Emulating Muhammad

Daily Telegraph

*  Because Muhammad was the perfect man, uswa hasana, al insan al kamil, and because his conduct was exemplary, a perfect model of conduct for all places and for all time, every Muhammad worshiper seeks to emulate Muhammad:

Report: Muslim cleric marries child

* Because the Prophet of Islam “married Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed [i.e., consummated] that marriage when she was nine years old.” He was at this time in his early fifties. 

AN Indonesian child protection agency is investigating reports of a marriage between a Muslim cleric and a 12-year-old girl, the Jakarta Post newspaper reports. 

The newspaper said the 43-year-old cleric from Central Java allegedly married the minor girl with her parents’ consent in August and planned to marry two more girls, aged seven and nine. 

* Other News: Women’s rights, anti-FGM campaigner killed in Somalia

The Government-backed Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) plans to question the cleric, the girl, her parents, the minister who married them and witnesses of the marriage. 

Under the Indonesian law, a woman must be at least 16 years old to marry. Marriage with a minor carries a maximum of five years. 

The cleric is a rich businessman who owns a Muslim boarding school in Central Java. He made headlines in local newspapers after donating billions of rupiah to the poor during the fasting month of Ramadan. 

His first wife is 26.

In other news:

Women’s rights, anti-FGM campaigner killed in Somalia

“Their organization campaigns for women’s rights and against female genital mutilation but it was unclear who was behind the attack.” My guess would be that it was militant Christian Fundamentalists.

“Aid worker killed in Somalia,” from AP, October 26 (thanks to JW):

The head of a Somali aid agency says a gunman shot dead a Somali woman employee in the latest of a string of attacks on the humanitarian community.Ali Sheik says Duniya Sheik Daud was killed Saturday evening as she returned from work at the Iida organization in the central Somali town of Gurilel. Their organization campaigns for women’s rights and against female genital mutilation but it was unclear who was behind the attack….