An allegation by bigots on the internet; they claim the Quran allows pedophilia,

this is a hateful and bigoted allegation that has no other intention but to
demonize Muslims. By Yahya Snow

Of course this claim contains no truth and is absurd. There are abundant claims of
this fallacious and hateful nature on the internet. The internet is an unregulated
media which means it can be a safe-haven for all sorts of hate-mongers and
aberrations; in this case their vile and unscholarly claims are directed at
Muslims.

I am a student of comparative religion and it astounds me that anybody can make

such sullying claims against any religion, through study you realise that all
religions tech good basic morals and encourage good and just actions.
Another aspect of this bizarre claim that truly saddens me is that this ignorant
claim is supported by some Christian evangelical groups on the internet. I say
anybody who supports claims of this nature has nothing to do with any religion but
has everything to do with the devil’s work. My message to any Christian who
supports such dehumanising claims is thus; fear God, for you are working inequity.

Having condemned their actions as hateful, ignorant and as propaganda used to

demonize Muslims we must do the scholarly thing and look at their claim and show
it to be false in a scholarly fashion so that people who may be unsure realise
that the Quran does not support pedophilia. Let us examine their claim.

They claim that the Quran, chapter 65 verse 4, allows pedophilia. The verse in
question is speaking of…As their fallacious claim is hinged on this reference
allow us to quote an English translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali:

65:4- Such of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them the
prescribed period, if ye have any doubts, is three months, and for those who have
no courses (it is the same): for those who carry (life within their wombs), their
period is until they deliver their burdens: and for those who fear Allah, He will
make their path easy.

As you can see, the verse is actually pertaining to divorce and it is not
instructing Muslims in pedophilia. One may ask how did the Islamophobes come to
such a horrific allegation. Is it a totally baseless allegation or do they support
it with some sort of argumentation?

Well, their allegation is in fact based on ‘those who have no courses’. They
allege that this term refers to those who are still pre-pubescent. They are
correct; it does refer to those who are yet to have their period. The problem here
is that the islamophobic critic adds into this verse their own interpretation.
They allege that this verse means that Muslims can have sex with pre-pubescent
girls (paedophilia) as Muslims are allowed to conduct marriages between immature
girls and men. This, of course, is their mischievous addition to the text. It may
fool the one who is unversed with the context and the norms of the time in Arabia.

In Semitic communities, including Jewish communities (the community of Jesus

included too) people would marry off their daughters to older men despite their
daughters being immature (i.e. pre-pubescent). The girls would have to wait for
maturity (ie puberty) before consummating the marriage. Of course (in Islam) once
the girl has reached a mature age she decides if she wants the marriage to stand
(I stress this so nobody goes away with the idea that Islam allows forced
marriage). If she agrees upon it then she can consummate the marriage and live as
husband and wife. The term to describe this (marrying off before maturity) would
be ‘betrothal’, the most well known example of betrothal in history would be that
of Mary being betrothed to Joseph, before Mary and Joseph came together for
consummation (i.e. before Mary’s full maturity) she became pregnant with Jesus via
immaculate conception.

This example is not given to digress but to illustrate that this did happen it is
an example that Christians, Jews and Muslims can relate to.None of the communities
mentioned (Islamic, Christian or Jewish) allowed sex with the girl before maturity
so any accusation that disagrees with this fact is a false accusation. As we are
speaking of Muslims I feel compelled to show that Islam does not allow sex with
immature girls. This will be highlighted through two examples:

1. Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) took part in this type of union too where
the parents of a lady named Aisha betrothed their daughter (Aisha) to Muhammad
(pbuh) and Muhammad (pbuh) and the parents of the girl waited until she had
reached puberty before consummation of the marriage was allowed to take place.
This is a recorded fact in history and the waiting period was roughly three years.

2. The all-encompassing example in this regard is given by looking at Islamic Law

which is based on the Quran and the teachings of the last Prophet of Allah. So the
bigot really should have looked at Islamic law (Jurisprudence) concerning marriage
before making such an allegation. Islamic law does not allow sex with minors (both
girls and boys). According to Islamic Law male can only have sexual contact with a
female, if both parties are physically and mentally mature. The physical aspect
refers to the maturity (having reached puberty) and mentally mature refers to
somebody who is mentally capable (for example, you may have a mentally handicapped
lady who has attained physical maturity but may be mentally handicapped, thus she
would be deemed to be amongst those who are not eligible for marriage).

To summarize:

The Islamophobe interpolates his own sad views into this verse of the Quran by
claiming that the Quran allows sex with the pre-pubescent girl. This is dismissed
as errant nonsense by all those who knew about the concept of betrothal. It just
goes to show that a ‘little knowledge is dangerous’, I would like to add that
severely stunted knowledge coupled with a hateful agenda is even more dangerous as
you can see by the nature of the ignorant claims of the Islamophobes.

If that is not enough for the bigots then nothing will suffice.

May Allah guide us all and keep us away from the trickery of the Islamophobes,
amen