Google "Islam is a peaceful religion," and a number of sources will come up, declaring that Islam is indeed a religion that teaches peace and tolerance.  Still, there have been hundreds of terrorist attacks in the name of Islam for decades.  The Taliban are now enforcing the burqa in Afghanistan, even for female journalists.  Ilhan Omar, the anti-Semitic representative from Minnesota, still enjoys strong support from the Muslim community despite her characterization of 9/11 as "some people did something."  I don't pretend to be an expert on Islam, but all this seems less than peaceful.

The latest outpouring of "peace" from the Islamic world has been directed at Nupur Sharma, an Indian woman who represented the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  Apparently, she said something that angered the Muslim community in India.  Sharma was forced to issue an apology, after which she was suspended from the BJP.  Not content with ruining Sharma's career, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, and Saudi Arabia condemned her remarks.  Qatar wants an apology from the country of India.  But what exactly did Sharma say?

Image: Nupur Sharma (edited).  YouTube screen grab.

I searched in vain on this point. Every news source loftily declared that it would not print what Sharma said because it was so offensive.  I finally came across a YouTube video in which the presenter claimed that all Sharma said was that Muhammad married his wife Aisha when she was six years old and that he consummated the marriage when she was nine years old.  Traditional sources quote Aisha on these points.

As I said, I am not an expert on Islam.  Nor have I read the Koran.  However, I would go so far as to say that it should not be considered Islamophobic to mention something from a sacred text that has been accepted for centuries.  Nor do I think a woman's reputation and career should be destroyed by emissaries of "peace" who are not happy with what their sacred book alleges.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of Future Slave, a story about a 21st-century black teenager who goes back in time and becomes a slave in the Old South.