The wonders of multiculturalism. Muhammad, of course, consummated his marriage with Aisha when she was nine and he was in his fifties. And in this, as in everything else, he is considered exemplary in Islam — an “excellent example of conduct” according to Qur’an 33:21. Therefore British authorities will be seeing more and more of these cases, and eventually their prosecution of them will run headlong into their acceptance of Sharia in Muslim communities. And something, at that point, will have to give, and the British will either have to stop the advance of Sharia or accept child marriage.
“Nine-year-old Midlands girl rescued from forced marriage,” by David Barrett for the Telegraph, September 28 (thanks to Sr. Soph):
British children as young as nine are being forced into marriage by their families, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The disclosure comes as official figures show that nearly 60 children aged 15 or under have been rescued by the Government’s Forced Marriage Unit in the past four years.
The cases are feared to be the tip of the iceberg. They will fuel concerns, first raised earlier this year, that large numbers of children are disappearing from British schools to be forced into wedlock overseas.
A charity which runs a national helpline on forced marriage and “honour”-based crimes, Karma Nirvana, revealed that in one incident a nine-year-old girl from a Pakistani family in the east Midlands was taken into council care after her parents told her she was to wed.
Jasvinder Sanghera, director of Karma Nirvana, said that on average four children a month aged under 16 have contacted its helpline since it launched in April.
“The youngest child we have dealt with was nine years old,” she said. “The girl told her teacher she was going to be forced to marry someone and initially she was not believed.
“Ultimately, with the help of the Forced Marriage Unit, she was dealt with through child protection procedures. She was assessed and, thankfully, taken into foster care.”
Ms Sanghera called on ministers to make sure primary school children are taught about forced marriage and given advice on how to avoid becoming a victim.
The Forced Marriage Unit has helped rescue 58 underage children since it was set up in January 2005, including 11 under-16s so far this year. The youngest victim this year was 13, one was 14 and nine were 15.
The unit deals with 5,000 inquiries and 300 cases of forced marriage a year. A third of inquiries come from under 18s….