As a person who loves women and hopes for equal rights and better treatment of women throughout the world, I have certain issues with Islam's stance on women.
I am trying to be very sensitive here for obvious reasons but this concerns me. I would love for someone who is a learned Muslim to address the following issues. Please don't take it personally but lets try to be objective of what is written in Muslim religious texts.
If you didn't know, according to the sahih (authentic or reliable) hadiths, Muhammad married a 6 year old named Aisha and consummated it when she was 9 year old. I will quote just several of the hadiths.
Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64
Narrated 'Aisha:
that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).
Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 73, Number 151
Narrated 'Aisha:
I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my girl friends also used to play with me. When Allah's Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me. (The playing with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for 'Aisha at that time, as she was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty.) (Fateh-al-Bari page 143, Vol.13)
Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 90
Narrated Aisha:
When the Prophet married me, my mother came to me and made me enter the house (of the Prophet) and nothing surprised me but the coming of Allah's Apostle to me in the forenoon.
Because of Muhammad's perversion for a very young girl there are girls today who are forced to marry old men all in the name of Islam. Muhammad's legacy leaves behind horrible consequences for many young girls today.
For examples:
"..this 2008 "Times" article about forced child marriages in Nigeria, reveals that there is "fierce resistance" in its mostly Muslim states to a ban on child marriage, because they see such a ban as contrary to Sharia, which is why only one of them has agreed to a modified form of the ban (which outlaws marriage to pre-pubescent girls):"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5248224.ece
These 4 BBC News, "New York Times", UN, and "Wall Street Journal" articles mention Islamists in Yemen, Niger, and Saudi Arabia who say that Mohammed's child bride is the reason why they are in favour of child marriage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7711554.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/world/middleeast/29marriage.html
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75932
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903635604576472011907391364.html
"The "Views of harsh punishments" section of this 2010 Pew Research poll, revealed that most Muslims in Nigeria support 3 grotesque, and extremely violent Sharia punishments (stoning adulterers to death, cutting off the hands of thieves, and executing people who abandon their Muslim faith), and that Muslims in Pakistan, Jordan, and Egypt are even more strongly in favour of those 3 punishment.."
http://pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/
"Saudi wives can be not only pre-pubescent, but even babies, because Saudi Arabia has no minimum marriage age at all, as this 2008 Associated Press article reveals:"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26042107/ns/world_news-mideast/n_africa/
"That article quotes Saudi marriage official Ahmad al-Muabi's opinion that fathers can legally sell their 1 year old daughters to husbands if they wish."
"More than 1,000 of the 8,000 forced marriages of Britons each year are believed to involve girls of 15 or under, with one case last year allegedly involving a girl of five."
http://www.*****************/news/a...y-girl-12--long-parents-dont-tell-anyone.html
"Hundreds of girls below the age of 10 each year are forced into marriage in Iran every year -- and the trend is experiencing a dramatic increase."
http://www.ibtimes.com/child-bride-...seeks-lower-girls-legal-marriage-age-9-760263