Nupur Sharma was forced into hiding for saying what Irena Akbar is being praised for saying. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad consummated his marriage with (i.e., raped) Aisha when she was nine, and the resultant fact that child marriage is accepted in wide swaths of the Islamic world. “The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with […]
Aisha, Muhammad’s Child Bride: A Rebuttal of Lesley Hazleton
‘Quick-witted’, ‘tart tongued’, ‘daring’, ‘headstrong’ and ‘assertive’ are not five phrases I would immediately attribute to Aisha when I hear them. What springs to mind is rather ‘prepubescent child-bride’; the authority for this assertion consists of multiple Islamic sources rather than speculative, cringeworthy platitudes. This is the issue we face when dissecting one of […]
Islam on Women: A Rebuttal of Dr. Craig Considine on the Topic of Muhammad’s Humanity
There have rarely been historical figures more virulently anti-women than Muhammad, yet alongside many other characteristics of the prophet of Islam that are lauded by Dr. Craig Considine, Considine insists that Muhammad is inherently humane. Dr. Considine frequently repeats an interesting rebuttal to the claim that Islam oppresses women in the character of Aisha, one […]
Lebanon: Sunni Muslims enraged by Shi’ite videos criticizing Aisha, injure 48 people in riots
The Sunni-Shia split goes back to the beginning of Islam and has often been violent throughout Islamic history. The perception of an insult to Islam has all too often led to demands for the death of the offender, and if legal authorities don’t take action, mobs riot and call for lynching. In Western countries, such […]
Muhammad, the adult infant
David Wood has made a great video on the hadiths (Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari) that claim Muhammad was a cross-dresser who would receive his revelations whilst dressed in the garments of his favourite wife, the child-bride Aisha. One more thing to be noted in relation to Muhammad’s alternative lifestyle choices is that he was […]
The Grotesque Immorality of Mainstream Islamic Ethics (Part 4)
I am a Canadian ex-Muslim. In Part 4 of this series of articles I will address the impermissibility of common child adoption in Islamic theology. Parts 1, 2 and 3 of series of articles can be found here and here and here. The laudable tradition of child adoption as commonly practiced in non-Islamic societies is […]
“It’s OK that Muhammad married a child because people didn’t live as long back then” – Really?
One can still find Muslims who deny that Muhammad married Aisha when she was six and consummated the marriage with she was nine. This is in spite of Aisha’s own words, e.g.: “Narrated ‘Aishah that the Prophet wrote the marriage contract with her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when […]
Hugh Fitzgerald: Islam and the Propaganda War (Part II): The Debater’s Handbook
In Part I, I reviewed the propaganda war conducted by the American government during the Cold War, and lamented the lack of such a campaign against the forces of Jihad today. I discussed the need to reprint in full, and with a critical commentary appended, the Qur’an, and also to print intelligently abridged versions of […]
Islamic State jihadi murdered 70 because “they were saying bad words about Aisha”
The 70 must have been Shi’ites. According to Islamic tradition, Aisha and Ali were at odds. When she was accused of adultery, Ali told Muhammad that he could easily just get another wife — she never forgave him for that. In 656, when Uthman was murdered and Ali was chosen as caliph, Aisha went into […]