Love and Marriage, Muhammedan Style

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu'bi, a Saudi marriage officiant, which aired on LBC TV on June 19, 2008:

Marriage is actually two things: First we are talking about the marriage contract itself. This is one thing, while consummating the marriage – having sex with the wife for the first time – is another thing. There is no minimal age for entering marriage. You can have a marriage contract even with a one-year-old girl, not to mention a girl of nine, seven, or eight. This is merely a contract [indicating] consent. The guardian in such a case must be the father, because the father's opinion is obligatory. Thus, the girl becomes a wife... But is the girl ready for sex or not? What is the appropriate age for having sex for the first time? This varies according to environment and traditions. In Yemen, girls are married off at nine, ten, eleven, eight, or thirteen, while in other countries, they are married off at 16. Some countries have legislated laws forbidding having sex before the girl is eighteen.

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The Prophet Muhammad is the model we follow. He took 'Aisha to be his wife when she was six, but he had sex with her only when she was nine.

The translation is provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an independent, non-profit organization providing translations of the Middle East media and original analysis and research on developments in the region.

The TV interview is available, here.

Furthermore, according to hadith 2127 in book 4 of the collection of Sahih Muslim, Muhammad once struck Aisha in the chest, causing her pain, despite her being considered the "best of wives". This example is used to justify domestic violence in Islam, despite scholars and commentators who have stated that Muhammad directed men not to hit their wives' faces, not to beat their wives in such a way as would leave marks on their body, and not to beat their wives as to cause pain (ghayr mubarrih).

The Qur'an explicitly allows Muslim men to marry chaste women of the People of the Book, a term which includes Jews and Christians. Consider the case of Safiyya bint Huyayy, a Jewish woman from the Banu Nadir tribe who became Muhammad's eleventh wife when she was 17 years old. According to the story, after her second husband, Kinana ibn al-Rabi, treasurer of the Banu Nadir, was beheaded by the Muslims, Safiyya converted to Islam and chose to marry the Prophet Muhammad.

Of course, Safiyya was a battle captive and slave. Muhammad suggested that Safiyya convert to Islam and thus become Muhammad's wife, instead of his maid. In Islamic Sharia, Ma malakat aymanukum is the term for slaves or captives of war, and sexual intercourse with such slaves is not forbidden.

Safiyya is said to have a dream which predicted her marriage with Muhammad, and she was beaten by her husband for desiring him. Muhammad, who was violently attracted to her, defended her loyalty to Islam and to himself, yet, at her death, she left one third of her wealth to her sister's son, who followed Judaism.

And how does Safiyya's story relate to the modern world? I can think of no better example than Hannah Menashe.

Hannah Menashe was only 21 when she was abducted from her family in Baghdad ahead of their immigration to Israel. Now, fifty-five years after she was abducted from her family's home by her Muslim neighbor and forced to renounce her Judaism and to serve him as slave and wife, Hannah Menashe finally escaped and is joining her surviving siblings in Israel.

Hannah's story begins in 1953, when her Baghdad-native family – parents and seven siblings – decided to immigrate to Israel. Hannah, already married to a Jewish Iraqi, was also planning to make aliyah, when a Muslim neighbor, who was aware of the family's plans to immigrate, kidnapped the beautiful Hannah to keep her by his side. Her family could not find her; though they looked, it was as if earth had swallowed her.

Hannah was forced to become a Muslim and raised her kidnapper's children for 50 years. No one in the Baghdad neighborhood knew about her secret or her Jewish roots. She was afraid her "husband" would kill her if she tried to contact her siblings.

Although the Muslim forced her to renounce Judaism, she never forgot her religion, her family, or her love of Israel.

When her abductor died a year ago, the now 76-year-old Hannah escaped Baghdad under the guise of being a war refugee. She was able to reach Europe through an Arab country and decided to locate an Israeli embassy.

"I am Jewish, I want to go to Israel," she said in fluent Arabic and with great excitement. The embassy found it hard to believe her story; but when she named her relatives in Israel, the embassy officials realized the truly incredible nature of the story unfolding before their very eyes and quickly contacted the Ministry of Interior's population administration.

Around the first of the year, the survivors of the Menashe family received a surprising phone call. The woman on the other side of the line was Ravit Topol from the Ministry of Interior, with an extraordinary story she was looking to verify.

In the above video from Arutz 7, host Yoni Kempinski introduces viewers to Hannah Menashe.

With the pedophile prophet as their model, it is almost impossible for Muslims not to have some serious problems concerning women.

Unfortunately, women are the spiritual anchors of the home. According to traditional Judaism, women are endowed with a greater degree of "binah" (intuition, understanding, intelligence) than men.

Rabbi Jose said: "I never call my wife 'wife,' but 'home,' for she, indeed, makes my home."

The Talmud says that when a pious man marries a wicked woman, the man becomes wicked, but when a wicked man marries a pious woman, the man becomes pious. The Q'uran takes the opposite approach, insisting that it is the Muslim man who keeps the woman.

It is written, "Men should be careful lest they cause women to weep, for G~d counts their tears."

Surely he has counted the tears of women tormented by the Muslim world.

By destroying women and relegating them to the level of chattel and sex toys, the Muslim world has sown the seeds of its own destruction.

If you want to know more about the role of women in the Bible, come to the Jewish Roots Institute on Tuesday nights at 7:30 for an historical and cultural examination of the place of women in the synagogue and early Christian church.