Malacca chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam reportedly said that marriages for Muslims below the current minimum age of 16 years for females and 18 for males would be allowed

Rights groups condemn Malaysian state's decision to allow child marriage

"The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88

The Islamic religious council in southern Malacca state has greenlighted child marriage. It did so not as a "practical move," as is claimed here, but in imitation of Muhammad's example, since Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct for Muslims (cf. Qur'an 33:21). And so here again we confront the irony: Islamic spokesmen in the West routinely denounce as "Islamophobes" those who point out that Muhammad consummated his marriage with Aisha when he was 54 and she was 9, and claim that Aisha was much older, but in the Islamic world the Misunderstanders of Islam once again abound, and engage in or condone child marriage in imitation of Muhammad.

"Outcry over Malaysian child marriages," from AAP, August 4 (thanks to Twostellas):

A Malaysian state's decision to allow child marriages caused an outcry on Wednesday, with rights groups condemning new rules that allow Muslim girls below 16 years to wed.

The decision by the Islamic religious council in southern Malacca state has been billed as an attempt to curb premarital sex and baby dumping, after a string of cases of newborns being abandoned.

"Child marriage amounts to paedophilia. We should not condone child marriages," said Ivy Josiah, executive director of leading activist group Women's Aid Organisation.

Malacca chief minister Mohamad Ali Rustam reportedly said that marriages for Muslims below the current minimum age of 16 years for females and 18 for males would be allowed with the permission of parents and religious courts.

Ali Rustam, who is the chairman of the influential state Islamic council, said the plan would reduce the number of cases of babies born out of wedlock and cut incidents of adultery.

"It is a practical move in preventing cases of unwed teenage mothers and other social problems," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper on Wednesday.

The report said that in the first six months of the year 174 Muslim women gave birth outside wedlock in the state. All were below 20-years-old.

In Malaysia, Muslims make up about 60 per cent of the 28 million population and are subject to religious Sharia law which operates in parallel with the civil legal system....

Posted by Robert on August 4, 2010 8:28 AM | 21 Comments

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/08/rights-groups-condemn-malaysian-states-decision-to-allow-child-marriage.html