Why victims who were so young?
“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
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.
And why a boy? They are promised in Paradise, along with the houris, the celebrated heavenly virgins:
“Those are the ones brought near in the Gardens of Pleasure, a company of the former peoples and a few of the later peoples, on thrones woven, reclining on them, facing each other. There will circulate among them young boys made eternal with vessels, pitchers and a cup from a flowing spring.” — Qur’an 56:11-18
“And they will be given to drink a cup whose mixture is of ginger, a fountain within Paradise named Salsabeel. There will circulate among them young boys made eternal. When you see them, you would think them scattered pearls. And when you look there, you will see pleasure and great dominion.” — Qur’an 76:17-20
“Lord Ahmed charged with attempted child rape,” by Josh Halliday, Guardian, March 1, 2019:
The former Labour peer Nazir Ahmed has been charged with two counts of attempted rape dating back to the 1970s.
Lord Ahmed, 61, is also charged with one count of indecent assault. His alleged victims were a girl and a boy aged under 13.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place in Rotherham between 1971 and 1974, when Ahmed was a teenager.
He and two other men, Mohammed Farouq, 68, and Mohammed Tariq, 63, both from Rotherham, were charged as part of a South Yorkshire police investigation that began in 2016.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Ahmed was charged with indecently assaulting a boy aged under 13 in 1971-72, when he was aged 14 to 15.
He is alleged to have committed the two attempted rapes, at least one of which was against a girl, in 1973-74 when he was aged 16 to 17.
Ahmed, a married father of three, was born in Pakistan and moved with his family to the UK in 1969 to join his father, who was working in steel factories in Rotherham.
He joined the Labour party in 1975 aged 18 and became Rotherham’s first Asian councillor in 1990, later becoming the town’s youngest magistrate. He was made a made a peer by Tony Blair in 1998 and was one of the first Muslims to be appointed to the Lords….
Paul says
How can anybody prove anything after all these years ?
This is just defaming somebody for a hidden reason.
Will it make trial after the intervening years ? Well it worked for various TV personalities.
Paul
peter says
I agree with you Paul entirely !
gravenimage says
Uh…right. How *dare* you ‘filthy Infidels’ have a problem with child rape? BaD Dhimmis!
Terry Gain says
Given Britain’s response to its Muslim rape gangs this news is mind boggling. A charge after this many years seems almost pointless, but there is no benefit to charging someone unless there is a reasonable chance of a conviction. It seems unlikely that this is politically motivated as it goes against the grain. Britain is so afraid of a Muslim backlash that it refused to give Asia Bibi asylum and it has banned America’s foremost scholar of Islam, a calm gentleman who is always careful to distinguish between Islam and Muslims.
Terry Gain says
So what’s the hidden reason? British police are now suddenly anti-Muslim after all these years of bending over so as not to offend? Seriously? Please inform Tommy Robinson that his freedom of speech has been restored.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Those who claim that too many years have passed to discover the truth about the charges brought against former Lord Ahmed might note that the Catholic Church has just defrocked Cardinal McCartick for crimes similar to those with which former Lord Ahmed is now charged, and that date from almost the same period, that is 40 years ago.
As for this claim by a poster above that they — the British authorities — are “defaming someone for a hidden reason” (what “hidden reason” could he mean if not “Islamophobia'” or a sinister MI5/CIA plot?) there is no hidden reason. The only wonder is that, given the British climate of submission to Islam, the fear British authorities have of offending Muslims — think of how long it took them to begin investigating the grooming gangs of Rotherham and Rochdale — that these charges have been taken seriously and former Lord Ahmed has been charged..
livingengine says
“The Crown Prosecution Service said Ahmed was charged with indecently assaulting a boy aged under 13 in 1971-72, when he was aged 14 to 15.
He is alleged to have committed the two attempted rapes, at least one of which was against a girl, in 1973-74 when he was aged 16 to 17.”
I think Ahmed’s killing someone with a car is more serious than this.
gravenimage says
Good post, Hugh.
Denver says
christianity doesn’t have an age limit either.
Marc says
Christianity teaches you to obey that laws of the land. That means they stick to the age of consent and don’t marry till it is legally allowed to do so.
Terry Gain says
Which nation founded by Christians does not have an age limit for marriage, permits child rape and polygamy and promotes the notion of a carnal paradise? Try harder.
gravenimage says
Spot on, Terry.
mortimer says
It’s what people have been suggesting all along, namely, that PEOPLE AT THE TOP of the pedophile ring were being PROTECTED FROM ARREST and PROSECUTION and that is why the police did not investigate aggressively and make arrests. There is a two-tier justice system in the UK that is CLASS-ORIENTED.
Anjuli Pandavar says
So, which way are the compromised judicial authorities going to jump? Find Lord Nazir Ahmed guilty of paedophilia and imply that his role model, Muhammad, was a paedophile, or find him not guilty so as not to “insult” Muhammad and thereby legalise paedophilia. What’s it going to be? Keep in mind that the feelings of Muslims must not be hurt. No, no, don’t ever hurt Muslims’ feelings. We must never do that. I’m sure Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is watching this case with great interest.
Terry Gain says
Nawaz will be along shortly to explain that Lord Nazi Ahmadman Al- Buraq has only been charged because he’s a Brown Muslim. It’s amazing to see the rise of Islamophobia and racism in Britain.
Beverly says
NEWSFLASH Terry – Islam is not a race, it is a political system of which people of many races belong. And Islamophobia is a made up word that suggests an irrational fear of Islam. There is nothing irrational about keeping an eye on people whose ideology compels them to kill you in order to get into heaven. Wake up.
Terry Gain says
Oh please, Beverley keep up. Those of us who oppose Islam have been called racists for years. Did you miss Nawaz’s accusation yesterday? Using the sarcasm tag for a comment that is obviously sarcastic insults the reader There will always be someone who doesn’t pick up on a joke. My comment was not directed to her.
Do you not realize that when Robert Spencer calls himself an Islamophobe that he is mocking the people who use that misleading term.
James Lincoln says
You’re right Terry, but let’s give Beverly a chance to get up to speed…
At least she’s trying.
Terry Gain says
Your right James. I found Beverley trying.
gravenimage says
Beverly, read Terry’s post again. She was being sarcastic.
Kaiser says
ROTHERHAM now why have I heard of that little place before , remind me
Mirren10 says
Ahmed is also the pos who killed Martyn Gombar on the M1 because Ahmed was busy texting on his phone.
I hope he goes down this time, and stays down.
Oh yes, and guess who made this turd a Lord ? Why, Blair and the *Labour Party*.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/89096/Text-drive-peer-is-freed-from-prison
Mirren10 says
Forgot this, as well. Ahmed is a *really* nasty piece of work.
http://www.israelnewsagency.com/englandukterrorismlordahmedgeertwildersdemocracyfreespeechisraelhamas48021509.html
Anjuli Pandavar says
Thank you, Mirren.
somehistory says
Mirren10
He should definitely spend more than a few days in jail.
gravenimage says
Thank you, Mirren.
Rarely says
The sheep and goats could breathe easier. I wonder if an award from the SPCA would be in order.
In a serious vein, I feel certain that they would not lay charges if they did not have a realistic possibility of conviction — regardless of the time delay.
A_M_Swallow says
“The alleged offences are said to have taken place in Rotherham between 1971 and 1974, when Ahmed was a teenager.”
1971-4 is a long time a go. Does this mean that the police cannot find a more up to date offence?
gravenimage says
I doubt the police are searching for one.
A_M_Swallow says
Prosecuting a life peer and ex-magistrate (judge) will be very embarrassing.
According to Wikipedia adult women has reported him for sexual importunities. They are #MeToo but not crimes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47245797.
gravenimage says
UK:. Muslim peer Lord Nazir Ahmed charged with attempted child rape with girl and boy under 13
………………..
*Awful*. I cannot say this surprises.
UNCLE VLADDI says
The Bitish Peers have caricaturized them selves by making this creature into a fellow “Lord.”
Kerry Wade says
Lord Ahmed – what a joke. I’ve never liked this putrid creep. His media appearances, like sadiq khan, betray his real personality, a sickening double faced, arrogant and soulless liar
Billy Corr says
Much though one detests the man for many, many reasons, trying to nail him for offences which allegedly happened over four decades ago is suspect in the extreme. One is reminded of *Nick* the police informant and his torrent of improbable yarns about senior Tories – like Edward Heath – committing vile crimes against terrified teenagers. The dimwitted plods – bless them – spent countless man-hours and millions of pounds of public money on this farrago of nonsense; the entire nonsensical business has since been dropped down the Memory Hole, an oubliette of infinite depth. One presumes hat the plods involved were all commended and promoted.
Billy Corr says
About the plods and their astounding cleverness: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/12118807/Lord-Bramall-inquiry-How-did-police-obtain-search-warrant-for-PR-exercise-asks-retired-judge.html ……………… note that the *Torygraph* is/was a saunchly conservative newspaper
Billy Corr says
For *saunchly* please read *staunchly* or *unswervingly*