Media commentator Peta Credlin has slammed feminists for failing to speak up about a Muslim man in his mid-thirties marrying a 14-year-old girl.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott’s chief-of-staff is outraged at the political left’s silence on child brides, less than a week after a refugee was sentenced to one year in jail for taking part in the Melbourne mosque wedding last year.
‘In other faiths we call it paedophilia but not when it comes to Islam,’ she told Sky News on Tuesday night.
‘”Where are the feminist warriors?”, you might ask?
Media commentator Peta Credlin says feminists have been silent on Islamic child brides
‘Their failure to speak up for these girls is because the left’s silence on the crimes of Islam trumps any voice for the victim.’
Ms Credlin’s impassioned critique of left-wing feminists comes six days after Rohingya refugee Mohammad Shakir, 35, was formally jailed for one year for marrying the 14-year-old girl at the Noble Park mosque, in south-east Melbourne, on September 29, 2016.
‘We shouldn’t even call it child brides. These young girls are being raped by much older men under the cover of a religious ceremony against Australian law and against Australian values,’ she said.
Shakir had pleaded guilty to going through with the ceremony and tearfully told the County Court of Victoria he thought he was ‘rescuing’ the child bride.
Sacked imam Ibrahim Omerdic solemnised the wedding between a man, 34, and a girl, 14
The criminal, who will be returned to immigration detention after his sentence, was the first man to appear before an Australian court prosecuted with marrying a child, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of five years.
Ms Credlin said it appeared the feminists, the political left and Muslim groups were more obsessed with ‘so-called Islamophobia’ than speaking up for child brides.
‘They don’t like it and they won’t admit it,’ she said.
The wedding of a 14-year-old girl to a man 20 years her senior took place at the Noble Park mosque in south-east Melbourne
Ibrahim Omerdic was spared jail last month despite incurring a two-year prison sentence
‘Quiet too are the many Islamic organisations that are quick to attack so-called Islamophobia but are silent non the rights of young, Muslim girls.’
Former Muslim imam Ibrahim Omerdic was spared jail last month after being found guilty of unlawfully solemnising the marriage.
He was sentenced to two months’ prison, but immediately placed on a two-year recognisance release order, meaning he won’t serve time in jail.
Omerdic was an imam of the Bosnian Islamic Society and Noble Park Mosque but was later sacked and had his celebrant licence revoked after his arrest last year.