Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals
Friday July 31 2026
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Proverbs 31:8-9 (NLT)-Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. 9 Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with many who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Some of these have been from within the category of ritual abuse. Sadly, they were often met with skepticism by Christians they disclosed these things to. The Epstein files has demonstrated in many troubling ways the truthfulness of accounts like this. There are religions which practice and promote the exploitation of children. One example of this comes from the religion of Islam.
One of the first examples of this comes from recognizing Muhammad’s youngest “wife,” Aisha. One former Muslim, Mark Gabriel (a pseudonym) rejected Islam and became a follower of Jesus. Gabriel had been an instructor of Islamic theology in one of the most prestigious schools of Islamic thought in Egypt. He describes the situation with Muhammad and Aisha.
About one year after moving to Medina, Muhammad chose a wife that was surprising even by Arabian society standards. She was the six-year-old daughter of one of his most loyal followers, Abu Bakr. The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).13 More than just a perplexing story about a child bride, Aisha became a key figure in Islamic history. She narrated thousands of hadith describing Muhammad’s life and teachings. (Mark A. Gabriel, Jesus and Muhammad: Profound Differences and Surprising Similarities, 1694-1695 (Kindle Edition): Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House A Strang Company)
This is indeed very troubling. Other former Muslims have acknowledged the serious inherent moral problem with Muhammad’s actions, while acknowledging that many modern day Muslims ignore the issue.
The most questionable of the marriages of Muhammad was with young Aishah. Muhammad betrothed her when she was just six and consummated the marriage when she was nine. She was, in fact, the only virgin the prophet ever married. Aishah became a fiercely loyal supporter of Muhammad, but she was also a very jealous wife. When Allah revealed to Muhammad the right to “take to yourself any you wish” (sura 33:51), the young woman replied, “It seems to me that your Lord hastens to satisfy your desire.” Ultimately, she loved Muhammad fiercely and served him even after his death. She passed down more than two thousand ahadith (traditions), served as an advisor to Muslim leaders, and daily visited the grave of her late husband. Muhammad died in her lap, evidence of her superiority over the other wives. She was only eighteen. How a prophet of noble character could wed someone so young, even in the culture of the day, remains a mystery. Many gloss over this act. Perhaps Muhammad did not at first love Aishah but wanted to strengthen ties to her tribe. It seems implausible to suggest, however, that Muhammad wanted to solidify the emerging Islamic community by marrying a nine-year-old. Muslim scholar Haykal argues, “It is contrary to logic to claim that he could have fallen in love with her while she was at this tender age.” But this does not answer the echoing problem: How could any man consummate a marriage with a nine year-old? This question usually is ignored. (Ergun Mehmet Caner, Emir Fethi Caner, Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs, 489-508 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications)
It is sometimes argued that the Bible teaches that men may take brides who are extremely young. However, the Bible actually strongly argues against this. The Bible teaching is that women were considered of marriageable age if they were able to leave and survive the household of their father and mother (Genesis 2:18-24; Numbers 30), and that men were usually older because they would need to have sufficient ability to provide for their families (Deuteronomy 20:7; 25:20; Ruth 3:10). The Dead Sea Scrolls suggest that both husband and wife needed to be old enough to be considered responsible adults. According to the Mishnah (a Jewish commentary on Scripture):
“At five years old one is fit for Scripture….at thirteen for the commandments…at eighteen for the wedding canopy.” (Compiled by Rabbi Yosef Sebag, Pirkei Avot, 227 (Kindle Edition))
Another troubling practice in Islam is a practice known as “bacha bazi,” which is roughly translated in English as “boy play.”
One of the most disturbing episodes of America’s seemingly never-ending war in Afghanistan was revealed by the New York Times in 2015. In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base. “At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”[ 351] The Times went on to reveal that a former Special Forces captain had been relieved of his command for beating up a US-backed militia commander “for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave.”[ 352] The soldier had left the military by the time of the article’s publication. Worse, the Army tried to forcibly retire a second soldier, a decorated Green Beret sergeant, who assisted his captain in that thrashing,[ 353] presumably to make sure the message was received: Rape the boy again and things will not go well for you. Maybe the war in Afghanistan is still simmering after more than seventeen years as of this writing because our so-called allies treat the locals worse than the Taliban did. It’s not like this has been a secret. Less than five months after the United States invaded Afghanistan, the Times reported that it was this homosexual abuse of young boys that actually helped the Taliban come to power. Back in the 19th century, ethnic Pashtuns fighting in Britain’s colonial army sang odes talking of their longing for young boys. Homosexuality, cloaked in the tradition of strong masculine bonds that are a hallmark of Islamic culture and are even more pronounced in southern Afghanistan’s strict, sexually segregated society, has long been a clandestine feature of life here. But pedophilia has been its curse. Though the puritanical Taliban tried hard to erase pedophilia from male-dominated Pashtun culture, now that the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is gone, some people here are indulging in it once again.… An interest in relationships with young boys among warlords and their militia commanders played a part in the Taliban’s rise in Afghanistan. In 1994, the Taliban, then a small army of idealistic students of the Koran, were called to rescue a boy over whom two commanders had fought. They freed the boy and the people responded with gratitude and support.[ 354] In January 2018, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) published the results of an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse in Afghanistan launched after the 2015 article in the New York Times. The report was released internally in June 2017, but it had been considered so toxic that it was originally classified SECRET/ NOFORN (“ No Foreign”), with a recommendation that it not be declassified until 2042.[ 355] While the report released to the public is heavily redacted, it does reveal that SIGAR found “no evidence that U.S. forces were told to ignore human rights abuses or child sexual assault.”[ 356] Further, SIGAR reported: On 5,753 occasions from 2010 to 2016, the United States military asked to review Afghan military units to see if there were any instances of “gross human rights abuses.” If there were, American law required military aid to be cut off to the offending unit. Not once did that happen.[ 357] What a relief. We’d hate to think the seventy-one billion dollars we’ve given to Afghan security forces forces[ 358] was being misused. Or maybe the Inspector General decided there weren’t any “gross human rights abuses” because “it’s their culture.” The practice is so widespread that a powerful CIA-backed warlord ran for president in Afghanistan’s 2014 election even though many believe he’s a pedophile.[ 359] The practice is called bacha bazi. Roughly translated, it means “boy play.” It is exactly what your imagination tells you it is—the enslavement and rape of young boys.[ 360] It’s difficult to say with absolute authority, but a culture that prevents men from ever seeing anything but the feet of wives or close female relatives might have something to do with it. How did this culture come about? Well, there are well-known verses in the Quran hint at “boy play” as one of the rewards for the faithful in paradise. There will circulate among them [servant] boys [especially] for them, as if they were pearls well-protected. (Surah At-Tur 52: 24, Sahih International) There will circulate among them young boys made eternal. When you see them, you would think them [as beautiful as] scattered pearls. (Surah Al-Insan 76: 19, Sahih International) While those verses don’t specifically say what the young boys are for, they’re ambiguous enough to keep good lawyers employed for years. To be fair, the Bedouin culture that produced Muhammad and his companions was very similar to the Amorite milieu that surrounded Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,[ 361] or the people of Midian with whom Moses sought refuge when he had to get out of Egypt.[ 362] While Bedouins protect the honor of young ladies, the old custom of allowing wealthy and powerful older men to take multiple wives and concubines makes it more difficult for single young men to find available female partners. You can see how this might encourage the practice of homosexuality in early Muslim society.[ 363] Scholars of literature have noted “an unusually rich and varied body of homosexual love poetry” from the early years of Islam.[ 364] This culture endures to the present day. It’s not unique to Afghanistan. Several news organizations have reported that sexual abuse of boys is common in Pakistan, especially among professional truck drivers. Boys employed as truck cleaners in Pakistan told researchers that sexual abuse by truckers is “part of the job.”[ 365] A 2014 British documentary, Pakistan’s Hidden Shame, revealed the shocking extent of the practice; it’s estimated that 90 percent of the street children in Pakistan, most of them boys (parents, not surprisingly, tend to keep little girls at home), have been victims of sexual abuse. A survey of eighteen hundred Pakistani men found that one-third believe that raping young boys isn’t even immoral.[ 366] No less an authority than the would-be Mahdi of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, advised his followers via a fatwa posted to Twitter that “it is permissible for the mujahid [jihadi] to enjoy young boys in the absence of women.”[ 367] (Derek P. Gilbert, Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History, 267-273 (Kindle Edition); Crane, MO: Defender Publishing)
Especially in view of the terrible things which have been coming to light in regards to the Epstein files, Christians must continue to advocate for the well-being of those who have been (and perhaps still are) survivors of abuse. This includes advocating for those who have been victimized in the name of religion (whether Islam, or Satanism, or even Christianity falsely so-called).
Father, comfort and rescue the children who have been victimized and abused. Help them, and also those who have come to adulthood bearing the scars of such troubled pasts. Give their abusers opportunity to repent, but we pray that they will be stopped and held to account. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.