From Epstein Island to Caliphal Palaces: Law, Morality, and Impunity
Between Epstein Island and the Palaces of the Islamic Caliphates: Are Crimes Prosecuted or Sanctified?
In many parts of the world, recurring scandals related to what took place on Jeffrey Epstein’s island the enslavement of minors and the organized sexual exploitation of underage girls have dominated public attention and media coverage.
This article does not revisit those crimes or their details. Instead, it examines how such cases are handled in several Islamic soceties, where they have contributed to a near-generalized narrative portraying the entire West as morally corrupt, casting the Western man as inherently debauched and ethically depraved.
As if every Western citizen were, in one way or another, a potential Epstein.
This perception is reinforced by a dominant Islamic discourse rooted in claims of doctrinal superiority what may be described as religious narcissism: a psychological and social condition in which individuals or groups imagine themselves as possessing absolute moral truth and spiritual privilege. This perceived superiority fosters arrogance and moral self-congratulation, encouraging sweeping and exclusionary moral judgments against others.
To those who “soar above” the world draped in the cloak of virtue, addressing humanity in the tone of the morally flawless man, it is worth recalling that Islamic history contains practices far worse by a wide margin than anything attributed to Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, when examined through an objective, non-selective lens.
Here, I will limit myself to four examples only, each supported by primary sources, though hundreds more could be cited.
First: The Marriage of Aisha
Muhammad married Aisha when she was still a child, according to the most widely accepted and authenticated narrations in the hadith literature, specifically in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. The marriage contract was concluded when she was six or seven years old, and the marriage was consummated when she was nine that is, sexual relations began at that age.
Second: Khaybar and Safiyya
Muhammad attacked the Jewish settlement of Khaybar in fulfillment of the promise of spoils mentioned in Surah al-Fath:
“Allah has promised you much booty that you will take.”
(Qur’an 48:20)
After the fall of Khaybar, its men were killed and its women and children enslaved. Muhammad’s companions drew his attention to the beauty of a recently married Jewish woman named Safiyya, described as the most beautiful among the captives.
He ordered that she be brought to him. She was in the possession of a companion named Dihya, to whom Muhammad gave seven slaves in exchange, taking Safiyya for himself.
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith no. 5125
On the same day, Safiyya’s father, Huyayy ibn Akhtab, her husband Kinana ibn al-Rabi‘, and her brother were executed after being captured and bound not in battle, but after hostilities had ended.
- Source: Sunan al-Nasa’i Safiyya was then taken to Muhammad’s tent, where he had sexual intercourse with her on the very day her father and husband were killed.
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari stood guard at the entrance of the tent, sword in hand. When Muhammad asked him why, Abu Ayyub replied that he feared she might harm him, as he had killed her father, husband, and people. Muhammad laughed, indicating that the matter was safe.
Source: Al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Sahihayn, al-Hakim al-Naysaburi
Third: Slave Markets and Sexual Ownership
Slave markets the buying and selling of men and women existed during the time of Muhammad as an integral part of the prevailing social and economic system. Islam did not abolish slavery; rather, it institutionalized and regulated it, granting it explicit religious and legal legitimacy.
This endorsement appears clearly in Qur’anic verses that legalize slavery and sexual relations with those owned as property, including:
“And [also prohibited to you are all] married women except those your right hands possess.” (Qur’an 4:24)
“And those who guard their private parts,
Except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they are not to be blamed.”
(Qur’an 23:5–6)
“Except from their wives or those their right hands possess.”
(Qur’an 70:29–30)
In reference specifically to Muhammad:
“O Prophet, indeed We have made lawful to you … and those your right hand possesses from what Allah has returned to you [of captives].”
(Qur’an 33:50)
Fourth: Decadence in the Caliphal Palaces
In the late eighteenth century, during the later Ottoman period specifically under Sultan Abdul Hamid I (1774–1789) an illustration found in the manuscript Tuhfat al-Mulk depicts a collective sexual performance, showing men engaged in explicit sexual acts in a celebratory, unmistakable scene.
This manuscript does not belong to a marginal era or an early phase, but to the heart of the Ottoman Caliphate itself. Such performances were reportedly common in the palace of the Sultan the Caliph of the Muslims and in the residences of princes, exposing the depth of moral degradation within a political system that relied on religion as a cover for power rather than a restraint on conduct.
Conclusion
The fundamental difference is not in the act itself, but in the framework that governs it.
On one side stands a modern system that subjects every perpetrator to accountability and punishment without sanctity and without immunity. On the other lies a historical and textual legacy verses, hadiths, and traditions that transforms moral transgression into a religiously protected practice, placing its perpetrator beyond accountability.
One world recognizes that no one is above the law.
The other exempts those shielded by sanctity from ever being questioned.
Note: This article was published yesterday, February 8, in the Swedish newspaper Bulletin, and is published here exclusively in English in The Times of Israel.
