How can Orthodox, rigid, misogynist and literalist views of Islam be rejected in the face of increasing evidence they are destined to be the majority?

I was wondering as to how you would, in a situation where it may have been needed for various reasons, address the sort of allegations made for decades now, drastically more in the last 25 years for obvious reasons, of Islamic theology.

For example, what are authentic ways that Muslims who understand Islamic theology could respond to an allegation such as the following that Muslims are required to support and embrace sexual relations with children:

"Nowadays in the West there are elaborate efforts to deny all this. An Islamic scholar/apologist named Joshua Little has constructed an elaborate argument from close study of the chains of transmitters (isnads) of various traditions about Aisha, claiming that those traditions, despite appearing in Sahih Bukhari, the hadith collection Muslims consider most reliable, are actually inauthentic. Little’s argument, however, is absurd and self-contradictory. He acknowledges that the hadiths are late and unreliable from a historical standpoint, and even admits that the chains of transmitters, like the stories themselves, were freely forged. Then he bases his whole argument for the traditions being inauthentic even on Islamic grounds on the basis of the isnads that he just admitted could be forged. He claims to be able to determine the age of various traditions by how they were forged, but here is argument is so conjectural and subjective as to be essentially worthless.

Little is also a standard-issue lemming academic. He denounces people he calls “Islamophobes” for making much of Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha. He ignores the primary reason why anyone cares about this: not because, as he claims, “Islamophobes” contend that Muhammad’s example forces Muslims to condone child marriage, but because all too many Islamic authorities do condone child marriage. "

ANd how would Muslims addresses allegations that Quran 4.34 is in fact embracing spousal abuse and that is the sole interpretation, all of Quran Chapter 9 is about waging war against non believers, the Quran openly says to not take Jews and Christians as friends of any kind and that verse 65:4 is pro child marriage and Muslims don't have a choice to interpret it any other way.

It is also regularly believed that these factors are genuinely behind why Islamic nations such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Gulf States, Afghanistan and Egypt, among others, are more plagued by child marriage and spousal abuse than any other nations on earth and why child marriage is harder to eliminate in these nations than anywhere else. And also why in Europe, immigrants from nations such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan and Algeria, among others, are overwhelmingly represented in stats on sexual assaults and increasing crime rates

In a scenario where Muslims were tasked with responding to this, how could such responses be made?

Posted Sep 11, 2026, 3:34 PM UTC

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