While Islamic apologists in the West call me an "Islamophobe" for pointing out that Muhammad consummated his marriage to Aisha when she was nine years old -- according to Islamic texts that Muslims consider reliable -- Muslim leaders in Niger know full well that the texts say that, and are acting upon it, and resisting reform efforts as un-Islamic.
"Niger's traditional chiefs condemn child marriage," by Abdoulaye Massalatchi for Reuters, with thanks to Laura:
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's influential traditional chiefs have urged the government to draw up legislation which would stop girls being married off as young children, breaking ranks with Islamic groups in the mostly Muslim nation.Family matters are decided according to strict Islamic laws in the impoverished West African country and girls, sometimes under the age of 10, are commonly married off by families seeking greater wealth and social status.
After marriage, girls are expected to have children quickly -- sometimes ending up with as many as 20 -- further boosting the influence of their family in the local community, but often causing medical problems....
In a break with religious custom, the traditional chiefs -- influential leaders chosen by powerful village families to deal with community disputes -- urged the government to outlaw underage marriage....
They also called on the government to help them educate rural populations about reproductive health. Muslim leaders have in the past fought against such campaigns, including those encouraging people to use condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS....
Some 95 percent of its nearly 13 million people are Muslims and Islamic law and tradition, interpreted by Muslim scholars and judges known as Ulemas, govern family life.
Muslim traditionalists staged a protest in December against plans to ratify Africa's Maputo Protocol on women's rights, agreed in 2003 by African heads of state and aiming to enshrine women's equality in marriage and public life.
It also bans or discourages polygamy, child marriage, and other customs common in conservative and largely rural Niger.
Parliament voted down ratification of the Protocol last June but the government has since revived efforts to push it through, seeking to mollify hard-core traditionalists by saying the text was aimed not at them, but at those who mistreated women because they had not followed their God.
Could cracks in the dam be appearing?
This story rings bells with me.
I know non-Arab Muslims (from Asia and Africa) and both of them dislike Arabs and Arabic culture. They see an intolerant Islam blowing out of Arabia and they are right. I have never had the courage to ask, "If you dislike Arabs, what are your feelings about Mohammad - he was Arab?". They might be embaraassed.
This indicates to me that Islam is not as embedded in Africa, Asia as has been thought.
And I have noticed Persian fury with Hollywood over the film "300". Now if they were solidly Islam, would they care much for Persians that were pre-Islam? They do care about there ancient pre-Islamic culture. Therefore, again, Islams grip on the Persians is not absolute.
According to an informant, a student from Niger now studying in Paris, on his last trip home he was horrified to see, after an absence of several years, the change in the practice of Islam from something syncretistic, incorporating African traditiions, a thing of tribal elders and marabouts, and now, thanks to Saudi money building Wahhabi mosques, a much more sinister and much more militant affair, run of and by the purs et durs.
If tribal elders are now fighting back, that's good -- but it may be too late.
Need anyone be reminded of the uranium deposits in Niger?
Isn't it wonderful how all the world's essential energy resources are buried under dar-ul-Islam - oil in the Mid East, Uranium in Niger (which they used to supply for Libya's and Pakistan's nuclear program)... Even if we did commercialize nuclear energy, we'd have to figure out a way quickly to switch to fusion.
"Isn't it wonderful how all the world's essential energy resources are buried under dar-ul-Islam - oil in the Mid East, Uranium in Niger".
Actually, Australia is the world's largest exporter of uranium and is a significant source of natural gas and coal.
And with us specially bringing in Africans from refugee camps over there, we'll be importing that evil sickness here - child abuse. To take what is basically a child and force constant childbirth on her, til her pelvic floor collapses and her bladder implodes, and I shudder to think what else, all before the age of 30, is just vile. No matter. Our healthcare system, which has so much spare cash lying around, will take care of them, and their children, and their children, and so on.
What a terrible blight on Africa - Islam. Hard enough for that continent to make a go of it, but put Islam in there and there's no hope. None at all.
Infidel Pride: actually, the coal reserves of North America, northern Europe (Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland), Russia and China, are almost literally inexhaustible. Oil replaced coal because it was cheaper and less polluting, but if its price keeps rising, then coal will come back into the frame. As for its polluting qualities, if we have to we will develop techologies to deal with them. The energy picture is not as bleak as some make it, even without taking into account the arguable blessings of ethanol.