The Prophet and his libido

The Economist | January 30, 2003

[sarcasm]

TIME was, long ago, when Muslim commentators delved with tabloid nosiness into the public and private life of the Prophet Muhammad. Bukhari, considered the most authentic of the early collectors of the Prophet's sayings, revelled in the ins and outs of who slept with whom, when and where. No longer. When al-Hilal, a small Jordanian weekly, published accounts, based on Bukhari, of the Prophet's sex-life, the result was shock and horror.

This week, three of al-Hilal's journalists were hauled, chained and caged, before a state security court and tried for defaming the messenger of God. An army general had earlier closed the paper down under a draconian decree, introduced after the September 11th attacks. This new sanctimoniousness, said officials, was a precaution to ward off a hue-and-cry from Jordan's Islamists, already restive over King Abdullah's hands-off approach to the looming war on Iraq. Instead, the government's action encouraged the Islamists.

Within days of the banning, the main Islamist party, the Islamic Action Front, issued a hellfire fatwa denouncing the jailed journalists as apostates, even though one of them is a Christian. Little matter that, as the journalists told the court, they had selected their quotes from books licensed by Al Azhar, the Cairo-based font of Islamic orthodoxy, and on sale all over the kingdom. “The Prophet was a man of religion not sex,” pronounced a former religious-affairs minister prissily.

The paper had quoted companions of the Prophet recording that Gabriel, the angel of revelation, came to Muhammad, then in his 50s, and revealed an unclothed Aisha, aged 6. When the marriage was consummated three years later, said the paper, Aisha so thrilled the Prophet that his libido soared from the “least of men” to the strength of 40. She teased her conjugal rivals that she was favourite because she alone had been a virgin, and the Prophet preferred “to eat fruit from trees ungrazed”.

Modern scholars draw a distinction between the Meccan period, when the Prophet stayed faithful to a widow, Khadija, until her death, and the Medinan period, when he acquired his own city state, and took a young wife about once a year, having nine when he died. “If I say Muhammad was hyper-sexual, I'm not criticising the faith,” said al-Hilal's publisher, Ahmed Salama. “But we've stopped worshipping God, and now worship his servants.”

[McDuckles]

Religion of piece.

[buffyt]

I guess evil cults have been with us a LOT longer than I knew! The more I learn about Islam the less I can understand how so many otherwise intelligent people can be Muslim. I can understand many of the world's other religions, but not Islam. They do appear to worship people instead of God. They don't seem to understand that people are fallible.

[Helms]

Oh, I thought you were talking about Elijah Mohammed, Farrakan's mentor.

[Helms]

Some notable and intellegent minds have called it a Gutter Religion. Apparently it is built in part upon the sublimation of Arab libidos and hot summer nights. Mohammed should have preached: Its ok to masturbate.

[davisfh]

"Religion of piece."

Religion of many pieces.

[SauronOfMordor]

Mohammad was a pedophile, a robber of caravans, a murderer.

His religion is no better than its founder

[DoctorMichael]

new sanctimoniousness............revealed an unclothed Aisha, aged 6...........consummated three years later, said the paper, Aisha so thrilled the Prophet that his libido soared from the “least of men” to the strength of 40. (Hubba, hubba, Mo!) She teased her conjugal rivals that she was favourite because she alone had been a virgin, and the Prophet preferred “to eat fruit from trees ungrazed”............