British Muslim girls being forced into marriage via internet

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11. Mohammad marriage to Aisha was political not sexual

Last edited Mon Feb 29, 2016, 02:37 AM - Edit history (1)

Yes Mohammad married Aisha when she was six, but she was the daughter of the person who became the first Caliph and at the time of the marriage one of Mohammad's closest followers. No sex till she was eleven, and some people question that (Mohammad only child to reach adulthood, Fatima, married Ali who was the fourth Caliph and founder of the Shitte branch of Islam).

As to Asiha, her family help found the dynasty the ruled Islam during the Arab Conquest. She had no children and in her old age lead a revolt against Ali when he was Caliph .

Aisha never liked Ali for when she was 14 she had missed a caravan move and then picked up by man who returned her to her Caravan. She was accused of adultery and when Mohammad asked Ali, Ali said the law was clear, if she was guilty she had to be killed. Mohammad rejected that position and adopted a new rule that you needed four witnesses to prove adultery and since there were less than four witnesses punished the accusers of making a false accusation. Thus Aisha never liked Ali. In her revolt she lost, but Ali forgave her and she lived to see Ali killed and mourned for him.

Aishas wrote several of the Hadith Sunni Islam accept as valid, she is less revered among Shiites.

I bring Aisha up for such marriages where part of the existing pre-islamic Arab culture. Most socities permitted marriages at age 12, including English Common Law. In fact the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in the late 1990s that the entering into a common law marriage at age 12 was still the law in Pennsylvania in the late 1990s for the State Legislature had never changed the law as to Common Law Marriages. This was one of the reason Pennsylvania finally outlaw such marriages effective January 1, 2005.

Most modern Islamic religious leaders point out that such marriages were common in the time of Mohammad but do to changing society norms no longer acceptable. They use the pray attributed to St Francis, "Give me the strength to change what I can change, the endurance to accept the things I can not change, and the wisdom to know the difference". Mohammad could not change everything that was bad at his time period, and one of those things were marriages before age 12. Such Islamic scholars says it is past time to make that change thus just because Mohammad accepted such a marriage does not mean he approvedof them. The lack of children to Mohammad is a sign that such marriages are bad.