Was Muhammad a devil and a pedophile?

Was Muhammad a devil and a pedophile?

Christian fundamentalist "pastor" Jones called Islam the religion of the devil and threatened to have a bonfire of the Korans to commemorate 9/11. I looked up the etymology of the word devil and was pleasantly surprised to learn that it originally meant slanderer or somebody who assaults the character of another person. All along I thought a devil had its roots in evil and was meant a person of evil deeds. But I suppose being a slanderer is committing an evil act, an assault of somebody's character. As a person who respects facts and truths. I would have to say I seldom practice this base, despicable, cowardly, cheap behavior even though I am often a victim of this behavior, the latest incident took place only a few weeks ago.

One of reasons why Muhammad was viewed as a devil was his marriage to a very young girl (Aisha or something like that), aged six, and a daughter of one of his associates. Please bear in mind that Muhammad did not consummate the marriage until the girl had menarche, some sources said when she was nine years old. I admit that this marriage was a stain on Muhammad's character and a reflection of a love marked by lack of self-control and wisdom. But since Muhammad had power and it was one of the rare circumstances he wielded unwisely. But the point I want to make in this morning's meditation was that this Muhammad's love and marriage to this young girl didn't make him a pedophile because of the following reasons:

1. Pedophilia is an illness, marked by an unhealthy and uncontrolled sexual attraction to very young people. A pedophile would not marry ONE young girl and wait for her to reach child-bearing age to have sexual relations with her. A pedophile is a sexual predator. He (can also be a she, but rarer) does not wait. And he does not limit himself to one single victim.

2. The fact that Muhammad waited and he only had one young girl as one of his wives established that his marriage to her was based on love. Love, as we all know, can strike us in unexpected ways and make us helpless victims. Very often, we don't choose love; it chooses us. I am talking about true, wild, authentic, genuine, undying, emotional love, not the practical version characterized by money, status, and lustful attractions.

Why do I bring up the subject of Muhammad's alleged pedophilia again? Reasons:

1. To show off my ability to reason logically.
2. To remind myself and all concerned that facts are not necessarily the truths although there is a link between them.
3. To demolish once and for all any lingering notion that Muhammad was a pedophile.
4. Religious matters, though intensely private, can be and should be subjects of public discussions because only through genuine, open, mature discussions characterized by a respect for facts and logic, can we grow intellectually and then we are free to draw whatever private conclusions about the matters we may like in the privacy of our homes and in the remote recesses of our own minds. Today and a few weeks ago, I mentioned that although I still don't believe in a personal God that has a personal interest in me and would listen to me in my prayers, I, after decades of reading about and reflecting upon and debating with others about God, have arrived at a conclusion that God is an experience, similar to the moment of enlightenment in Zen Buddhism. I have written about the experience, using borrowed words from C.S. Lewis, an atheist turned Christian, in a form of a poem.

Wissai
September 11, 2010
Anniversary of 9/11 attacks on Anerica, attacks motivated in part by religious impulses.