Muslim child bride raped after marriage to 34 year-old, imam charged with child marriages at Melbourne mosque

Muhammad’s favorite wife was all but six when he married her, nine when he consummated the marriage.

As Robert Spencer has explained,

Few things are more abundantly attested in Islamic law than the permissibility of child marriage. Islamic tradition records that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the marriage:

“The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).

Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:

The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle 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. (Bukhari 5.58.234).

Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old.

Marrying young girls was not all that unusual for its time, but because in Islam Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct (cf. Qur’an 33:21), he is considered exemplary in this unto today. And so in April 2011, the Bangladesh Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini declared that those trying to pass a law banning child marriage in that country were putting Muhammad in a bad light: “Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, [putting] the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge.” He added a threat: “Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women.” The Mufti said that 200,000 jihadists were ready to sacrifice their lives for any law restricting child marriage.

Likewise the influential website Islamonline.com in December 2010 justified child marriage by invoking not only Muhammad’s example, but the Qur’an as well:

The Noble Qur’an has also mentioned the waiting period [i.e. for a divorced wife to remarry] for the wife who has not yet menstruated, saying: “And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women, if you doubt, then their period is three months, and [also for] those who have not menstruated” [Qur’an 65:4]. Since this is not negated later, we can take from this verse that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl. The Qur’an is not like the books of jurisprudence which mention what the implications of things are, even if they are prohibited. It is true that the prophet entered into a marriage contract with A’isha when she was six years old, however he did not have sex with her until she was nine years old, according to al-Bukhari.

Other countries make Muhammad’s example the basis of their laws regarding the legal marriageable age for girls. Article 1041 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that girls can be engaged before the age of nine, and married at nine: “Marriage before puberty (nine full lunar years for girls) is prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission of the guardian is valid provided that the interests of the ward are duly observed.”

According to Amir Taheri in The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (pp. 90-91), Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini himself married a ten-year-old girl when he was twenty-eight. Khomeini called marriage to a prepubescent girl “a divine blessing,” and advised the faithful to give their own daughters away accordingly: “Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house.” When he took power in Iran, he lowered the legal marriageable age of girls to nine, in accord with Muhammad’s example.

Child bride forced to wed man, 34, was ‘RAPED by him after the ceremony’ – as Muslim Imam is charged with ‘marrying a girl under 16’ at a Melbourne mosque

Girl, under the age of 16, has been forced to marry man, 34, in Islamic wedding
She was raped by her husband the day after the wedding, police have alleged
Melbourne Muslim cleric has been charged over the forced marriage of the child
Imam Ibrahim Omerdic, 61, was charged along with the 34-year-old husband
Omerdic appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday morning

By Kate Darvall and Sinead Maclaughlin For Daily Mail Australia and Australian Associated Press., 13 January 2017

A child bride was raped the day after she was forced into marrying her 34-year-old Islamic husband, police have alleged.

The girl, who is younger than 16, was allegedly forced into marrying the man in a traditional Islamic ceremony by a prominent Muslim marriage cleric last year.

In the days following the marriage, the girl’s new husband allegedly sexually penetrated her.

Imam Ibrahim Omerdic, 61, (pictured) has been charged with conduct that caused a minor to enter into a forced marriage at Noble Park last year

When he appeared via videolink in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday he broke down in tears throughout the hearing, more than once, the Herald Sun report.

He will remain behind bars until his next appearance on February 3.

The underage girl was also in court and watched on as the man she was allegedly forced to marry was remanded in custody.

The Muslim cleric who married the two at Noble Park, Melbourne last year was also charged.

Imam Ibrahim Omerdic, 62, was charged with conduct that caused a minor to enter into a forced marriage.

Omerdic appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday morning along with a 34-year-old man, who appeared before the court via video link

Omerdic appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday morning along with the 34-year-old husband.

A DVD of the ceremony being conducted at a Melbourne mosque may form part of the evidence, the court was told.

Omerdic is the imam of the Bosnian mosque in Noble Park in Melbourne and is listed as a Muslim marriage celebrant.

Omerdic’s bail was continued.

Omerdic is the imam of the Bosnian mosque in the Melbourne suburb of Noble Park (pictured) and is listed as a Muslim marriage celebrant.