Month: February 2018

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Get Woke, Go Broke: ‘Social Justice’ Agenda Leads Oberlin College Into Crisis

Get Woke, Go Broke: ‘Social Justice’ Agenda Leads Oberlin College Into Crisis

Meredith Raimondo is vice president and dean of students at Oberlin College, an elite liberal arts school in Ohio where the annual cost of attendance (tuition, room and board) is $68,672. Dean Raimondo is also named as a defendant in two lawsuits against Oberlin:

Oberlin College faces two serious lawsuits arising out of social justice activism on campus.
One suit, by a local bakery boycotted by Oberlin students and administration based on apparently false claims the bakery racially profiled students, has been permitted to move forward. . . .
[T]hree Oberlin students were arrested for shoplifting at Gibson’s bakery. Oberlin students claimed racial profiling, and mounted protests and a boycott supported by college student groups, administrators and faculty. The boycott continued even after police released data showing there was no racial profiling in shoplifting arrests at the bakery, and the three students pled guilty. . . . Gibson’s sued the college and its Dean of Students, Meredith Raimondo, for defamation and multiple other claims.
The Gibson’s lawsuit has caused a town-gown split that pits the privileged college and students against ordinary community members. . . .
In another lawsuit, an expelled Oberlin College male student sued claiming the hearing process was biased and stacked against men. . . .
A male student who was expelled from campus in October 2016 for alleged sexual assault has filed a federal lawsuit against Oberlin. . . . [T]he lawsuit contains allegations which, if proven, reflect that Oberlin’s system for adjudicating sexual assault accusations was fundamentally biased against males, at least during the 2015-2016 academic year.
As in the Gibson’s lawsuit, the alleged conduct of Dean of Students Raimondo was at issue.
[T]he student sought to file an Amended Complaint, after discovering a YouTube video in which Raimondo allegedly made statement evidencing bias against males.

Dean Raimondo is allegedly complicit both in the false accusation of racism against Gibson’s Bakery and an anti-male policy under which 100% of students accused of sexual misconduct were found guilty.

Meanwhile, declining enrollment has provoked a budget crisis at Oberlin:

President Carmen Ambar and other senior administrators have launched an 11-day presentation campaign in which all College and Conservatory faculty, administrative and professional staff, Student Senate, student media, and other constituencies will see the largest overview of Oberlin’s financial situation to date, along with Ambar’s proposed plan to rectify Oberlin’s ever-worsening deficit

Because the only thing taught at Oberlin is radical ideology (see “The Cult of Social Justice,” The American Spectator, Dec. 15, 2015), the students are constantly protesting against “imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, and a cissexist heteropatriarchy.” Oberlin’s enrollment is declining because no intelligent parent would pay $68,672 a year for this kind of left-wing indoctrination. And yet the only reason Dean Raimondo has her job is because she is a feminist who has dedicated her career to promoting “progressive” ideology.

Everybody knows that academics seeking faculty tenure must pursue the “publish or perish” principle. What kind of research Meredith Raimondo has published? The only thing I could find was an article (“Intensifications: Representing Gender and Sexuality at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS”) included in a 2005 anthology, Just Advocacy: Women’s Human Rights, Transnational Feminisms, and the Politics of Representation. Feminist advocacy was the sole rationale of Dean Raimondo’s teaching career, as she explained in 2014 when Oberlin bestowed an “Excellence in Teaching Award” on her. She declared that “social justice principles . . . are a key intellectual component of our work,” and described her “research interests” as “gender and sexuality, health inequalities, and social movements.”

Because feminism is the raison d’être of Dean Raimondo’s career, it was therefore a clear indication of Oberlin’s agenda in July 2014 when she was appointed special assistant to the president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and Title IX coordinator:

Raimondo’s position was developed as a result of conversations that happened on campus over the past 18 months about how best to meet the college’s obligation to respond to allegations of gender? and sex-based discrimination and harassment in compliance with Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Clery Act, and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act of 2013 (SaVE). . . .
“The current national conversation about addressing sexual misconduct on college campuses is one example of the ways in which equity issues are deeply connected to educational opportunity,” says Raimondo. “I’m proud to be at a campus taking responsible and proactive steps on these issues.”

What this means, in practice, is that Oberlin is committed to abolishing heterosexuality on campus. If you are a male student at Oberlin, you can be expelled for engaging in any heterosexuality activity, because Meredith Raimondo’s policy is that the only thing necessary to prove a male student guilty of rape is to accuse him. All students at Oberlin are indoctrinated with hatred of “heteropatriarchy,” but there are probably no girls on campus that a boy would find sexually attractive, even if it weren’t for the administration’s anti-male/anti-heterosexual agenda. The typical Oberlin girl is a “queer feminist” like Kaela Elias, whose entire worldview is based on fear and loathing of “cishet white males.”

“I recently learned that the guy who lives next to me and literally never even makes eye contact with me is a REPUBLICAN. I am scared.”
— Kaela Elias, Dec. 14, 2015

A Republican at Oberlin? Why would any Republican go to such a school? Would any Republican expect his parents to pay $68,672 a yearfor him to attend Oberlin, where everybody on campus hates Republicans, and all the girls are “queer feminists” who would probably accuse him of rape if he ever made eye contact with them? The appointment of Meredith Raimondo as dean of students in November 2016 signified that hostility to “cishet white males” is now the official ideology at Oberlin.

“Get woke, go broke.” Social justice is bad for business, and the financial woes at Oberlin — which is now facing multimillion-dollar deficits, in addition to two lawsuits — demonstrate that promoting an ideology hostile to capitalism has harmful consequences even in the taxpayer-subsidized cocoon of elite academia. “Falling enrollment at Oberlin is a key driver of the financial problems,” William Jacobson writes. “At some point Oberlin will have to confront whether the over-the-top social activism on campus, which dominates national media coverage of Oberlin, has reached the tipping point.”

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Bloc Québécois decimated as 7 of 10 MPs quit

The Bloc Québécois, the sovereigntist party that once formed Canada’s Official Opposition, is in crisis mode after seven of its 10 MPs quit.

​The party made the announcement after a caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday morning, pointing to party head Martine Ouellet’s leadership style as their reason for leaving.

A statement from the party said the seven will form a separate parliamentary group.

The caucus was divided into two camps: those who support Ouellet as leader and the seven who accuse her of being authoritarian.

“The crisis shaking the Bloc Québécois is bad for both the party itself and the sovereigntist movement,” said the party in a French statement.

“The differences we have with our leader are unfortunately too great for a lasting peace to be envisaged.”

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bloc-quebecois-ouellet-1.4555185

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WALLACE: Patrick Brown launches libel suit against CTV

Patrick Brown, as he has for some time suggested he would, launched a libel lawsuit Friday against CTV News over their now infamous tale of sexual misconduct.

The lawsuit claims CTV broadcast a “false, malicious, irresponsible and defamatory newscast of and concerning him” on Jan. 24 that “have subjected him to ridicule, hatred and contempt and have caused and will continue to cause damage to his reputation personally and in the way of his office, profession, trade and calling.”

By now it would be difficult to find anyone in this province who hasn’t heard about the CTV story that alleged Brown fed alcohol to two young women and tried to have his way with them.

 

In one case, CTV alleged, the accuser was in high school some 10 years ago when she and a mutual friend met Brown in a Barrie bar and illegally started feeding her drinks. The three left the bar for Brown’s home, where in his upstairs bedroom he pressured the teen into performing oral sex on him.

Except, as is now known, it didn’t and couldn’t have happened that way.

Brown initially denied wrongdoing but in the current #MeTooenvironment, who believed him?

Then in an interview with the Toronto Sun, Brown provided evidence that he lived in a ground-floor apartment that didn’t even have a bedroom door when the accuser was in high school. The Sun spoke with the “mutual friend” the accuser named to CTV who said the night in the Barrie bar had never happened.

CTV then reported that the first accuser had changed part of her story, saying she had been 19 and of legal drinking age at the time of the alleged incident but was sticking to the main allegations in the story, as was CTV.

The second accuser was a former summer student who worked for Brown in 2013 and alleged Brown plied her with booze at a charity fundraiser in Barrie and subsequently at an after-party at his house kissed and groped her and tried to pressure her into having sex in a manner she described as a “sexual assault.”

Brown vehemently denied those allegations as well, and in his interview with the Sun said the young woman had in fact, kissed him, not the other way around, and that seeing she’d been drinking and figuring she’d be embarrassed he promptly took her home.

Multiple sources contacted by the Sun confirmed at least parts of Brown’s version of events. A woman he had been dating at the time, and who was at the after-party that night, said she’d been “annoyed” because the young woman had been following Brown around like a puppy all night. A man who the young woman alleged had been in Brown’s bedroom briefly with her and Brown told the Sun that never happened. Another woman told the Sun the second accuser confided in her the following day that there had indeed been a kiss, but that nothing more had happened.

Brown passed two lie detector tests recently that was conducted by one of Canada’s most reputable polygraph experts that not only confirmed his version of events in both cases but exceeded standards of truthfulness used by the RCMP and FBI.

The libel suit filed Friday contains the following sentence: “The full extent of the damages suffered by Patrick Brown is unknown,” which in the dangerously understated language of such suits potentially means a dollar figure with a lot of zeroes at the end at some point.

For now, there no figure was attached to the suit, although there was the standard demand for “a full apology and retraction” from CTV.

 

http://torontosun.com/news/provincial/wallace-patrick-brown-launches-libel-suit-against-ctv

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Kenya: Muslims murder three Christians, scream “these infidels should be wiped out”

Suspected members of Islamic jihad group Al Shabaab shot three Christians to death in northeastern Kenya after bursting into their sleeping quarters at a primary school. Murdering Christians is a common activity for these jihadis, for the reason indicated by one of the murderers, who said: “These infidels should be wiped out.”

Islamic jihadis have already wiped out Christians to a great degree in the Middle East, and the aim is to do the same in Africa.

With the open borders policies implemented by irresponsible policymakers, the jihad has not remained in those locations, but has expanded into the Western Hemisphere.

It was reported in September 2016 that Mexico was helping bring a flood of unvetted African Muslim migrants to Mexican cities, bordering the U.S. border, many of which were from the Al-Shabaab jihadi hotbed….

Mexican immigration authorities have been spotted ferrying the asylum seekers from shelters and plazas to international bridges with the U.S.

Meantime, the willfully blind continue to lambaste Trump for his responsible efforts to control American borders.

 

“Suspected members of Islamic extremist group Al Shabaab shot three Christians to death in northeastern Kenya at 1 a.m. on Friday (Feb. 16), sources said,” Morning Star News, February 19, 2018:

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Suspected members of Islamic extremist group Al Shabaab shot three Christians to death in northeastern Kenya at 1 a.m. on Friday (Feb. 16), sources said.

Targeting Kenyans who came from other areas to work in predominantly Somali Wajir, some 100 miles from the Somali border, the suspected terrorists from the Somali rebel group entered the sleeping quarters of personnel at Qarsa Primary School and killed two Christian teachers and the wife of one of them, sources told Morning Star News.

After killing Seth Oluoch Odada, his wife Caroline and teacher Kevin Shari, one of the assailants said in the Somali language, “These infidels [non-Muslims] should be wiped out,” a teacher who survived the attack told a worker at Wajir Referral Hospital, the worker told Morning Star News.

The pastor of an area church, undisclosed for security reasons, told Morning Star News that Odada and his wife attended his church.

“We are very concerned about this selective kind of attack on non-locals who are also Christians in this region,” the pastor said. “Our other church members are not safe. Many of the church members, including teachers, have started fleeing the area to their home villages, and some did not attend the church for the Sunday service.”

It was not known if Shari belonged to a church. The bodies of those killed have been transferred to Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi.

The hospital worker said that after shooting the couple, one of the assailants entered the house Shari shared with the surviving teacher.

The gunman shot at Shari, and the same bullet struck the hand of the survivor, who fell down and pretended to be dead, the hospital source said, adding that the injured man said the shooter wore a mask typical of Al Shabaab militants.

The area pastor said local people believe area residents have joined Al Shabaab.

“I think these are the people who killed the three Christians,” he said….

 

Kenya: Muslims murder three Christians, scream “these infidels should be wiped out”

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Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins to chair newly created federal pharmacare committee

CBC News has learned former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins will chair a federal government advisory council with a goal of creating a national pharmacare plan.

Hoskins announced his resignation as minister this afternoon without providing any details.

A federal government source has told CBC News the council’s mandate will be to “consult a wide range of stakeholders, provinces, territories, Indigenous groups and experts” and then provide the government with options on how to proceed with a national pharmacare program.

The advisory council has until 2019 to complete its job.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/hoskins-pharmacare-1.4552739

 

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Patrick Brown suing CTV for libel over sex assault allegations report

Former Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown has served a notice of libel against CTV News over a story about sexual misconduct allegations against him.

In documents filed on Friday, Brown is charging CTV with “false, malicious, irresponsible and defamatory” reports made on January 21st in which two women accused Brown of sexual misconduct when he was a federal MPP.

Brown says the “defamatory words” have subjected him to “ridicule, hatred and contempt and have caused and will cause damage to his reputation.”

Brown is asking for an immediate broadcast and/or public apology and retraction but makes no mention of any monetary damages.

A spokeswoman for Brown said Saturday that he wouldn’t be commenting on the notice.

CTV said it has received a notice of libel and defended its work.

“CTV News stands by its reporting and will actively defend its journalism in court,” the network said in a statement.

Brown resigned as leader of the Ontario PC party on January 24th, but claims his letter of resignation was sent “on my behalf without my permission at the time.” He has vehemently denied the allegations, which have not yet been proven in court, saying there are discrepancies in the women’s stories.

In its original report, CTV said one woman, who is now 29, claimed she was in high school and under the legal drinking age when Brown allegedly asked her to perform oral sex on him at his home on a night when she had been drinking. Another woman said she was a university student working in Brown’s constituency office when, during a gathering at his home, he allegedly kissed her in his bedroom and got on top of her, CTV reported.

Earlier this month, CTV reported that the first accuser updated her timeline to reflect that she was not in high school or under the legal drinking age during the alleged incident, but that the core of her allegations remained unchanged. Brown’s second accuser has also said she stands by her story.

Simon Kiss, a digital media professor at Wilfrid Laurier University who focuses on political communication, said the legal salvo has potential to bolster Brown’s bid to reclaim the party leadership.

While lawsuits are always risky, the potential benefits outweigh the prospective drawbacks in this case, he said.

Future media coverage of Brown will now necessarily have to include the fact that a suit is in the works, he said, adding the move will reinforce Brown’s frequent protestations of innocence.

Media outlets may also be “a little more careful” about repeating the allegations levelled against him, Kiss added.

“There is a small downside in that it will keep this story in the news,” Kiss said. “But he needs to change people’s minds and lawsuits move slowly so it makes sense for the short term gain.”

 

http://www.680news.com/2018/02/24/patrick-brown-suing-ctv-libel-sex-assault-allegations-report/

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$153 million in federal cash to fund child care and education training in B.C.

Help is on the way for cash-strapped British Columbia parents struggling with expensive daycare fees and long waiting lists, say federal and provincial politicians after signing a bilateral child-care agreement Friday.

The federal government’s investment of $153 million was announced in B.C.’s budget this week and is part of the province’s three-year plan to make child care more affordable as it works toward establishing a universal system.

“We all know that child care is expensive and hard to find, and for too long it’s been left to get worse,” said Katrine Conroy, B.C.’s children’s minister, speaking in a Vancouver family centre while toddlers squealed and played.

“That’s left too many parents feeling squeezed because they can’t afford to take time off and they can’t afford the child care.”

 

The agreement will create 1,370 new infant and toddler spaces, help care providers administer low-cost programs and apply new funding streams to train early childhood educators over three years.

It will also expand child care for Indigenous children and kids with special needs.

Jonathan Wilkinson, member of Parliament for North Vancouver, said the investment is similar to what the federal government has committed to other provinces as part of its $7.5 billion child-care investment over the next 11 years.

But he noted B.C. has unique challenges.

“Just like in the rest of Canada, raising a child in British Columbia can be very costly, and perhaps here in the Lower Mainland and in many other parts of British Columbia more costly than many other parts of the country,” he said.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/federal-cash-day-care-1.4549517

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Ontario aims to cut down on elevator outages with new law

Ontario aims to reduce elevator outages under legislation introduced Thursday that would make the province one of the first jurisdictions in the world to establish standards for elevator repair times.

The new law, if passed, would improve user access to elevators by, among other things, beefing up enforcement of maintenance requirements.

It would also allow publication of information about elevator performance to inform consumers before they rent or buy an apartment or condo.

The legislation, introduced by Consumer Services Minister Tracy MacCharles, is part of a broader bill that also aims to enhance consumer control over credit information.

“Access to reliable elevators is a necessity and, in some instances, a lifeline,” MacCharles said in a statement. “Our proposed new rules for consumer reporting agencies and elevators would, if passed, help give Ontario consumers more information about things that we rely on in our daily lives.”

Other proposed measures include creating standards for new high-rise buildings to ensure they have enough elevators to adequately serve residents. If the bill is passed, Ontario would consult with the public and businesses in development of these standards, the government said.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-elevator-reliability-law-proposal-1.4547568

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94 Percent Of Surveyed Women In Hollywood Say They’ve Been Sexually Harassed Or Assaulted

A staggering 94 percent of hundreds of women in the entertainment industry say that they have experienced “some form of sexual harassment or assault during their careers in Hollywood,” according to a new survey.

USA Today worked with The Creative Coalition, Women in Film and Television and the National Sexual Violence Resource Center to survey 843 women who work in the entertainment industry about their experiences with sexual misconduct.

The survey was conducted online between Dec. 4 and Jan. 14, amid sexual misconduct scandals that have roiled the entertainment industry since media reports revealed numerous sexual harassment and assault allegations leveled against media mogul Harvey Weinstein. The Weinstein revelations triggered a flood of allegations against other powerful men in Hollywood, the media, and politics.

Anita Raj, director of the Center for Gender Equity and Health at the University of California, San Diego’s medical school, explained that such a survey is not scientifically representative of the whole industry, but still said its findings are “credible and important.”

“The percentages [in USA Today‘s survey] are higher than what we typically see for workplace abuses, but we know there is variation by the type of workplace,” Raj said. “But it makes sense to me that we would see higher numbers [in the entertainment industry].”

Raj cited the prevalence of the “casting couch” in Hollywood as an example of the industry’s problems, and she does not doubt that sexual misconduct is rampant.

“Yes, I’d like to see more solidity in the scientific aspects of how the data was collected. But 94 percent does not seem shocking. It says this is ubiquitous in Hollywood,” Raj said.

USA Today broke down what percentage of respondents said they experienced a given form of harassment or assault. Most commonly, women were subjected to unwelcome sexual comments, jokes, or gestures (87 percent), while being touched sexually is not far behind (69 percent). Twenty-one percent said they were forced to do a sexual act.

  • Unwelcome sexual comments, jokes, or gestures to or about you: 87 percent
  • Witnessing others experiencing unwanted forms of sexual comments: 75 percent
  • Being touched in a sexual way: 69 percent
  • Witnessing others advance professionally from sexual relationships with employer/managers: 65 percent
  • Propositioned for a sexual act/relationship: 64 percent
  • Being shown sexual pictures without consent: 39 percent
  • Someone flashing/exposing themselves to you: 29 percent
  • Being forced to do a sexual act: 21 percent
  • Ordered unexpectedly to appear naked for auditions: 10 percent

Only a quarter of these women reported incidents after they happened, which was found to be consistent for “all forms of misconduct addressed in the survey.” Many women said they feared personal or professional retaliation for reporting misconduct.

Ten percent of women said they were forced to appear naked without prior notice during auditions. One actress in her early 40s said women are manipulated into appearing nude on camera.

“There are also little ways women get manipulated into showing more of their bodies on camera,” she said. “Like, I had a friend who was on an HBO show and the producers called her the night before she’s supposed to start shooting and tell her that if she didn’t do full frontal nudity (which they didn’t state that they expected at her audition), they would demote the role from a recurring to a one-time guest star.”

One-fifth of women also said they experienced a quid pro quo situation in which they were expected to provide sexual favors in exchange for career advancement.

The survey also found that women from 18-29 years of age are more likely to report incidents of sexual misconduct than older women. Thirty-five percent of women under 30 said they reported incidents of misconduct, while only 19 percent of those 60 years and older did the same.

A publicist in her early 40s, who said she had been subjected to harassment and sexual touching, argued that men who behave this way do not fear any consequences.

“These assailants seem confident enough to know they can become predators without repercussion,” she said.

About half of the reported assailants were in authority, supervisory, or executive positions.

 

94 Percent of Surveyed Women in Hollywood Say They’ve Been Sexually Harassed or Assaulted

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Cleveland: Imam admits Muhammad married 9-year-old girl, justifies the marriage

Strictly speaking, Islam Hassan is wrong: Muhammad married Aisha when she was six, and consummated the marriage (i.e., raped her) when she was nine. Hassan’s admission is unusual, as usually Islamic apologists in the West deny that Aisha was nine at all. The principal reason why this matters is because Muhammad is the “excellent example” for Muslims (Qur’an 33:21), to be imitated in all things. And so child marriage, which means the physical and psychological abuse of young girls, is widespread in some areas of the Islamic world.

Turkey’s directorate of religious affairs recently stated that the legal age of girls for marriage was nine. The Diyanet wouldn’t approve of child marriage if it weren’t Islamic, as it explains in its own defense. And child marriage has abundant attestation in Islamic tradition and law.

“Islam has no age barrier in marriage and Muslims have no apology for those who refuse to accept this” — Ishaq Akintola, professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern, Nigeria

“There is no minimum marriage age for either men or women in Islamic law. The law in many countries permits girls to marry only from the age of 18. This is arbitrary legislation, not Islamic law.” — Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-‘Ubeidi, Iraqi expert on Islamic law

There is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.” — Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council

“Islam does not forbid marriage of young children.” — Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology

Hadiths that Muslims consider authentic record that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the 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).

Another tradition has Aisha herself recount the scene:

The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Bukhari 5.58.234).

Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old.

In April 2011, the Bangladesh Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini declared that those trying to pass a law banning child marriage in that country were putting Muhammad in a bad light: “Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, [putting] the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge.” He added a threat: “Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women.” The Mufti said that 200,000 jihadists were ready to sacrifice their lives for any law restricting child marriage.

Likewise the influential website Islamonline.com in December 2010 justified child marriage by invoking not only Muhammad’s example, but the Qur’an as well:

The Noble Qur’an has also mentioned the waiting period [i.e. for a divorced wife to remarry] for the wife who has not yet menstruated, saying: “And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women, if you doubt, then their period is three months, and [also for] those who have not menstruated” [Qur’an 65:4]. Since this is not negated later, we can take from this verse that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl. The Qur’an is not like the books of jurisprudence which mention what the implications of things are, even if they are prohibited. It is true that the prophet entered into a marriage contract with A’isha when she was six years old, however he did not have sex with her until she was nine years old, according to al-Bukhari.

Other countries make Muhammad’s example the basis of their laws regarding the legal marriageable age for girls. Article 1041 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that girls can be engaged before the age of nine, and married at nine: “Marriage before puberty (nine full lunar years for girls) is prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission of the guardian is valid provided that the interests of the ward are duly observed.”

According to Amir Taheri in The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (pp. 90-91), Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini himself married a ten-year-old girl when he was twenty-eight. Khomeini called marriage to a prepubescent girl “a divine blessing,” and advised the faithful to give their own daughters away accordingly: “Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house.” When he took power in Iran, he lowered the legal marriageable age of girls to nine, in accord with Muhammad’s example.

 

“Cleveland Imam Islam Hassan: The Prophet Muhammad Was Not Marrying a Child When He Married 9-Year-Old ‘Aisha,” MEMRI, November 3, 2017:

Speaking at the Islamic Center of Cleveland, Ohio, Egyptian-American imam Islam Hassan defended the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to ‘Aisha, mentioning various Christian personalities, from St. Augustine to the kings of England, who, he claimed, had taken child brides, and saying that the Prophet’s marriage was in line with the customs and traditions of his day. Islam Hassan, who served as the Imam of the Islamic Society of Vermont for the past seven years, further said that the age of puberty was between 9-15 years and concluded that ‘Aisha had already reached puberty at the age of nine, when she was married off to the Prophet. “So he did not marry a child,” he said. The address was his debut appearance as the imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, and it was posted on the center’s YouTube channel on November 3.

Cleveland: Imam admits Muhammad married 9-year-old girl, justifies the marriage