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Rationalizing Pedophilia in Islam

Raymo nd Ibrahim

Published in Jihad Watch Earlier this month we sawor rather, were once again remindedthat Islam permits pedophilia in the guise of marriage: Top Saudi cleric, Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, issued a f atwa asserting that there is no minimum age f or girls to marry, even if they are in the cradle, and that the only criterion is that they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men. While this practice speaks f or itself , it is interesting to witness the great lengths some Muslims go to justif y or rationalize itor even to turn it into a source of pride. Consider, f or example, this Muslim cleric discussing Muhammads marriage to the child Aisha when she was nine. Far f rom blushing f or shame, the cleric actually uses this anecdote to boast of the prophets patience and magnanimity. Translation of relevant excerpt f ollows:

The story of the prophets marriage to Aisha reveals to us aspects like the prophets conduct with Aisha, and more importantly the aspect regarding the relationship between the husband and wife, to show how one should treat his wife, just as the prophet did with Aisha.

Ad mirab le p atie nc e to c hild is h antic s

We know that Asias mother went to take her down from the swing that she was playing on to fix her hair and prepare her for the prophet so he could enter her [have sex with her]and she did that all on the same day.

Aishas own account in Sahih Bukhari is telling enough: she talks about how her mother hurriedly prepared her and then handed her over to Muhammad, and how nothing surprised me but the coming of Allahs Apostle to me in the f orenoon. T he cleric continues:

So you see, she was playing with her fellow playmates even though her day of consummation was that very same dayand all that they did was to fix her up for the prophet so he could have sex with her. Now what do we see when the prophet married Aisha? Did he go to her and say Okay thats it, youre married, youre now a grown up, youre supposed to be mature, you need to do this and that; you need to forget about your toys and your little friends; you are now a wife of a man, you have to see to my needs and thats it? No. The prophet allowed her to continue playing with her toy dollsindeed, the prophet even sometimes gave her such things to play with. [This hadith has more details, including how Aisha's little girl friends would "hide themselves" whenever the prophet came to her until he called them out.]

It should be noted that the cleric recounted the above with much awe and amazementas if to say, Look how indulgent and open-minded our prophet was! In f act, such was the clerics whole point: to show that Islam, according to the example of Muhammad, expects older Muslim husbands to be patient with their younger wives: T he older husband should not expect the younger wif e to be at his level of maturity; rather, he should go down to her level, f or he is capable, whereas she is not. As gentlemanly as this ostensibly sounds, it is yet another example of how Muslim scholars deal with Muhammads lif estyle: because they cannot condemn or ignore his practices, they inevitably go to great lengths to rationalize or justif y themto f ind the good in every situation their prophet was involved in, while being oblivious to all the bad. T hus here we have a cleric straining to f ind a positive aspect to Muhammads pedophiliathat he was patient and indulgent of his child-bridewhile ignoring the heart of it: that the man Islam is built around desired to have sex with a child in the f irst place.