Prophet Muhammad was NOT a Pedophile

Islamophobes are the people who fear Islam will bring peace and Justice to the World (which they hate). Although the Islamaphobes may well be the loudest voices amongst the Jews and Christians, they are only self-appointed leaders of the faith, and they do not represent the vast majority of well-meaning Jews and Christians

Islamaphobes claim that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was a pedophile, arguing that he married Aisha (peace be upon her) when she was too young.

Explanation of Aisha’s Marriage to Prophet:
Aisha’s parents were the ones who married her to the Prophet, and that no Muslim or even pagan objected to the marriage because it was widely practiced. And even until today in 3rd world countries (Muslims and non-Muslims), little girls as young as 9 or 10 do get married. Anyway, the reason no one objected was to the Prophet’s marriage was:

1. People used to have very short life-spans in Arabia. They used to live between 40 to 60 years maximum. So it was only normal and natural for girls to be married off at ages 9 or 10 or similar

2. Marriage for young girls was widely practiced among Arabs back then, and even today in many third-world non-Muslim and Muslim countries

Aisha was already engaged to a man named Jober Ibn Al-Moteam Ibn Oday. Back then, the people of Makkah (Mecca) did not object to Aisha’s engagement to Jober because she was physically big enough and tall enough to be considered for marriage. The father of Aisha broke the engagement. Later, Prophet Muhammad was engaged to Aisha for 2 years before he married her

Muhammad lived in a society and culture that existed 1400 years ago, and we must not judge what he or others did based on the standards we have set today. If many girls get married around 20 years these days, their great-grandmas got married much earlier. You can’t find fault with an activity/culture that was normal across the globe, and that didn’t harm anybody

Verses from other scriptures: When people point out our mistakes, we should accept them, and not counter with “Your actions / job / family / work is also bad”. I certainly believe that damaging your furniture will not make my furniture look any better. But the point here is Islamophobes don’t reason out. When no amount of logical explanations help, the only thing left is saying “Your furniture is worse than my furniture”.

Note: This applies only to individual and community mistakes. Islam is a religion from God, and it is flawless. Islam doesn’t say get married at any specific age. Some people confuse the culture with religion.

Excerpts from The Islamaphobe’s Glass House

Islamic Law (Shari’ah), say these critics, condones pedophilia by allowing marriage to children. Most of these Islamaphobes come from Jewish and Christian backgrounds. Yet, the truth is that these Jews and Christians live in a great big glass house; we will throw stones at this house. Islamic Law (Shari’ah) does in fact allow some nine year old girls to be married. But as we shall prove in this book, Jewish Law (Halacha) sets the minimum age of marriage at three years of age, whereas Christian Law asserts that the absolute minimum age of marriage is seven years old.

JUDAISM

The authoritative Jewish website, AskMoses.com, says:

What is the minimum age of marriage according to Jewish law? by Rabbi Naftali Silberberg

…In ancient (and not so ancient) times however, marriage was often-times celebrated at a rather young age. Although we do not follow this dictum, technically speaking, a girl may be betrothed the moment she is born, and married at the age of three. [Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 37:1.] A boy may betroth and marry at the age of thirteen. [Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer 43:1]

In the ancient world, Jewish law seemed to require an act of intercourse for a betrothal to be recognised. The Mishnah said: “A girl three years old and one day may be betrothed by intercourse […]” (Mishnah, Nid. V. 4).

A Daughter’s Coming of Age

In earlier days, girls got married at the age of nine…[following the] custom of marrying daughters at age eight to ten…if the maiden does not get married until the age of fifteen she has no hope of marriage, because she would be considered an old maid…At the end of the nineteenth century, despite these regulations, families still married their daughters at the age of twelve and thirteen…On the eve of World War I, the situation changed somewhat for the better when the legal age for marriage was raised to fifteen.

(Women in Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal,
http://www.utoronto.ca/wjudaism/journal/vol3n2/sehayek.html)

Jewish girls “got married at the age of nine”, a practice which continued up until “the eve of World War I”. Why then are the Jews criticizing Prophet Muhammad (peace upon him) for marrying Aisha (peace be upon her) at the age of nine? Is this not hypocrisy? Is this not a case of living in a glass house and throwing stones? Why is it that Christian adversaries condemn Muslims but say nothing at all to their Jewish counterparts?

CHRISTIANITY

C. Yandell writes in “Carpe Corpus: Time and Gender in Early Modern France”: In canon law, puberty normally determines marriageable age, although the minimum age for marriage is seven years, “the age of reason”, when a child is deemed capable of consent. The lawyer Estienne Pasquier notes that the Digest compiled by Justinian specifies fourteen years for men, twelve for women, but, he adds, if one is capable of carnal cohabitation before this age, marriage is permitted. (Carpe Corpus: Time and Gender in Early Modern France, by Cathy Yandell p.37  Web: Available in http://books.google.com)

Age of Consent: A Historical Overview

Age of Consent throughout history has usually coincided with the age of puberty although at sometimes it has been as early as seven…The Roman tradition served as the base for Christian Europe as well as the Christian Church itself which generally, essentially based upon biological development, set it at 12 or 14 but continued to set the absolute minimum at seven

Age of Consent: A Historical Overview,
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.asp?sid=XH16E3FKBF7Q9P3MKLPC82LUJNKC41U5&ID=87429

Byzantine Studies: 2006 Spring Symposium

Baptism, usually at birth, was the fundamental rite of incorporation into the body of Christ and the Church…Betrothal, sometimes as early as the age of five, marked another stage in the child’s social incorporation

Byzantine Studies: 2006 Spring Symposium, http://www.doaks.org/byz_2006_symposium_abstracts.html

Please read the full book: The Islamaphobe’s Glass House

Let’s also see how Hinduism views the early marriage. This is only to give some historical perspectives, and not to offend the truth-seekers.

Another major religion, Hinduism, finds its roots in early marriages of the girls. Child marriage of daughters 5-6 years old was common due to the custom of dowry and to avoid scandals [Nand 17] [Basham 167-8] [Yadav 70] [Altekar 16] [Banerjee 70]. Hindu Law books prescribe that the best partner for a man in one-third his age. Thus a man 18 year old should marry a girl 6 years old! –

“A man, aged thirty years, shall marry a maiden of twelve who pleases him, or a man of twenty-four a girl of eight years of age; if (the performance of) his duties would otherwise be impeded, he must marry sooner.” [Manu IX.94]

This was meant to prevent any scandals. Narada states that some of the defects to be avoided in brides are if they already had a relationship with another man or have their minds set on another, they should not be selected [Sheth 67].