by Henrik R. Clausen
April 20 2008

from EuropeNews Website

 

While the Pope is struggling hard with the problems of pedophilia in the Catholic church, and is now quite forthcoming in facing it and taking responsibility, pedophilia is still a minefield in Islam.

While not a problem exclusive to Islam, it is worthwhile to look at the ideological challenges in stopping this practice and helping women in Islamic countries to become free. This piece will explore some of the theoretical problems.

But first, a song.

 

From FaithFreedom.org:

They try to tell me my religion is wrong
They try to tell me to follow Islam
They said their prophet was a righteous dude
But I found out none of their words were true

Fair enough. He's been in touch with Muslims, who wanted him to join their side, claiming their prophet was good. He checked the facts and found them lying. That happens.

 

As in Quran 5:101-102, checking the facts frequently make people want to leave.

I read the Quran and I read the hadith

These are decent sources! No second-hand interpretation here, just the originals.

And the sickness of Muhammad was apparent to me

Oops... Interestingly, non-Muslims who did the same tend to agree. At least he's frank about his conclusion.

He justified perversion in the name of Allah
When he married a girl too young for a bra

This is one of the most troubling items in all of Islam.

 

Its founder Qutham (later named Muhammad - ”The praised one”) did marry a girl too young for a bra. It's in the scripture (the finest – Bukhari – and the others) and can't just be explained away.

She was playing with dolls when the prophet came
Her childhood was stolen in Allah’s name
Aisha was nine when he took her to bed

As documented in Bukhari and other places in the Islamic scripture, this is canonically correct. A summary with exact references is at Faithfreedom.org.

That's not good.

'Prophets' are usually (as in Quran 33:21) considered good examples that their followers are supposed to, well, follow. And that goes hook, line and sinker – no exceptions permitted. The evidence in the hadith is extensive. Muhammad really "did" consider his actions justified by Allah. And anyone not considering pedophilia to be perverse ought to have his head examined.

Which leaves the believer with two logical options:

1. Pedophilia is, under certain circumstances, justified.

2. Muhammad was a pervert.

The second is hardly an option, for having this opinion about Muhammad would lead to apostacy, and the believer would become an unbeliever. This, logically, leaves the believers to be stick with option (1), at least in principle.

Don’t tell me that fool’s not sick in the head

That's a harsh statement. Muhammad is (implicitly) called a 'fool', and 'sick in the head'. But what differentiates Muhammad from others who have sex with girls the age of 9? Would anyone argue against calling pedophiles 'sick' and 'fools'? Well, the great difference here is that Muhammad is thought to be 'holy'.

And thus be an example for mankind.

Ehm, that wasn't much better. One thing is to have sex with underage girls, a crime frowned strongly upon in the West. But extending this from just a personal, eh, habit, to be suggested behavior for others is much worse.

Ain’t gonna follow no child molester, sex offender, prophet pretender

Here's the chorus. Of course sensible humans don't follow the example of child molesters. That'd be rather sick.

 

The 'prophet pretender' bit may refer to the fact that Muhammad never gave a single prophecy, presented a miracle or in general came up with anything more religious than a collection of what he said was from Allah (the Quran) and what he said and did under his own responsibility. (the Sirat / hadith).

 

The claim to prophethood comes from his first wife Khadija, after Muhammad had an unpleasant encounter with... something in a cave.

Ain't gonna follow no child molester,
Islam is not for me.
Islam is not for me.

It's quite bad so far.

 

And while it can be argued that this was common on the life of Muhammad, the problem is that his 'religious' example sanctions this as permissible behavior for time unlimited. How can a religion fix the problem of having a founder fond of little girls?

 

Through more than a millennium, this example of 'holy' behavior is fundamentally uncontested and still being used:

The sickness of the Islamic mind
Has caused the Mullahs to be blind

This just might be a reference to Khomeini, who is still considered a hero among Shia Muslims, and in his book Tahrirolvasyleh (Vol. 4) wrote:

A man can have sexual pleasure from a child as young as a baby. However he should not penetrate, sodomising the child is OK. If the man penetrates and damages the child then he should be responsible for her subsistence throughout her life. This girl, however does not count as one of his four permanent wives. The man will not be eligible to marry the girls sister.

This is sick.

 

He continues, and this bears relevance to practices today:

It is better for a girl to marry in such a time when she would begin menstruation at her husband's house rather than her father's home. Any father marrying his daughter so young will have a permanent place in heaven.

Not only does he openly advocate marrying away girls before they reach puberty. He even gives a free pass to heaven for what by sane people is considered deeply criminal.

To justify their prophet they would justify sin
So the sins of the prophet are repeated again

An apt way of describing the problem of having a 'prophet' who plunders caravans, hates Jews with a vengeance and kills infidels and critics.

 

Jihadists today have a source of inspiration without parallel.

This paradox is at the heart of Islam and its struggle to reform into modernity. Muhammad committed and encouraged deeds which today would be considered deeply criminal. He abandoned, in word and in practice, the Ten Commandments that have served Jews and Christians so well through millennia, giving no firm system of ethics and limits of behavior to replace them.

Many statements, rules and examples - so many that the believers, in many realms of life, have a very wide range of permissible actions. That can be quite bad, but worse is the fact that there is no clearly given divine condemnation of anti-Semitism, killing of 'infidels' in Jihad or, as we are looking at here, pedophilia.

The wide selection of usable quotes for either purpose absolves the peaceful Muslim from blame over what the violent Muslims does in the name of his religion, and absolves the violent Muslim from blame over what he does.

 

This is a problem we are facing very frequently when asking Islamic leaders to condemn crimes, terrorism and other barbaric behavior in the name of Islam.

All over the world in Islamic states
9 year old girls suffer cruel fate

This, unfortunately, is true. International Center for Research on Women estimates a whopping 51 million child brides on the planet today. That's a LOT! And Islamic states, unfortunately, lead the stats in this area. Read more in their report Too Young to Wed.

 

For Video 'click' below image:

Sold into marriage to twisted men
And Aisha’s sad story is repeated again

It is. Fortunately, some get out of their situation.

 

A highly publicized case is that of 8-year old Nojoud being forced into marriage with a man 20 years her senior. Let down by her entire family and all people of informal influence, she decided herself to walk up to the court house and demand a divorce from her violent and raping husband. To the surprise of everyone, she got it.

Unfortunately that was not granted merely on grounds of her inalienable right to decide over her own body. The divorce also included an anonymous donor paying her husband YR 100,000 to let her go. The case thus includes an element of purchasing child brides, which would then rationally be considered sex slaves.

 

Not good, and goes to prove the point in the song, too.

Ain’t gonna follow no child molester, sex offender, prophet pretender.
Ain't gonna follow no child molester,
Islam is not for me.
Islam is not for me

Chorus repeat.

 

Islam sure didn't do anything constructive for under-age women yet.

Do you care about women all over the world?
Do you care about those little girls?

Decent human beings should do.

Then stand up and fight for human rights
Speak out against the laws of Islam

Well, do we have a choice? Of course we do!

 

We can bang away at our PlayStation or other game machine, spend our time with the fantasy world of Hollywood, or look for the highest profits to impress our neighbors or women. All very fine, and short-sighted.

What really matters, in the long run, is to do things that will benefit others, in the real world. Not in some imaginary Paradise, not in some well-designed adventure game.

 

In the real world, where people live, breathe and – unfortunately – suffer.

Ain’t gonna follow no child molester, sex offender, prophet pretender.
Ain't gonna follow no child molester,
Islam is not for me.
Islam is not for me.
Islam is not for me.

Well, Islam sure didn't do very well, so far. There's one peculiar item that needs to be addressed too, the practice of stoning.

 

For Video, "click" below image:

There are different ways to address this:

1. You may support it, like Tariq Ramadan, who for the time being recommends a moratorium on the practice in order to not offend the West and human rights activists.
    

2. Or you may ignore the problem, assuming that no sane human being would ever tolerate the practice.
    

3. Or you may decide to support the efforts to Stop Stoning Forever.

As above, the choice is open.

What is truly puzzling, however, is that fundamentalistic Islam advocates the stoning to death adults who commit the 'crime' of ”illegal love” (as if the tribe or the state should control love!), while the very real crime of pedophilia carries no punishment at all, merely regulations on it.

One of these is Sura 65:4 (watch below video), which prescribes a 3-months waiting period for divorcing women, and explicitly includes women too young to menstruate.

 

The practice of pedophilia is simply taken for granted in this ancient text.

 

Islam: How to Divorce Your Muslim Child Bride - The Rules

 

 

Again, probably a standard feature of the strongly male-dominated ancient Arabia.

The problem, of course, is that material like this protects pedophiles today, and there is no obvious 'religious' solution - that is, strong scriptural evidence usable to stand "against" pedophilia. Not that it has not been tried, and fortunately many Islamic leaders do the Right Thing and condemn pedophilia.

This introduces a paradox, however.

 

Some Islamic leaders, like in the YouTube video on Sura 65:4 above, condemn pedophiles to burn in Hell. In that interpretation. Muhammad would be burned in Hell for his acts against Aisha. That leads to more trouble. Sura 33:21 recommends to follow the example of Muhammad for anyone wanting to be with him and Allah on the Last Day.

Now, suppose that place is actually... Hell?

 

Condemning pedophiles to Hell (which makes sense) would imply that, and it's corroborated by the fact that Allah is never, ever in the Islamic scripture described as being in Paradise. Several mentions of him in Hell can be found, in some cases even feeding the fires of Hell with the bodies of those who do not believe in him.

I, for one, believe that pedophiles belong in Hell.

 

The logical problems that Islam faces on this issue are significant, and a logical conclusion to the dilemmas are hard to find, not least given the explicit nature of Islamic scripture on the matter. Talking of Islamic scripture, it would seem that Islam simply adopted the pre-Islamic practices in the area, thus carving the tolerance of pedophilia that existed in ancient Arabia into stone, forever.

Most Islamic leaders tend to ignore this problem, preferring instead bitch about how we in the West do not respect the holy nature of Islam and keep attacking it. But unless they face up to serious problems like this, how can they ever expect respect by decent human beings?

We can respect that the Muslims have the right to consider anything and everything in their scripture to be 'holy', but they can not expect us to share that notion. Particular not on explicitly unholy matters like these.

Can Islam be fixed?

 

I have no authority whatsoever to pass judgment on this. But it would seem that fixing it would require a serious lobotomy of the scripture itself, thereby opening the floodgates of revisionism on all sorts of difficult subjects, potentially even destroying the notion that anything in these books is actually holy, in any meaningful understanding of the word.

As a matter of personal opinion, I doubt that a religious fix exist. At least in this area.

 

But I am open to be proven wrong.
 

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