Friday 7 September 2012

Aisha's Age, "Islamophobic Propaganda" and Tayyab Tanvir's Shattered Faith

This is a quick response to a Facebook note published by Tayyab Tanvir on Saturday, 25 August 2012, titled "Aisha's Age and Islamophobic propaganda"

Slander & Attacking a Strawman

Tayyab Tanvir says:

"Islamophobes always come up with this discussion to degrade Mohammad(PBUH). Ironically enough they always quote an article from WikiIlsam. I have to admit the first time I came across WikiIslam and read the article about Aisha's age, it seemed like everything I believed in shattered. My mind could not accept that my Prophet(PBUH) would force a six year old girl to marry him. So I read few more articles on the website including one about how Quran encourages Muslims to kill non-believers. The author supported his argument with various Quranic verses. The interesting thing I noticed about them was that he intentionally left out important parts of the verses to support his faux argument. This made me realize how the author is manipulating Quranic verses and Hadiths only to spread confusion and degrade Islam."

This is not only an unsupported slandering of critics, but also a strawman argument. He is discussing an article titled "Aisha's Age of Consummation". The article "discusses the DMS (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) of mental disorders and cites sahih hadiths to prove that Muhammad was a pedophile according to clinical definitions."

It does not argue the age of Aisha since mainstream Muslims (Sunni Islam i.e 80-90% of all Muslims) whole-heartedly accept that Aisha consummated her marriage to Prophet Muhammad when she was nine (the other 10-20%, the Shi'ites, say she may have been 9-10). It is only heretical Muslims, those who are not even considered Muslims by most (e.g. Ahmadis and so-called "reformist"), that argue she was an adult.

Taking Credit for Other's Work

Tayyab Tanvir says:

"Few days ago I was engaged in a debate on a facebook page. Admin of the page stated that Muslims can’t carry out a decent conversation and support it with facts but instead they would accuse “open minded” westerns of racism and send out hate mails and death threats. So I spent hours researching for data and hadiths to answer their claims, only to get banned in the end because somehow my comments were getting more likes than theirs."

He presents 10 different arguments against the young age of Aisha as the result of his "hours researching for data and hadiths". 

His friends are apparently impressed by "his" hard work. For example, Aymen Siddiqui says, "I am out of words for the amount of effort and research you have presented. Brilliant job !!!" And Owais Tahir says "I am amazed at the extensive research you have done , not a lot of people pay attention to matters like this . May Allah bless you".

But they are praising the wrong man. None of the claims presented in that page were thought up by Tayyab Tanvir. They are the work of Moiz Amjad, "The Learner".  Tayyab Tanvir is dishonestly taking the credit for someone else's work.

Tayyab Tanvir's Arguments Refuted 

Tayyab Tanvir's arguments, no, I mean Moiz Amjad arguments have all been refuted in an article titled "Refutation to Muslim Apologetics against Aisha's Age of Consummation".

For Muslims who may not trust critics, you can read "Our Mother A'isha's Age At The Time Of Her Marriage to The Prophet", Shaykh Gibril F Haddad's unanswered reply to Moiz Amjad.

Disingenuous & Cowardly Behavior

He complains about allegedly "being banned", but the fact that Tayyab Tanvir has been attacking a strawman, has been taking the credit for others work and has already been refuted, has been pointed out twice by a user named Issy Jones and once by me. And every single time, our comments have been deleted:


Conclusion

It is a fact that every single sahih hadith narration on Aisha's age when she had sex with Muhammad says she was nine-years-old.

So when Tayyab Tanvir claimed "I have to admit the first time I came across WikiIslam and read the article about Aisha's age, it seemed like everything I believed in shattered" he was either lying about Aisha's age making a difference to his faith, or his faith had been shattered but he's too indoctrinated to care.

Either way, this exposes the false protests made by shameless Muslim apologists who will shout "Islamophobe!!!" at anything they perceive as a threat to their missionary work, even if those "threats" simply repeat what the vast majority of the world's Muslims actually believe.

Resources on Aisha's Age

From Critics:

  1. A’isha: Mohammed’s Nine-Year Old Wife
  2. Aisha's Age of Consummation
  3. Refutation to Muslim Apologetics against Aisha's Age of Consummation
  4. Responses to Apologetics: Muhammad and Aisha
  5. Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Aisha
  6. Controversies about the age of Aisha 
  7. Aisha the Child Wife of Muhammad
  8. Moral Evaluations of the Marriage of the Prophet with Aisha 
  9. Muhammad, Aisha, Islam, and Child Brides
  10. Was Muhammad a Pedophile?
  11. Really, really wishing Aisha weren't nine

From Muslims:

  1. Our Mother A'isha's Age At The Time Of Her Marriage to The Prophet
  2. Child marriage in Islam
  3. I would like to marry a woman who is 12 years old, her father and she has also agreed. What is your advise?
  4. Ruling on marrying young women
  5. Is it acceptable to marry a girl who has not yet started her menses?