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>>Ankerberg: And we're talking about Islam and women. And I said we were going to talk
about, if an Islamic woman, 700 million of them out there in the Muslim world, if some
of them that are single have interest in a Muslim man, how is it they can get together?
Is there anything that they can do? I said, is it possible for them to date? You laughed.
Tell me why you laughed.
>>Emir Caner: Well, there's no such thing as dating in the Islamic world, at least in
the traditional Islamic world. In the West if they've accepted some more moderate rights
there. But the father has the right over his daughter. So in Niger, he can give her away
even before puberty. In Yemen, 50% of all women are married off by the father's consent
and approval before they're 15 years old. In Iran it's 12 years old. And he can hand
over, that is, it's the father's right to hand over either because another man thinks
she's beautiful, or there's wealth behind her, or her family wants to connect with another
family. Those are the issues that Aisha say makes a woman ready for marriage. And so there's
a youngness to it that we in the West would say, well, hold on; she's not ready at any
age, or at 12. I have two daughters and they're not going to be ready by 15. There is an Islamic
value system that we would hold that's absolutely abhorrent.
>>Ankerberg: I was haunted by the words of Aisha in the Hadith who at, what, nine years
of age, she says, I'm swinging on the swing, and tell me the rest.
>>Emir Caner: Well, she's playing as a child. And in Hadith volume 7 number 64, Muhammad
says he consummates the marriage with her when she's nine years old. Now, even though
Muslims will try to justify one way or another, or say she was a bit older, this is codified
in their constitution. And so they have to struggle with a verse that they cannot deny,
but many Muslims struggle with experientially, being fathers and mothers.
Ankerberg: And this is where it's very ironic; that at the United Nations, you have the OIC
[Organization of Islamic Cooperation], you have what, 57 countries that are arguing for
sharia law, for that kind of thing to be implemented in all of those countries. And I'm saying,
where is the world in terms of saying we can't go with that? And turning down the human rights
declaration of the United Nations, we're just not going to obey that, okay. So, these are
some of the reasons I want to bring these things up in the program. I think it's time
for the Christians to understand what Islamic women are experiencing right now while we
are living, and say this is wrong. And also, it's not truth, alright.