While the Terrorist portion is highly debatable (One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter), the second part is stated by the Koran itself.
According to the Koran, the Prophet Mohammed's favorite wife,
Aisha, was six years old when he married her (after the death of his first wife). In a side-note, the same source indicated Mohammed was 50 (he married his first wife when he was 25 and she was 40, their marriage lasted 25 years until she died) at the time of the wedding. Aisha apparently underwent early puberty and as such, the marriage was consummated when she was 9.
that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years
Although this is the traditional view, some scholars have argued that Aisha was at least 12 when the marriage was consummated and the previously-accepted age of 9 is the result of a mis-reading of the Koran. Historically, many countries allowed marriage at the age of 12 (and a few still do), so if Aisha was older than stated in the Koran, the charge of pedophilia becomes, at best, exceedingly murky. However, at the same time, it would prove that the Koran contained at least one provable error, thus striking at the foundation of Islam.
Yeah, Catch 22.
To make matters worse, Aisha's young age (coupled with several verses from the Koran which seem to indicate that sexual abuse may be acceptable in certain circumstances) helped to allow certain Islamist groupings (
cough Rotherham child abusers cough) to believe themselves to be religiously justified in grooming and raping young girls. While this is more a cultural issue than a religious one (traditional upbringing in which the concept that any female not wearing a Hijab was a prostitute or potential sex-slave was heavily implied), the religious aspects of the cases in question have provided a great deal of ammunition for those opposed to Islam in any form.
All in all, this is an issue that is not going to die any time soon...
