Why is anyone angry that the imam Zia Ul-Haq Sheikh is behaving in a manner consistent with Islamic teaching?
The Qur’an tells Muslim men that they can have as many as four wives, as well as “captives of the right hand,” i.e., Infidel sex slaves (4:3).
Note also that Sheikh’s “grooming” victim was 13 years old when he first targeted her. This may have been because Sheikh’s reverence for Muhammad led him to think of children as sexual objects. Islamic apologists in the West routinely deny that Muhammad consummated his marriage with (i.e., raped) Aisha when she was nine, and go through all sorts of contortions to deny the evidence of the texts, but the fact that child marriage is accepted in wide swaths of the Islamic world, even by the directorate of religious affairs in once-“moderate” albeit now rapidly re-Islamizing Turkey, most clearly shows their dishonesty. The Diyanet wouldn’t approve of child marriage if it weren’t Islamic, as it explains in its own defense. And child marriage has abundant attestation in Islamic tradition and law.
“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
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.
“A Religious Leader Being Sued For ‘Grooming’ A Follower Is Now Under Fire For Polygamy,” by Hannah Allam, BuzzFeed News, December 21, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
A Muslim cleric who was ousted from at least two mosques amid claims of sexual misconduct with young women he’d mentored now works at a Texas mosque that’s standing by him despite a former employer’s warning and a civil lawsuit.
The Grand Prairie Islamic Center in a Dallas suburb threw a welcome dinner upon hiring Imam Zia Ul-Haq Sheikh in August and encouraged mosque members to bring their families. The celebration came months after a mosque in nearby Irving issued an unprecedented alert to Muslim leaders across the country warning that Sheikh was asked to resign after a young woman “reported that the imam had engaged in sexual misconduct with her.”
The woman, a teenager he’d counseled since she was 13, filed a lawsuit in July alleging that Sheikh coerced her into sex with him at a Texas motel after years of “grooming,” including lewd requests via video chat. Her claims were at the center of an investigation by FACE, a new Texas-based nonprofit led by Muslim women advocating for victims’ rights in misconduct cases in Islamic settings. The FACE findings, first reported by BuzzFeed News in October, came from witness accounts that wove a pattern: Sheikh would arrive at a mosque as a welcomed imam, then leave abruptly amid accusations of impropriety.
Now BuzzFeed News has confirmed that two decades before Sheikh arrived in Texas, he was dismissed from a mosque in Richmond, Virginia, in the midst of a polygamy scandal involving a young woman convert. A community member involved in Sheikh’s exit corroborated the allegations, first detailed in the FACE report, to BuzzFeed News.
The warning. The lawsuit. The yearlong investigation that dug up previous claims. The headlines. None of it has persuaded the Grand Prairie mosque to sever ties with Sheikh, who remains a part-time employee. None of it swayed other Dallas-area Muslim leaders to demand his ouster. The muted response, said FACE cofounder Alia Salem, is a reminder of the work it takes to change the culture of silence in many US Muslim institutions when it comes to #MeToo-style accusations….
Robert Carrillo says
Problem? I don’t see a problem.. Why you say? Cuzzz Muhammad Sayzzzz.. That’s why.. It’s in their book, so it must be OK…
Disagree? Nope sayzzz the automaton followers… That would be BLASPHEMY!
See…it’s right over here in this here book.. But, shhhh.. Don’t tell anybody. OK?
Have a nice pedophile, polygamy, polyandry, incestuous day.. :):):)
mortimer says
Muslims have to study a lifetime to prove that much of their PRIMARY SOURCE TEXTS (which is UNCLEAR) can be acceptable if it is RE-INTERPRETED !!! This is called ‘MOVING THE GOAL POSTS’!
This substantial re-interpretation proves that ALLAH and MOHAMMED are among the WORST and MOST INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS IN HISTORY.
Both of them say things that must be understood in the REVERSE of what the actual, plain, literal sense of the words suggest.
THIS IS THE HEIGHT OF DISHONESTY. Some Muslims eventually see this dishonest RE-INTERPRETATION GAME and get the courage to leave Islam.
Islam’s source texts make women eternal slaves of Muslim males, but there is an attempt in Western countries to explain these passages away … something that is not seen as necessary in most Muslim countries.
This con-game shows that Islam is incompatible with modernity and that Islam cannot be practiced ‘AS IS’, but must be RE-INTERPRETED in tortuous ways to make it tolerable in an age of equality and human rights.
Mark Webb says
There is no Allah, and Muhammad was a pedophile.
1John3verse24 says
Liberals are playing a very dangerous game by pandering to Islam just to spite conservatives and Christians.
This will not end well.
Islam despises all that Liberals stand for.
somehistory says
So, did they not report it to the police? It seems that they are “investigating” it on their own.
“Sexual misconduct” with a teenager…is a crime against the State of Texas. And so is polygamy against the law. In Virginia and Texas, this creep broke the law.
If they want him to stop, they need to report him to the GPPD and since the crime was committed in Irving, to the IPD.
The kids in Grand Prairie…and all the surrounding areas, Dallas, Arlington, Grapevine, Richardson, NRH, Euless, Hurst, Ft. Worth, etc….are all in danger from this predator. He is only minutes away from any of these communities.
He needs to be arrested, charged, tried and if found guilty, put away. Then he will have to register as a sexual predator and his movements will be monitored and restricted.
Bodega says
I agree, charge him, arrest him, find him guilty by law and judge, put him away and forever have him identified as a pedophile and sexual predator and his movements monitored and re-arrest him again and finally put him in jail until he dies.. What a terrible thing to happen to a young girl. I wept.
My daughter who is no spring chicken lives in College Station, TX She thinks we are being Islamaphobic in everything we say and do that we reference with the Koran or Qu’ran or the news that is reports the wrong doing are craziness of Islam. She has consistently refused to discuss the situation in EU or that it has the potential to become an issue here in the States. Deerborn, MI means nothing to her and she thinks we lie about FGM (even though I told her about the women I saw IN Texas who had undergone FGM). After my last effort to engage her in a discussion based on facts, she declared she was through with me as her mother. I understand Ben Franklin was rejected by his son because his son thought Ben Franklin was a traitor to the English, ie. the Tories. I feel like I am in good company and I am proud my forefathers fought against England in the Revolutionary War.
PRCS says
When the “Muslim community” can no longer cover this up, they’ll draw a parallel between his behavior and errant Catholic priests, with apologies and assurances that ALL Muslims are appalled by his behavior.
But, in truth, as there is no single, worldwide Muslim leader, the idea that the umma–whether in Texas or Timbuktu–will ever denounce/renounce/reject even a single word of Qur’an is just wishful thinking.
James Lincoln says
somehistory,
Agree 100%, law enforcement should be involved in this.
In the article, it’s also not clear to me who besides the imam Zia Ul-Haq Sheikh was named in the civil lawsuit. Hopefully, the mosque was also included in the lawsuit.
The administrators of the mosque should be held accountable for vetting out imam pedophiles – and sued when they do not.
There are more questions than answers in this article.
somehistory says
I agree. There seems to be a lot left to explain. Just how far can a group of moslim women get in “investigating” males at the barracks and what is their authority for getting him punished?
How do they expect to keep him from harming other girls in Grand Prairie or other places just by suing him?
The way the article reads, the women are feeling moslim superiority, as though they don’t need the police to get this guy.
Dave Huff says
Islam destroys everything it touches….
gravenimage says
Texas: Imam accused of sexual misconduct with teen girl now under fire for polygamy
………………..
Polygamy and raping children are mainstream Islam…
Vicky says
There will soon come a day when muslims will no longer be punished for their atrocious crimes in the United States, as more and more of them are elected to political offices every year by useful idiot treasonous Americans. Islamists are not in our Congress and will be writing law.
Think about that.
Unless citizens rise up and take back our republic, by any means necessary, America is lost.
Obbop says
“Islam does not forbid marriage of young children.” — Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology”
Diversity and multiculturalism is a weapon used by tyrannical elites and their lap-dog lackeys to divide and conquer We, the People. Beware the evils being piled upon the USA and all Western countries. A class war is underway that if lost will send the masses plummeting down into a loathsome New Dark Age. Prepare for battle, patriots. Use every peaceful means to counter tyranny and the evils the filth are throwing upon us. If every last peaceful method fails refer to the Founders writings for what needs done. Be prepared.
ninetyninepct says
A Muslim male can own 4 females. Age is not considered. Why are sex and violence such a huge part of Muslim culture?