Saudi Arabia: Child marriage, the Hadiths and the Islamophobia card
Murad Makhmudov and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Saudi Arabia continues to allow old men to marry young girls aged eight years old and upwards. The mantra by Muslims and converts to Islam, is that Islam equals morality and that Mohammed is a great role model but this depends on your interpretation of a good role model? Therefore, with Saudi Arabia supporting Islamic Sharia law and believing that society should be based on what Mohammed did and stated in the Hadiths, it is clear that child marriage is sanctioned because Mohammed also married a child.
This reality is creating a problem for the Guardians of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. If this nation modernizes, then it may be seen to be pandering to Western morals and increasing the age of marriage will be challenged by conservative Sunni Islamic leaders in Saudi Arabia.
Ironically, the people who use the “Islamophobia card” are basically trying to prevent individuals speaking out against Islamic Sharia law. This is despite the fact that Islamic Sharia law and the Hadiths support pedophilia, killing homosexuals, killing apostates, chopping hands and feet off for petty crimes, stoning people to death for adultery, and other draconian laws. All these draconian measures are based on the life and sayings of Mohammed.
Therefore, if people are deemed to be “Islamophobic” for fighting against the brutal reality of many Islamic states which are based on hatred and supporting the abuse of children, apostates, homosexuals, and others; then in a world based on justice and morality the overwhelming majority of people should be deemed to be “Islamophobic.”
However, democratic nations, the mass media on a whole, international child advocates, and major institutions like the United Nations are not doing enough to fight against a legal system which clearly discriminates against non-Muslims and allows children to be married to old men.
More surprisingly is that major religious leaders, irrespective if they are Christian, Buddhist, or whatever, appear to be fearful of speaking out against this injustice. The political correct brigade and “trendy left” and “trendy liberals” appear to have “sold their soul” because if anyone speaks out against the brutal reality of Sharia Islamic law then they are deemed to be “Islamophobic.”
However, it is the political correct brigade, “trendy left” and “trendy liberals” who have joined forces with a legal system and a religion which supports pedophilia; killing homosexuals; supporting the notion that a female testimony is unequal in law; killing or victimizing apostates; and supporting a dhimmitude system which states that non-Muslims are unequal.
Not only this, it is only Islamic sources which are being used by individuals who fear the growing threat of Islamic Sharia law. Despite this, freedom to counter the reality of Islamic Sharia law in nations like Saudi Arabia or rebuking the most draconian aspects of this legal system is being crushed by political correctness and moral relativism.
Therefore, despite a raped teenager being stoned to death in Somalia by Sunni Islamists; converts to Christianity being beheaded in Somalia; homosexuals being hanged in Iran; women facing being whipped in Saudi Arabia for not covering up; non-Muslim men facing the death penalty if marrying a Muslim female in several Islamic Sharia law based nations; old men marrying young girls in nations like Saudi Arabia and Yemen; people facing the death penalty in Pakistan for blasphemy; and so much more, including the unequal testimony of women and chopping hands and feet off; this hatred is being allowed because of the weakness of nations and the failure of people to confront this reality.
Turning back to Saudi Arabia, in an earlier article by Modern Tokyo Times it was stated that “On the one hand the Saudi Arabian legal system of Islamic law supports killing people for adultery and homosexuality. However, on the other hand it is deemed to be Islamic to marry a young child of 8 years of age or 9 years of age, irrespective if the male is 30 years old or 40 years old, or even older. Surely these morals are twisted?”
“Before focusing even more on the strange morals of the Saudi Arabian legal system it is vital to state why child marriages are allowed. This of course applies to Mohammed. “After all, when Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, was 49 years of age he married a 6 year old child called Aisha. When Aisha was 9 years old and Mohammed was 52 years old, he consummated the marriage.”
“Therefore, this sets a major problem for the conservative Islamic religious leaders in Saudi Arabia because they want to govern society by the laws of Islamic Sharia Law and the Hadiths. If they support increasing the age of marriage like the majority of mainly Muslim nations have done, then how does this fit in with the legal system being based on the teachings of Mohammed?”
This is a real problem for Saudi Arabia because the majority of Muslim nations have introduced laws which protect children by increasing the marriage age. Also, more secularized Muslim majority nations have introduced reforms whereby the most draconian aspects of Sharia Islamic law have been rejected.
However, many conservative and radical Islamic organizations in the so-called Muslim world and within Western nations desire to re-introduce the most draconian aspects of Islamic Sharia law.
Turning back to Saudi Arabia and allowing old men to marry young girls then clearly this is based on the Hadiths. The following quotes are from highly acclaimed Islamic scholars and these Hadiths have been known since the early days of Islam.
“Narrated Aisha: The prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six. We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Harith Kharzraj” and it continues that “Unexpectedly Allah’s Messenger came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.” Sahih Al-Bukhari states in volume 5, 234
“Aisha reported: Allah’s Messenger married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house at the age of nine…..” Muslim, volume 2, 3309
“Narrated Aisha: that the prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old.” Al-Bukhari
Therefore, the Hadiths vindicate religious leaders and the kingdom’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, commented that “A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she’s too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her.” From an Islamic point of view and based on what Mohammed did, then the Grand Mufti is technically correct – however, how is this moral and why no reformation like in other faiths?
In an earlier article it was stated that “…a judge in Saudi Arabia justified the right of an 8 year-old child to marry a man of 47 years of age. Even after the mother signed a petition to demand the annulment of the marriage, the judge still refused because of the teachings of Islam. Therefore the judge, Sheikh Habib Abdallah al-Habib, refused openly to annul the marriage and in his eyes it is morally right to marry a child to an old man.”
In the modern world you still have seven Islamic Sharia law based nations where apostasy is punishable by death. Also, in nations like Saudi Arabia men who are very old are allowed to marry young girls. Therefore, it is time for nations like Saudi Arabia to be challenged and the same applies to societies which sanction child marriage to old men.
Also, in modern day Saudi Arabia many Muslim citizens are fed-up and ashamed by religious clerics and some brave human rights organizations in this nation desire change. It is vital that their voice is heard and supported.
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Christians massacred: Obama praised the new Egypt & possible sale of tanks
Christians massacred: Obama praised the new Egypt & possible sale of tanks
Joachim de Villiers and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Hosni Mubarak lost power in Egypt earlier this year and the former friend of America was rebuked by President Obama of America. Obama stated that “Egypt will never be the same” and that the peaceful movement “bent the arc of history.” However, words are cheap because the military maintained its power and the Muslim Brotherhood is the most powerful Islamic movement in the world when it applies to ideology.
Recent footage shows a different Egyptian military which appears anti-Christian and willing to use force against the Christian minority. This is a dangerous period for Egypt and a far cry from Obama’s words which stated that people could create a new democratic government which “represented their hopes and not their fears.”
It may well be that Egypt becomes a democratic nation in the future and that Christians will have equal rights one day in a nation which favors the Muslim majority. However, the Muslim Brotherhood clearly desires an Islamic state irrespective of any manipulation of language that they may state.
Christians suffered from institutional discrimination during the period of Mubarak but forces which desire to crush the Christian minority were kept under a leash. In the “new Egypt” Islamists are demanding more constraints against the Christian minority and the military doesn’t fear driving into a mainly Christian crowd and killing people.
David K. Kirkpatrick (New York Times) in his article called Church Protests in Cairo Turn Deadly comments that “The protest took place against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Muslims and Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the population. Christians had joined the pro-democracy protests in large numbers, hoping for the protections of a pluralistic, democratic state, but a surge in power of Islamists has raised fears of how much tolerance majority rule will allow.”
“But the most common refrain of the protests on Sunday was, “The people want to bring down the field marshal,” adapting the signature chant of the revolution to call for the resignation of the military’s top officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.”
David K. Kirkpatrick in the last paragraph comments that “Father Ephraim Magdy, a priest fleeing the tear gas, said he saw soldiers fire live bullets at protesters, and showed a journalist two bullet shells. “It is up to the military to explain what happened, but I see it as persecution,” he said. “I felt that they were monsters. It’s impossible for them to be Egyptians, let alone members of the army that protected the revolution.”
However, it was the army with support from security officials in plain clothes and Muslims who turned against Christians. The original demonstration was based on the recent partial dismantling of a Christian church in Aswan and some Muslims also joined in on the side of the Christian demonstrators.
It is clear that elements within the army are biased against the Christian community and the Muslim Brotherhood and other Sunni Islamic extremist organizations seek an Islamic state. It is wishful thinking to believe that pluralism will be guaranteed in the short-term because you have too many negative forces in Egypt which seek power and to crush democracy.
The German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle condemned the violence against the Coptic Christian minority. He stated that “It is about time that the Egyptian leadership understands the importance of religious plurality and tolerance.”
Clearly the comment “It is about time…” is aimed at constant anti-Christian agitation by Islamists and Muslim rulers who are opposed to religious equality. Therefore, this comment is widely appreciated because Guido Westerwelle is making it clear that he fully understands that the recent massacre is not an isolated case against the Christian community.
Meanwhile, turning back to Obama and democracy, then despite anti-Christian attacks and growing fears of the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in a future government; America is intent on arming the current military of Egypt despite the delays to democracy and their role in doing little to protect Christians.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency “notified Congress Friday of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Egypt for 125 M1A1 Abrams tank kits for co-production and associated weapons, equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $1.329 billion.”
“The Government of Egypt has requested a possible sale that includes 125 M1A1 Abrams tank kits for co-production, 125 M256 Armament Systems, 125 M2 .50 caliber machine guns, 250 M240 7.62mm machine guns, 125 AGT-1500 M1A1 series tank engines and transmissions, 120mm test cartridges, spare and repair parts, maintenance, support equipment, special tool and test equipment, personnel training and equipment, publications and technical documentation, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistics and program support. Articles may be provided in furtherance of a co-production agreement. The estimated cost is $1.329 billion.”
“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.”
“The additional M1A1 tanks will provide Egypt with a modern tank fleet, enhancing its capability to meet current and future threats. This will contribute to Egypt’s goal to update its military capability while further enhancing interoperability between Egypt, the U.S., and other allies. Egypt, which has co-produced the M1A1 Abrams tank, will have no difficulty absorbing the additional tanks.”
Therefore, before democracy is installed and during a period of constant attacks against Christians throughout various parts of Egypt, it is nice to know “the real Obama” and restate his naïve comments after the demise of Mubarak.
Obama stated that “Egypt will never be the same” and he said this like a child and with glee but he wasn’t in any position to know if this would become a reality after the downfall of Mubarak. Then while democracy is being stalled by the military and Islamic attacks continue against the Christian minority, the “democratic President” of America is in full knowledge about possible military sales.
It is clear that Egypt could go in many directions and not all of them are positive. Therefore, the world doesn’t need Obama making empty promises and nor does it need governments to sell military hardware during times of such uncertainty in Egypt.
http://www.dsca.mil/pressreleases/36-b/2011/Egypt_10-67.pdf MILITARY SALES
http://www.copts.com/english/ COPTIC WEBSITE
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/world/middleeast/12diplomacy.html
http://www.aina.org ASSYRIAN INTERNATIONAL NEWS AGENCY
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