Why does Islam allow men to have relations with young girls?

Answer 1

It is absolutely misunderstanding and wrong. Islam very strictly prohibits having 'relations' without marriage. A Muslim who has extra marrital relations is stoned to death if he is married or receives one hundred lashes if he is unmarried.

Answer 2

Whether or not Islam permits men to have sex with underage girls is dependent on the interpretation of Islam, but there are certainly quite numerous cases where Islamic Clerics have strenuously pushed for the "right" for girls younger than 14 to be married, especially in Iran, northern Nigeria, Bangladesh, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Of course, the majority of the Islamic World does have laws (and enforcement to a reasonable degree of those laws) preventing marriage prior to the age of 15 or 16 for women. The justification for this often comes from Non-Islamic contexts, such as modern psychology and a better understanding of female maturity and rights.

However, this question was asking why certain interpretations of Islam argue that men can have relations with young girls and this answer will be tailored to discuss that view.

The primary reason for this advocacy is the marriage between Muhammad and Aisha. While there is some current debate as to how old Aisha was when she was married and the marriage consummated, all traditional sources (including hadiths) that provide numbers say that she was 6 at the time of marriage and 9 at the time of consummation. Since the Qur'an 33:21 holds Muhammad's actions as a standard of excellence, marriage and consummation with 9 year-olds is ethical conduct. As a result, this conduct should be legal.

A second reason is that the Qur'an sets the age that a woman can be sexually active as the time when she begins to menstruate at Q: 65:4. Most women menstruate before the age of 14, making underage girls open to sexual encounters. However, sex outside of marriage is prohibited in Islam, so this is implicitly an argument that marriage with underage girls is licit as long as they are menstruating.

A third reason is that child marriage in the Islamic World was quite common up until the 19th century, when it was banned by the Western Imperialists who colonized the Islamic World. As a result, its restoration is seen not as the abrogation of women's rights (though it clearly is), but a return to traditional culture that has been hurt by Westernization.

Finally, many of these Imams fault the increasing marriage ages as the reason for increased promiscuity and secularized conduct among Muslim women and argue that keeping the marriage age low prevents this "atrocious" conduct.