Muslims should confront bizarre and inconvenient aspects of their history

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Dec 27, 2021 at 10:08

Dear Dr Pipes:

I am referring to the above letter by your reader Hamzah from UAE. A lot of sentiments expressed by Hamzah are admirable and so is his willingness to have a polite discussion about Islam. But, Hamzah also defended Muhammad's marriage to 6-year old Aisha.

Hamzah unapologically mentioned that Aisha's father offered his six year old female child in marriage to 50+ old Muhammad for political convenience and Muhammad accepted the proposal. Even if marriages with 6-year old girls for political convenience were acceptable in that era, this fact must be presented with utmost apologies in subsequent world so no Muslim even remotely attempts following them. The history of Islamic invaders is laden with marriages of political convenience.

I do not know how a billion people are convinced by their society to defend every aspect of their entire history. In his message Hamzah also defends the Muslim marauder Ghazni who desecrated the Hindu temple of Somnath. Hamzah's apology that Ghazni did not do so for religious reason is ridiculously weak: By its very doctrine, there is no separation of religion and politics in Islam. If Ghazni the Muslim king looted Somnath, Islam the religion must bear responsibility (in particular because, Islam has not learned to separate religion from politics even today)

Islam stands on very thin ice. Muslims must own responsibility and refrain from presenting rehearsed, clichéd and weak defenses. Polite but firm criticism of Islam by non-Muslims will benefit both Islam and Muslims.

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