The Baha'i Studies Listserv The most thoughtful discussion I've seen on the topic is:
The Young Marriage of cAishah: Mother of the Believers by Abû Imân cAbd ar-Rahmân Robert Squires http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Polemics/aishah.html The article makes a number of points and I'd encourage you to read it. The big point is that early marriages were normal for much of pre-modern history and that even enemies and critics of Islam in the past were unfazed by the marriage of Muhammad (saaws) and Aishah (ra). And a related point (directed more at Jews and Christians who make certain kinds of criticisms of Islam) is that the deeper disagreement isn't about Islam vs. Christianity/Judaism as much as it is about a belief in transcendant values vs. a more liberal/pick-and-choose/post-Enlightenment ideology. And so there are certainly ways in which different aspects of pre-modern life show up in the Bible and reveal certain behaviors which may seem out of place today but Christians/Jews apparently have found different ways to sanitize those aspects from their reading of the Bible. In past conversations I've had with Christians I tend to point out that according to the Bible Abraham and Sarah were half-siblings. Also, a few weeks ago over at the Huffington Post I read: Was Abraham Misogynistic? by Menachem Wecker. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/menachem-wecker/was-abraham-misogynistic_b_781973.html The piece is mostly about a series of paintings but it points out that according to some commentaries on the Jewish Torah, Isaac married Rebecca when she was 3! On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 3:26 PM, Tim Nolan <tnola...@yahoo.com> wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv > I recently participated in a discussion about Muhammad. > One person in the discussion stated over and over that > Muhammad was immoral because he married a girl aged 6, > and had intimate relations with her when she was only 9. > > This particular person in the discussion was interested > in nothing except his or her own vitrioloc rants against Muhammad > and against Islam. I defended Muhammad according to my > limited ability, but I would like advice on how to respond to > this accusation of pederasty, because it is likely to come up > again, from critics of Islam. > > Shoghi Effendi told us we should be defenders of Muhammad > and of Islam; I need help with this issue. Admittedly > you cannot reason with a bigot, but I would like > to have an effective answer for this subject. > > Thanks, > Tim > > > All good art is about something deeper than it admits. > --Roger Ebert > > > > > __________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:gilberto.simp...@gmail.com > Unsubscribe: send a blank email to > mailto:leave-542595-68452.e157d5dc5efabb63696f251595c88...@list.jccc.edu > Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu > Or subscribe: > http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st > Baha'i Studies is available through the following: > Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu > Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st > News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st > Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net > New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu > > __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-542642-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
