Tony Bennett

You failed to reply to my direct rebuttal. Here it is in full in case you missed it:

You seem to be focusing upon the age of Aisha, when actually, the lesson of Mohammed (pbuh) is related to her sexual maturity. Your post demonstrates this.

They were betrothed when she was 6, why did he wait until she was 9 to consummate the marriage? The answer is because he waited for her puberty to signify that she was mature.

The age of Aisha was not the key to sexual relations. But her maturity was. If it was the intention of Mohammed to simply have sex with a young girl, why wait 3 whole years? He was a religious and political leader. He was betrothed to Aisha and the whole community knew it. What stopped him him from marrying her and consummating the marriage whenever he wanted? Why did he wait a whole 3 years?

The actual lesson that Mohammed (pbuh) taught us is that the minimum requirement for taking a wife is that she is physically sexually mature and capable of rearing a child. Does this mean that we should all marry 9 year old girls? No. Not at all. Women may become sexually mature at various ages, but Mohammed (pbuh) showed that the minimum one must do is wait for sexual maturity to occur before marriage is allowed. Is that a bad thing?

You present Aisha as if she was the only example by which Muslims take their lessons about marriage, but Mohammed (pbuh) did not teach us that marrying exclusively 9 year old girls was permissible, otherwise, how would one explain every single one of his other wives, the first of whom was older than him and herself a widower?

Why did even the non-Muslim enemies of Mohammed (pbuh) not bat an eyelid at his marrying Aisha? Because 1400 years ago, it was acceptable to marry girls at a young age. If the people who were enemies of Mohammed (pbuh) did not make a song and dance about it then, who are we to do so now?

It was acceptable in Europe until quite recently to marry young girls, and this was in fact unrelated to the physical maturity of the girls and more related to political gain. Muhammed (pbuh) intention also was to create lasting political ties by marrying Aisha, so it wasn't all about sex you see. She was the daughter of his political and religious ally, and he sought to strengthen the bond between them.

Aish was the wife of Muhammed (pbuh) and had all the rights of a wife.

Aisha went on to be a renowned Muslim scholar being one of the most prolific contributers to the Islamic Hadith. She is one of the reasons that you know so much about Mohammed. Do you think that she would carry on within Islam after the death of Mohammed (pbuh) and contribute so much to Islamic theology without good reason?

It must also be taken into account that life spans in Arabia 1400 years ago were shorter than they are now. Childhood did not last long and there was no such thing as a teenager dossing about as a student. Kids had to grow up fast and so would have been physically and mentally more prepared for earlier marriage as there was a much smaller timeframe between childhood and adulthood than there is nowadays.

The rational facts when laid before you dispel the none-to-subtle subtext of peadophillia that runs through these kinds of accusations.

Finally, the link you posted with regards to 'forced' marriages is not germane to this debate. If it is your intention to assert that Aisha was forced into marriage, linking to a newspaper story is not the way to do it. If you have evidence that Aisha was forced to marry against her will - remember, she was one of the single largest contributors of Hadith - please bring it forth for debate, otherwise, refrain from trying to link two separate and unrelated stories.

The pamphlet pointed out that Mohammed became engaged to his bride (Aisha) at the age of six and consummated his 'betrothal' to her when she was nine. He just summoned her from her mother one day. Imagine you are having a cream tea in the garden with your nine-year-old daughter and then all of a suddon a 54-year-old bloke knocks on the door and says: "You know that betrothal? Well, I'm taking Aisha today". Apart from the cream tea bit, that's *exactly* what happened. The Muslim Hadith also records, for good measure, that he had explicit dreams about her when she was four, but that bit didn't go in my pamphlet. My pamphlet said that if Mohammed was alive today he would be successfully prosecuted for child sexual abuse. Since true Muslims say they pattern themselves on Mohammed (white robes, long beard etc.), it is vital we pay close attention to Mohammed's life, not just accept the sanitised and untrue version about him given to us by Muslims today. Please tell me if you disagree

Tony you have some pretty strong views dont you?
In 2004 you privately circulated a pamphlet in which he called the prophet Muhammad a paedophile

Replying to Imperium: After tara's disgusting comment about Jews has been tolerated and allowed to stand by the Moderators, and others have joined in the attack on the Jews, it might be time for me to leave the school, since the teacher is happy for an entire ethnic group to be condemned in extremely unpleasant language. Clearly tara is not in breach of school rules. Carry on Jew-bashing if you all will. But not with me around

A true man stands and fights his corner: he does not whinge and cry to "teacher"!