timeimmortal

As I am pretty sure I’ve said before, I really want to think better of Islam, both as a Religion and in a more general, philosophical sense. But every time I work up the nerve to maybe be a little more charitable in my assumptions, something like this crops up:

Stuff I wish I’d made up:

Saudi marriage officiant Dr. Ahmad al-Mu’bi told Lebanese television viewers last week that it’s permissible for girls as young as 1 to marry — as long as sex is postponed.

Al-Mu’bi’s remarkable comments also included an explanation that “there is no minimal age for entering marriage.”

“You can have a marriage contract even with a 1-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of 9, 7 or 8,” he said. “But is the girl ready for sex or not?” What is the appropriate age for sex for the first time? This varies according to environment and tradition,” al-Mu’bi said.

Actually, crazy may not be the best word to describe this nonsense…And these are the same clowns who call the West decadent?

If one follows the hadith (the sayings and actions of Muhammad), one could argue that the minimum age for sex is nine, since that is the age that most scholars agree the (false) prophet’s wife Aisha was when the (false) prophet “consummated” their marriage. Apparently, Aisha was six when she was wedded to the (much older — think, like, fifty) Muhammed.

How can a one year old marry? Even in Islam, the whole concept of marriage hinges, at least in part, on the mutual consent of the parties involved. And while I realize that in Islam the woman has less value and fewer (if any) rights, and so can almost be “sold” into a marriage by the consent of her parents, how could anyone honestly think that an infant is marriageable? How sick in the head does one have to be to even discuss the possibility of such a thing?

No, wait, strike that. How sick in the head does one have to be to discuss the possibility of such a thing, and then move on to a discussion about what age it is appropriate to sexually consummate the marriage…without ever mentioning an age in excess of nine years?

As I say, I really want to find a way to have a higher opinion of Islam. And yet, at every turn, it just seems to be the case that all the (false) prophet managed to establish was a weird cult obsessed with sex and death.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!