New in PJ Media:
Jerry Lee Lewis, the celebrated and notorious rock and roll pioneer, died last Friday, and for his sheer exuberance and joy of living, to say nothing of his heart-stopping pianistic pyrotechnics, he will be missed. From the looks of some of the coverage of his death, however, the only noteworthy thing he did was marry his 13-year-old cousin when he was 22. The Los Angeles Times asked: What happened to Jerry Lee Lewis’ 13-year-old bride? She’s been here the whole time.” Newsweek went with “Jerry Lee Lewis Ex Myra Said She Never Lost ’13-Year-Old-Child-Bride’ Title.” In the New York Post, we got “How Jerry Lee Lewis’ career was ruined when he married his 13-year-old cousin.”
And it’s true: Jerry Lee Lewis’ career was ruined, or at least severely derailed, by this marriage in 1957. This is an intriguing lesson in cultural differences, for in some parts of the world, no one would have looked twice at Jerry Lee Lewis’ marriage to a child. That’s because according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and “excellent example” for Muslims for all time, married a child himself.
Traditions of Muhammad’s words and deeds that are considered normative in Islamic law, when judged authentic, record that Muhammad’s favorite wife, Aisha, was six when Muhammad wedded her and nine when he consummated the marriage:
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) (Sahih Bukhari 7.62.88).
Another tradition, or hadith, has Aisha herself recount the scene:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became all right, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age. (Sahih Bukhari 5.58.234).
Muhammad was at this time fifty-four years old. As Jerry Lee Lewis might say, “Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Ari Dale says
Hey, where’s the rest of the story??? Where is Myra, what did she do??
Phil Copson says
And Priscilla moved in with Elvis when she was 14 ! I guess that RCA-Victor/MGM had the money to pay off the press corps, and Jerry Lee’s record company didn’t.
wpm says
Jerry Lee Lewis problems start when he went to tour in England and the press there exposed him on marrying his 13 year old cousin .Now in England the press is very quiet about Moslem grooming gangs and force marriages of under age girls to 50 year old men ironic is it not ?What a different country England is 65 years later? Jerry Lee had to cancel his tour dates there and fly back to America it set his careen back for years. Now in America we have obese low talent fat girls coming out almost nude telling us as they” perform” we must love them or we are fatophobic ??or racist or both .At least with the demons Jerry Lee Lewis had both on the stage and off he did have a talent few could touch.
Westman says
The 2-generation degeneration of language and morals seems to be a Western world phenomenon. That world no longer cares and perhaps that is why Muslim immigrants are allowed multiple wives and marrying cousins. Jerry Lee, today as a rising star with a 13 year old wife, would likely be heralded.
How does a Brit who slept with 5 women before marriage, has divorced twice, and now lives with a, “partner”, have standing to criticise the Muslim migrant who breaks Christian marriage laws? You can say, “The Muslim gets away with breaking the law!”, while fully knowing that the Muslim is not breaking his religion’s rules, while you are.
I am actually Agnostic, yet I do realize that the problems inported with Muslim immigration won’t be solved by a free society unless it regains its own moral footing. Muslims can’t be forced away from their violent simplistic war-created religion by force and insults. The West must return to a moral base to which Muslims can gravitate without feeling they lost their own sense of morality.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
So was Jerry Lee Lewis a muslim?
somehistory says
I don’t think he was mozlum, but I do consider him gross. when I heard about him marrying his cousin, I thought that was bad; but the same day I learned she was only a kid…not much older than I, he was, in my young mind, disgusting. Never really cared for his music, either.
Of course, if he had been mozlum, not many in the U.S. at that time would have realized what that means for a person; bagdad, and arabia…in movies, were *exotic* places with lots of secrets behind the veils and swishing robes. They just didn’t reveal the secrets were evil and ugly.
John ..Smith says
Somehistory,
You should no Infidel by now. Infidel knows Jerry Lee lewis wasn’t a muslim. That’s just typical Infidel sarcasm, which I had a laugh at.
somehistory says
John, thank you.
I didn’t think he was serious, but some others might really question if the guy was.
lewis was a weirdo from all I saw and heard. I heard about his marriage from a relative of his who had some ties of some kind to my family of which i was never really clear; we went to visit and they were referred to as ‘aunt’ or cousin ‘somebody.’
I believe they would have said if he had been **that** weird.
Ari Dale says
It is “Muslim” or “Moslem”.
somehistory says
Not in my book. In my book, it’s anything I wish to write as a label.
Ari Dale says
Didn’t you go to school?
somehistory says
Of course not. I was raised by wolves and they didn’t believe I needed to know how to write or spell or do math. when the truant officer came around, all they had to do was bare their teeth and I was left alone.
Ari Dale says
Good option- wish I’d known about it.
John ..Smith says
The question is here, how the hell was he allowed to marry his 13 year old cousin.