This advice is self-contradictory. “The government helped 18 girls escape forced marriages last financial year — three times more than in 2015.”
That’s great, but is it not disrespecting Islamic culture to prevent these men from imitating Muhammad in his marriage to the child Aisha? At a certain point, either the “respect” or the ending of child marriage is going to win out. Neither Australia nor any other non-Muslim country can have both.
Few things are more abundantly attested in Islamic law than the permissibility of child marriage. Islamic tradition records 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.
“Respect the Culture,” by Tim Blair, The Daily Telegraph, March 3, 2017 (thanks to Jill):
…The Daily Telegraph reports:
School students are being taught to detect and help “child bride’’ classmates escape from their families as the federal government cracks down on forced marriages.
The government has funded a “forced marriage curriculum’’, following a surge in the number of girls as young as nine made to marry older men….
The government helped 18 girls escape forced marriages last financial year — three times more than in 2015.
Oh, but we mustn’t disrespect the culture:
Teachers have been told it is “critical the culture of the students be respected at all times’’.
“Staff need to ensure that no cultural, religious or ethnic group is singled out in any examples of the practice of forced marriage, and that any unfolding class discussions are free from judgments or stereotypes,” the curriculum states.…

Em says
What other cultural, religious or ethnic groups engage in marrying 10 year old girls, aside from Islam?
utis says
The real problem is that perverts exist in every culture. Picking on smaller, emotionally inexperienced people is their joy. Good cultures keep this nonsense down. Sick cultures condone it, encourage it, inspire it in those who might not even think about it.
My worry is that Western deviants will be attracted to this aspect of Islam and join the ranks, becoming agents of reversion in Western culture. Just look at the psychos who “convert” and immediately try to go on a mass-murder trip.
Robert says
That’s a good point; already Islam attracts killers, psychopaths and druggies. Now pedophiles may see an angle. After all, the cult founder was one
Veka Fitzfrancis says
Only tiny splinter groups well out of the reach of regular civilization. This must be stopped if Muslims seeks to come to the West. Obey our laws or get the eff out!
Spike1033 says
Marriage? No, it’s called RAPE.
Jim says
Speaking for th Islamic point of view, what’s the difference?
Walter Sieruk says
This appeasement to the “values'”of Islam is part of the PC plague of multiculturalism. One of the many Politically Correct idea’s which is tragically alive and well in both America , Europe and now Australia is the philosophy of multiculturalism which many Westerners are infected by the worthless , sick and unrealistic philosophy also part of the PC madness that is called “Cultural Relativity.”
Which is the concept that all culture are equal because this C.R concept teaches the foolishness that all values derive their meaning within the specific social content. This folly of thinking leads, or misleads, many people to view every position as only “opinion” and that truth is only relevant to the person or society holding that view. In other words, discovering actual truth in impossible.
Such C.R is absurd, nonsensical and contradictory. For example, to say “finding the truth is impossible “Is a statement of contradiction. For in making that statement that is saying, in essence, “I have found the truth which is finding the truth is not possible.” It should be obvious that this “Cultural War’ needs to and should have a solidly based in and on truth and not by a worthless “war of opinions” With the Left Wing ,with PC mindset of CR everything those of the Right says is just “opinion.” on a subject. Of course, that’s not so with the left in which everything they claim is be true is “true.” What a flip –flop!
Two other examples of the falseness of C.R. with its teaching that everything is only “opinion.” First is in the elate 1970’s two guys said “There are so many different religions that no one can ever know the truth about religion.” They were really saying that statement so dogmatically that they were self-contradicting. For they were saying that they know the truth about religion that is not one can know the truth about religion. Second, a shallow man in the 1980’s said when asked the question “Why do you always small talk ? You don’t ever talk about a topic that might have some value, as politics? After all , all thing are related “ That shallow C.R man replied “There are so many different political ideas that finding the true one is unattainable and all thing are not related.” The wisdom-less man was saying that he obtained the truth which is the he can’t obtain the truth and who does can is really truthfully say that all thing are not related in he can’t find the truth. How foolish, an obvious contradiction. What is needed to counter this nonsense C.R./P.C. is the concept of “Absolutism.” Which a definition of this, with the scope of the topic, is “An absolute standard or principle .” In this cultural war it’s the Bible with its absolute standards and principles to stand firm against the extreme folly and foolishness of the CR and PC concepts. In conclusion, in this War of Ideas a firm foundation for truth may be found in the Bible and not the weak folly of CR. in which everything is “opinion.”
Darryl Kerney says
What you describe started with Immanuel Kant’s destruction of Reason in Philosophy which has held back and hindered Rational Thought for centuries now. See Ayn Rand’s critique of Kant’s monstrous “philosophy”…
maghan says
How has Kant held back “rational thought” for centuries now? Kant’s magnum opus, The Critique of Pure Reason is a sustained exercise in rational but critical thinking. In his writings on morals, Kant’s rational thinking could never accept the primitive ideas expressed in Islamic ideology.
What part of Kant’s thinking would endorse the savage rapes of children? Clue: check out Kant’s Categorical Imperative. Nothing relativistic there.
Darryl Kerney says
His basic premise was that our senses are not trustworthy and reality is unknowable, his “reason” was not reason at all but a denial of it.
Mac-101 says
I would be highly surprised if pedophilia is NOT entrenched into Western Elite’s culture. There is a reason ‘Occidentalism” seemed so appealing to the 19th and 20th Century Brits.
.
The way NO ONE will ask Podesta what is this “Spirit Cooking” he and his brother does and what do the code words Pizza, Hot Dogs, Cheese, Pasta, Walnuts and others mean in his WikiLeaks hacked emails! So far supposedly NOT ONE leaked WikiLeak Email has been proven false.
Ross Lloyd says
Screw Moslem culture! Chronic evil bastards!
John A. Marre says
Their culture includes rape, slicing necks, burning people alive and taking free things from the assholes known as Westerners. Should those cultural elements be respected at all times?
shoehorn says
Orwellian doublethink. Teachers and students told to take opposite actions.
Katnis says
Contradictory, indeed. Child marriage is disgusting and selfish. It’s a shame that western children are exposed to such sickness – with a LIVE example before them, whom they are told to accept and support.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
somehistory says
If it is something from which they need to escape, something from which they need help to escape, then bycracky, how is it something that deserves respect?
Rescue those victims of the serial killer, but be sure to not disrespect the multiple murderer. Call him *sir* and ask his permission to rescue his victims before he manages to kill them.
These foul creatures that take little girls and subject them to daily rape…and it isn’t *marriage*…don’t deserve the respect given to a rat one finds soiling the grain.
JMB says
Three Comments;
1, The Sydney daily Telegraph, still a very popular morning tabloid is the only paper in this country to report Islam for what it is, child brides, gang rape monsters, jihad, gang and drug wars.
2, The practice of Muslim child brides has been widespread in Australia since the first influx of Lebanese refugees back in the 1980s. I first got to know about it from talking to Greek taxi drivers.
3, This whole bit of “doublespeak” must surely be PC at breaking point. We know the Muslims in Australia are responsible for a range of crimes as mentioned in my first comment, but the powers that be will tell us and our government to “respect their culture”. Not sure who the “powers that be” really are, perhaps it is the UN I just don’t know. But here in Australia we have one virulently anti-Islam politician,Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party. Like Le Penn in France her popularity is soaring. The establishment is now in panic mode.
davej says
Respect cannot be ordered, it must be earned. But the more you learn about Islam the less you can respect it.
Child marriage, which is basically pedophilia, is a “feature” of Islam. Why should we respect that? Maybe we should concentrate on respecting our own culture, which has made such practises both socially unacceptable and illegal.
Since when does respecting other people mean giving up your own standards of moral behavior?
Aloha Akbar says
One fine day in Goondiwindi Primary School
Johnny: “G’day Juhanah. We’re havin’ a BBQ for Australia Day next week. Ya wanna come along?”
Juhanah: “Stone the crows! Next week? Nah sorry Johnny. Me ol’ man reckons I’m getting married next week to uncle Hazif.”
Johnny: “Fair dinkum? Crikey! That’s a bit crook, you’re only in grade 4.”
Juhanah: “Yeah. Bugger. I’ll miss you guys”
Johnny: “We’ll see about that. I’m tellin’ Miss Perkins.”
Johnny: “Hey Miss… Juhanah tells me she’s getting married next week, and it’s to her Uncle Hazif. We gotta do somethin’ about this.”
Miss P: “Strewth Johnny. Are you fair dinkum?? We gotta do something immediately!! Gather the entire class together now!”
Miss P: “Attention class. You’ll all be stoked to know that little Juhanah here is gettin’ hitched next week to her uncle Hazif…..
…. So let’s pass the hat around & get her a wedding prezzy. Maybe a Kebab Maker or a Nitegown Burka. Whattaya reckon?
And if Uncle Hazif let’s her come back to finish off her Primary School, then we can throw a baby shower for her.”
Class: “Applause”
Aloha Akbar says
edit – apologies to all who don’t speak Australian 🙂
JMB says
It’s a classic, it should be published in the Sydney Daily Telegraph.
PS Do they have many Muslims way out there at Goondiwindi? (An outback town in south west Queensland, pronounced Gundawindy)
Lioness says
To respect the “culture” of islam, you must allow child marriage, FGM, honor killings, wife beating, the murder of Christians and Jews, stoning of women, throwing gays off of cliffs… did I miss any other highly civilized cultural practices? But we must be highly sensitive to muslims’ feelings, otherwise they are easily offended.
mortimer says
Child marriage does not deserve respect. Civilized people call child marriage ‘pedophilia’.