Free Republic

One GOP Missouri lawmaker defended a 12-year-old’s right to get married during a debate about anti-transgender care legislation earlier this week. Missouri State Sen. Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove) said on the floor Tuesday that he knew at least one person who got married at 12 years old and followed up with a comment of “Guess what, they’re still married.” State Rep. Aaron Crosley (D-Independence) brought forth attention to Moon’s remarks via Twitter, sharing a video of the floor debate late Wednesday that was largely met with criticism among viewers.

European Court upholds conviction of woman who condemned Muhammad’s marriage to 6-year-old March 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The Austrian courts were right to condemn Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff for having sharply criticized the prophet Muhammad’s marriage with a six-year-old girl, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has implicitly decided. On Tuesday, the jurisdiction in charge of implementing the European Convention on Human Rights, ratified by the 47 member-states of the Council of Europe, refused to refer Sabaditsch-Wolff’s appeal against a Chamber judgment approving the Austrian decision last fall to the Grand Chamber of the Court. The ECHR did not trouble to...

A billboard erected on a busy road in Indianapolis, Indiana, is sparking heated controversy among residents. The sign in question, which can be seen from the southbound lanes on I-465 near the Washington Street exit, claims to list the characteristics of "the perfect man."Among the traits listed on the contentious sign are "married 6 year old," "slave owner," "rapist," "beheaded 600 Jews in one day," "13 wives, 11 at one time" and "tortured and killed unbelievers." By now, you've likely figure out that the traits listed here are anything but those of an ideal human being -- and opponents...

Dozens of billboards with Muslim themes are sprouting nationwide, proclaiming what organizers say is the true message of Islam and its prophet, Muhammad: peace and justice, not extremism and violent jihad. The New York-based Islamic Circle of North America has erected 100 new billboards over the summer that feature statements such as: “Muhammad believed in peace, social justice, women’s rights” and “Muhammad always taught love, not hate; peace, not violence.” Also listed are a website and a phone number people can call for more information. They are in cities including Boston; New York; Phoenix; San Diego; El Paso and Austin,...

The process of approving the law in Canada against "barbaric cultural practices" has been completed and it became effective on Thursday, according to the Toronto-based CIJnews. The law was passed on to the Senate on November 5, 2015 under the name "Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act," with the aim to provide better protection for immigrants deemed at greater risk of physical injury, primarily women and girls who had immigrated to Canada. As part of this, new immigrants married to more than one wife or who were convicted of crimes against women in their home countries will not be...

The Shiite population of Baghdad may take an immense step backward for female equality if a new piece of legislation allowing young girls to marry is passed. The bill called the Jaafari Personal Status Law permits girls that are younger than 9 to marry with only the girl’s father having authority over the match. On Feb. 25, the Jaafari Law gained approval from Iraq’s Council of Ministers and will affect 65 to 70 percent of the nation. The bill proposes additional regulations as well including the prohibition of Muslim men marrying non-Muslim women. The document also states that husbands are...

How was he to know it was wrong? The Imam was from Pakistan where raping children is a routine fact of life. Police have arrested and charged a Muslim imam accused of conducting the marriage of a 12-year-old girl in the Hunter Valley this year. Imam Muhammad Riaz Tasawar, from Pakistan, will face court in April.The Muslim cleric had come to Australia on an employment visa sponsored by The Islamic Centre of Newcastle. He worked at the center for four years before news of the illegal union spread.Detectives from the Child Abuse Squad arrested the 35-year-old Pakistan-born man outside Parramatta...

A Bosnian couple who arranged a 13-year-old bride for their mentally disabled son were sentenced to five years in jail by an Austrian court for abetting the sexual abuse of a minor. The parents, both 44 and residents of Austria for 26 years, had paid the poverty-stricken Bosnian girl's parents 2,500 euros ($3,400) in 2011 to arrange the marriage to their 17-year-old son, the Korneuburg prosecutors' spokesman said on Wednesday.

Mohammed Mahmoud Omar Mefleh, 34, and Antoine Clela, 31, were charged with enticement of a child and harassment. The victim told police she was playing with a sibling in her yard when Mefleh and Clela approached her several times and tried to lure her into their vehicle. She told officers they kept asking for sexual favors. The suspects are with a foreign military in a middle eastern country and are part of a training mission at Fort Leonard Wood, just a couple miles from where the attempted abduction took place.

Police now believe that Maria, who is thought to be four or five, was being prepared for marriage at the age of 12. Her pale skin, near-white hair and blue eyes would have made her a ‘prize bride’ among the gipsy community. She would have fetched Salis and Dimopoulou a large dowry, according to police sources. Officers investigating the case believe the prospect of a bridal pay-off is why Maria had not yet been sold. She was treated as an ‘investment’ to be nurtured and protected until she reached the traditional Roma ‘coming of age’ - usually at the age...

An 8-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age, a social activist and two local residents said. The girl, identified only as Rawan, is believed to have suffered tearing of her genitals and a uterine rupture. Activists are now calling for the groom, who is believed to be around 40 years old, and her family to be arrested so they can face justice in the courts. "On the wedding night and after intercourse, she suffered from bleeding and uterine rupture which caused her death," Arwa Othman, head of Yemen...

A girl of eight years old has died after suffering internal injuries on the night of her arranged marriage - to a man more than five times her age. The young girl, named only as Rawan, died in the tribal region of Hardh in northwestern Yemen, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan. According to Gulf News, she died after suffering a tear to her genitals and due to severe bleeding. There have been calls to arrest her family and husband, who was reportedly 40 years old, as activists demand an end to the practice of child marriages in the...

At age 11, Ghulam was married off to 40-year-old Jaiz in a rural Afghan village, making her only one of more than 10 million young girls who are being forced to wed men old enough to be their fathers or grandfather every year. In an effort to start a global conversation about the devastating effects of early marriages, which are currently practiced in more than 50 developing countries, the United Nations designated October 11 as International Day of the Girl Child this year. To mark the occasion and draw attention to the problem of child brides, photojournalist Stephanie Sinclair teamed...

1) INTRODUCTION Picture this historical setting: A 49 year old man asks his best friend if he could have his permission to marry his 6 year old daughter. His friend agrees. The man then visits his best friend’s house and speaks with the 6 year old daughter. Her parents watch as the he proposes marriage to the child. He is serious; he wants to marry the little girl and is asking for her consent. The little child says nothing; she only stares at him in silence. The Islamic source materials state that Muhammad proposed marriage to Aisha when she was...

Following are excerpts from a religious program featuring Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-'Arifi, which aired on Iqra TV on July 5, 2011: Muhammad Al-'Arifi: There is no agreed-upon minimum age for the marriage of a boy or a girl. It depends upon their maturity. Let's assume that someone wants to marry your 20-year-old daughter. But your daughter's mentality and capabilities… She wouldn't know how to handle it. You feel that her marriage is bound to fail, because she has no understanding of how she is supposed to behave. You think that this girl is not ready to get married. It would...

A Saudi father went to hospital with his eight-year-old daughter for medical tests on the girl ahead of her marriage but the management succeeded in persuading him to cancel the plan, a local newspaper reported on Thursday. Receptionists and nurses at the hospital in the central town of Rass were shocked when the unnamed father requested marriage tests for his daughter, prompting them to inform the management, Kabar said. “Members of the management talked to the man and tried to convince him that what he was doing is a serious social violation,” the paper said. “In the end, the man...

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs faced a Texas judge Wednesday more than two years after authorities discovered his followers married underage girls at an Eldorado ranch, prompting the removal of 438 children, the largest child custody case in U.S. history. A wan Jeffs, 54, appeared before state District Judge Barbara Walther in San Angelo where he was arraigned on three charges involving two underage brides, unidentified girls who were 12 and 14 at the time of the alleged crimes. He's accused of sexually assaulting one girl in 2005 and committing bigamy and aggravated sexual assault with the other girl in...

Fourteen-year-old Rekha Kalindi, who lives in an eastern India village roiled by starvation and underdevelopment, has never watched India's screen divas portray empowered women in lavish Bollywood movies. Living in a mud hut on one meal a day, Rekha this year made a long journey by train from this obscure hamlet in West Bengal to India's prosperous capital, New Delhi — where she was feted by the country's first female president, Pratibha Patil. The act that brought her fame: Rekha said "no." The girl said "no" to her parents when they arranged her marriage at age 13 last year, an...

The Saudis really need to get an infomercial out there — and the Nation magazine and other leftist sites that apologize for Islamic gender apartheid can feature it on their webpages. It would go something like this: A Saudi sheikh dressed slickly in Saudi garb would be sitting confidently in a chair, looking into the camera with an excited smile. He would then begin asking, with earnestness and an encouraging tone: Are you a pedophile? Do you like underage girls? Would you like to rape one of them — or several? And get away with it? Even have it legally...

WATCH THE VIDEO BEFORE CAIR GETS IT PULLED BACKGROUND ARTICLEMUHAMMAD, AISHA, ISLAM, AND CHILD BRIDES by Silas NOTE I needed to edit and correct this article because I’ve learned some new details. Initially, I believed what many Muslims asserted: Muhammad sexually consummated his marriage to the nine year old Aisha following her first menstruation. HOWEVER, after reading brother Sam Shamoun’s articles (1, 2), I realized that the Quran, the Hadith, and Muslim scholar’s writings state that a Muslim husband can engage in sex with a child-bride before she has her first menses. Further, Muhammad actually did just this –...