Not to be overly technical, but attraction to adolescent or underage males does not necessarily or even probably equate to pedophilia.
Pedophilia has a technical meaning, which is attraction to prepubescent children, male or female.
Generally speaking, an adolescent has already passed through puberty, so the term would not technically apply. The term wanted is ephebophilia, which means attraction to adolescents, post-pubescent but not yet fully adult.
I have no problem with strong laws punishing sex with those who are underage, but I do think it is important not to blur the distinction between a six year old and a sixteen year old. Sex with either is morally wrong and may be illegal, but A is a LOT worse than B.
“But now, less than 18 months after Vidal passed into history, he is himself subject to the most reputation-destructive scuttlebutt there is: the suggestion that he may have been a paedophile.”
Hmmm. What would give them that idea?
“And Vidal more or less admitted it himself, writing in his memoir Palimpsest that he was “attracted to adolescent males”.
Damn fine reporting work going on here. Damn fine.
So Mohammad the Prophet (may piss be upon him) was a genuine pedo for his sexual interest in the 9 year old girl?