Mohammed and Ayesha

It is generally accepted that Mohammad married Ayesha a 6-7 yr old, in his fifties and consumated the marriage when she reached puberty around 9 or 11 years. See a detailed explanation by a Muslim scholar: http://www.jamaat.org/qa/ayeshara.html & mention in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad#Marriages_and_children

There is a refutaion of this by obfuscating and calling upon all kinds of sources: http://www.ilaam.net/Articles/Ayesha.html

The fact is that child marriages were common in those times. Tribes in Africa got their women pregnant when they reached puberty. It was an accepted practice then. Girls reach puberty at the age between the age of nine and twelve and the tradition was to get them married off to avoid children out of wedlock. OK then, not now.

Mohammad marrying a virgin child has been harped upon and derided by non-Muslim scholars. Some Muslims get defensive and upset by this and resort to denial.

Instead, why not just accept that Mohammad lived by a code of conduct that was acceptable then, but not now. It was right then, but not right now. There are writings in the Koran that made sense then, but not necessarily now.

Also, in those times there were many widows due to men being killed in wars and the reason for Mohammad to advocate multiple wives is to take care of widows. It was a respectable thing to do then. Not an accepted practice now, except in Islam and with Mormans.

Today, it is an excuse to legitimize a mistress and have sex with more than one woman. If one wants to do so, do it with mutual consent of all parties concerned rather than using God/Allah as a convenient excuse and proclaim that it is God's/Allah's will!

At the age of twenty five, Mohammad married Khadija who was fifteen years older than him and was monogamous till her death, twenty five years later. After Khadija's death, he married a total of nine or thirteen wives. http://www.allaboutturkey.com/muhammed.htm

The number of children he had is said to be somewhere between 6 and 8. All but one of his daughters died at an early age, including two sons. Allah was not very kind to Mohammad's children. The fact that he left no heir is the cause for the conflist between the Shia's and the Sunni's to this date. They all agree on who was Numero Uno, but continue to kill each other over the dispute between who is Numero Dos.

Again, it is not clear whether these eleven or so were his wives or in his care. Six of his children were supposed to be borne by Khadija. What at the age of fifty, with his preaching and fighting he surely must have been exhausted and it is understandable that he had no time for sex.