life on earth is bizarre. The need to antagonize and feel such certainty about the reactions of strangers suggests you could use some help, Revere. The idea that women are paper cutout victims of men is blatantly wrong and furthermore, women (as well as men) can testify to the evil they have experienced at the hands of women. Finally, women are welcome to travel to the Islamic world and themselves stop this centuries long war on women. Yes, even you, Revere.
LB says
How is the Christian god (Jesus Christ) to blame for the muslim god (allah) commanding its followers to rape (mostly non-muslim, but muslim aren’t excluded) women and little girls? I thought us atheists are all about logic, yet I can’t see a trace of it in anything you wrote. What I managed to infer from your post is that you simply hate both of those gods for being male, which makes you just another man-hating feminist in my eyes.
Also, a friendly reminder: In Christianity (at least in Orthodox, not sure about Catholic, someone can expand on this), Mary is equally deified as Jesus for she was the one that gave birth to him and is seen as a holy symbol and the protectress of all women and is being prayed to just the same; Jesus isn’t exclusive in receiving prayers, which is not something that can be said for allah. My mom (an Orthodox Christian) is an example of this because she has a huge icon of Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms hung up in the middle of the living room and she prays to both her an Jesus every night. Now you explain to me how Christianity is a “male” religion with a “male” god.
Your hatred is misplaced and you give atheists like me a bad name. No wonder both Christians and muslims hate us.
Wellington says
One correction, LB, otherwise I agree with what you wrote. Neither in the Orthodox nor Catholic Christian sects is Mary deified. Only God is treated as a deity (which cosmic entity entails the Christian Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Mary, by contrast, is venerated, held in very high esteem, but she is not deified, though many in the Protestant world mistakenly think this is the case. .
somehistory says
I can only speak for myself, but, I don’t hate those who don’t believe that there is a Creator.
I do feel that it is my Christian responsibility to explain my belief with the hope that they can come to share my joy in knowing God and having the hope of “the Real Life.” A life that will not be surrounded by evil people wanting to destroy all that is good.
If one is not interested, that one does not have to listen. Just as some people didn’t listen to what Jesus said. But, I would never do them harm on purpose.
Ms.reveridesagain, has just decided to target me personally whenever I write about the Justice I see coming, because she hates Christianity, and maybe, men too.
Wellington says
You didn’t deserve, somehistory, the verbal assault leveled against you. Revereridesagain asserted some very strange things, tinged with much animosity.
somehistory says
Thank you very much, Wellington.
Best wishes to you. And peace.
LB says
Thanks for the correction, Wellington. Perhaps the better term was “almost equally”, but my point was more to the fact that there is indeed a highly revered female saint in Christianity to whom many people pray to (my mom included), which is not something that can be said for islam. There’s just no comparison between those two religions despite how badly revereridesagain tries to put them on the same platter. Terrible optics on her part and I hope she realizes this.
Hoi Polloi says
+1 to the defenders here.
somehistory says
Yes, and that includes you, Hoi Polloi. ? TY.
somehistory says
One thing more I would like to write here.
Jesus Christ has great respect and love for women.
He didn’t go about telling people, “I am the Christ,” or “I am the Son of God.” However, He did tell the Samaritan woman at the well when she said for whom they were waiting, “I am He.”
Jesus was very kind to the Greek woman when she asked for His help, and He helped her.
When He was in a crowd and a woman, unclean under the Law, touched His garment, He didn’t rebuke her, but healed her and told her that her faith had made her well and to “Go in peace”.
Angels appeared and spoke to women after Christ was resurrected and told them to report to Peter and the others that He had risen.
Then, Jesus Himself said to the women, “”Do not be afraid,” said Jesus. “Go, tell My brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see Me.”
His first miracle was to turn water into wine…at the request of Mary, His mother.
And when He was in terrible pain and being tortured to the point of dying, He spoke to His Mother and to His Apostle John, saying, “See, your Son,” and, “See, your Mother.”
He was making sure that Mary would be cared for after He was gone. And John did take her to his own home.
Jesus cares equally for women as for men. He has special affection for children. His disciples…Christians…are to be the same, following His perfect example.
Wellington says
OK, because of this article on Nigeria, I’m going to focus here on a specific matter. It is this: While all Muslims are confused human beings (and far from a few are evil precisely because they are Muslim), black Muslims are extra confused. The Islamic world enslaved well over 100,000,000 million blacks and castrated the males. By contrast, what is now the United States saw about 400,000 black slaves brought to it and castration was never a policy. The West overall, from the 15th century onwards, enslaved about 13 million blacks, which though still horrible pales in comparison to what the Islamic world did.
But it gets worse, far worse. The West in general was the first civilization to realize that slavery of any kind is deeply wrong and thereafter took many measures to end it. America fought a brutal civil war in part to terminate slavery, especially after the battle of Antietam. The West has also profusely apologized for slavery while the Islamic world, which enslaved far, far more blacks than did the West, and got a “head start” in this iniquitous institution compared to the West by eight centuries, has never apologized for its role in the slave trade. Indeed, its own reputed founder, that psychopathic, delusional, narcissistic Mohammed, engaged in the slave trade himself and referred to blacks derisively as “raisinheads” and “pug-nosed creatures.”
I consider all adult Muslims confused human beings (I exculpate Muslim children precisely because they are children and don’t yet have the capacity to fully think for themselves). But I consider adult black Muslims pathetically and woefully confused. Rather like so many black Americans who are filled with distortions of the past and a non-realization that the modern Democratic Party wants to keep them on the Democratic Plantation, thus being, in effect, the Democratic Party’s equivalent of the “good dhimmi” per Islam. How pathetic that ANY black would be a Muslim, ditto for American blacks, of whatever religious belief or lack thereof, who continue to vote Democrat.
Ah yes, there is a pattern here and it’s not a salutary or sanguine one. Actually this pattern tends to confirm that the species, Homo sapiens, is so many times functioning in idiotic mode, far more than representatives of any other animal species I know of. Done.
LB says
It’s simple really: Black Africans are not known for their meticulous documentation of history (they don’t even have written language) nor their overall intelligence for that matter. Some people hate to hear this, but recent in-depth studies have shown that race is indeed linked to IQ. Bear in mind when I say this, I’m referring to the average majority (middle of Bell’s curve), not casting a global blanket. That said, not all people are equal, just how not all societies and cultures are equal and compatible with one another; I think we all know this to be a leftist fantasy by now. Facts are facts, no matter how unconformable they are.
The reason I bring this up is because it’s not exactly hard to convince black Africans that white people–and therefore Western Christian civilization as a whole–are the source of all their suffering, even if it’s to their own detriment. Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia) is the perfect example of this and South Africa seems to be following along the same footsteps DESPITE Zimbabwe being their literal next door neighbor. That right there should tell you all you need to know. Factor in the propaganda that Christianity is “The White Devils'” religion while islam is the “black and brown” underdog fighting the eeeevil white devil’s occupation, you get hundreds of millions of black African muslims. It’s as simple as that.
It’s the same case for blacks living in the West (look at BLM for example — it’s filled with black muslims), although they seem to be a tad bit smarter than their African cousins. Then again, despite Trump’s efforts of focusing his 2020 campaign on securing the black vote, around 90% of black people still voted for Biden, so maybe I’m wrong…
TL;DR: It all comes down to hatred (or perhaps jealousy) of white (Christian) people, simple as that.
gravenimage says
Nigerian state gives Sharia precedence over child protection law, allowing for child marriage
……………….
*Hideous*–but child rape is orthodox Islam, so this should not surprise.
mortimer says
Hideous.
Nigeria cannot afford to have two legal systems. It is causing a genocide against innocent Christians in the north east of the country especially. The only crime of these Christians is that they are kafirs.
gravenimage says
+1
Jayell says
It seems like ‘legal systems’ as we would prefer to know them in the civilised world are no longer relevant in Nigeria as it reverts to its pre-colonial tribalism. Best just to buy their oil or whatever useful stuff they might have to sell to the rest of the world then leave them to sort themselves out in isolation where they can’t bother anyone else, because they don’t seem to have learnt much from their contact with civilisation.
gravenimage says
One of those legal systems is the horror of Shari’ah law.
Jude Cross says
Then it’s lucky that the West would eventually have to face what infidels in Nigeria are currently confronting, isn’t it?
Jude Cross says
Totally correct. Before long, Nigeria will crumble, perhaps in a cataclysmic bang.
annonymos says
We all agree and want no Sharia Law in North America? We do not care what is your political or race colr you are we all are united against Sharia Law.
gravenimage says
Absolutely.
Wellington says
Absolutely.
Hoi Polloi says
No sharia.
OLD GUY says
WOW! The pedophile dream come true. Islam seems to favor criminal actions throughout it’s teachings. I’ll bet defunding the police is next, along with no-cash bail, sound familiar.
Civilization means you have laws that protect the children and weakest of your society. When a country fails to enforce the law their society will crumble and violence will increase dramatically.
Islam is a self destructing ideology that will set the world back to the dark ages.