This is the best they can come up with?

Via Huffington Post:

A friend of mine sent me a a Daily Beast piece that said, “A new law would approve marriage to girls as young as nine in a bid to appease the nation’s conservatives ahead of parliamentary elections in the Iraqi parliament in the last days before the April 30 election.” and asked what I think about it as a Muslim mother from Turkey who has a beautiful daughter!

“What in the God’s green earth are you talking about!… I started. My answer is simple: Both trying to make a new law to let girls marry as young as nine and claim that it’s Islamic are not really acceptable. You cannot relate that wrongdoing with a religion! Underage marriages are child abuse and “abuse” doesn’t have any religion or nationality. […]

Nowadays, Islam is the major religion in most of those countries, thus one area of Islamic law that has been subject to heavy criticism. Many of them believe that Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) is the originator of this repugnant practice because some men use his marriage to Aisha (R.A.) as an excuse to marry girls at young ages and claim that they do it to honor Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.)’s sunnah because it is known that his sunnah’s are the primary source of law, ethics and behavior Muslims should follow besides the laws of the Koran. Yet again, these men purposely misapprehended Prophet Muhammad’s sunnah of marriage.

The best translation for Sunnah can be “a normative behavior of the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.).” He did marry nine times, and except Aisha (R.A.), all of his wives were previously married (either divorcees or widows) and they were quite old. His first wife, Khadijah (R.A.), was 15 years older: He was 25, she was 40 when they got married. Their marriage lasted for over 25 years by the time she passed away. Also, their marriage was monogamous, despite the regularity of polygamy at that time. Thus this marriage should also be considered as a standard of sunnah marriage because this marriage was the longest for the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.).

Also, marriage and family have a very important place in Islam. In the Koran 30:21, marriage is described as combination of peace, comfort, tranquility and fulfillment of a natural instinct. The text explains that an important purpose of marriage is to achieve psychological, emotional, and spiritual companionship. So to accomplish this type of companionship level, parties should be equal in a way of access to marriage and compatible in marriage. Thus, child marriages cannot be considered as Islamic because to perform the marriage according to Islamic principles, both parties should reach the age of maturity and physically, emotionally, and mentally to be able to consent independently. Islam clearly insists that marrying off a girl without her consent is not acceptable.