It seems that this post has gone off topic so to do justice to the original initial post let me bring it back to its original course -
The initial post was focussed on two different aspects -
1. Whether Muhammad was a pedophile
2. Whether Muhammad was worthy of respect or not.
1. The evidence that Muhammad married Aisha and had sex with her when she was 9 years old is way too strong to be ignored. Some try to justify this saying that the age of 9 to have sex with Aisha was appropriate claiming that Aisha was menstruating (even though there is no evidence in Islamic sources to suggest that Aisha was menstruating at the age of 9). Even despite that she was a child who used to play with dolls when Muhammad was having a relationship with her. Dolls are considered a form of idols but children were made an expection because they used dolls as toys. As Aisha was playing with dolls it just shows that even if she was menstruating that she has the mentality of a child and not a fully grown adult - as we would expect from any 9 year old. So it is clear that Aisha was still a child in every sense of the word when Muhammad had sex with her.
But the next argument is whether Muhammad should be labelled as a pedophile or not. This is debatable. The word pedophile was a term that was invented recently. In ancient history there have been people who married children so they can have a wife who's viginity was guranteed and it is well documented in history from various parts of the world. In my own opinion Muhammad was a man of his time and therefore by marrying a young girl he was following the custom which was most likely considered to be acceptable at his time. However he also claimed to be a messenger of God to all mankind and claimed himself to be the perfect role model. The problem starts when people start following him as a role model considering his behaviour was universal and timeless, when actually he was just following what was acceptable during his own time only. Child marriage is known to happen in countries where there is Shariah Law and the legal justification for marrying pre-pubertal girls comes from the example that Muhammad left behind when he married and consummated the marriage (had sex with) Aisha. There are incident where young Muslims girls die in pregnancy after being married off to men who are far older than them because even though they menstruate the rest of theit body anatomy has still not reached full maturity to have a successful childbirth.
So in my opinon Muhammad should not be called a pedophile despite him having sex with a child. However we also need to be aware that he is considered to be a role model by a large number of people in the world today and this aspect is something concerning which is not to be taken lightly.
2. Is Muhammad worthy of respect? That depends on which moralistic point of view you are talking from. Here it is important to appreciate the 'global' view of morality as something that is relative based on time and place. But since this a Buddhist forum we can also comment from a Buddhist point of view too. Since Muhammad claimed to be a role model for all for all times we can also look at him from what is considered 'moral' from today's point of view. If you are interested in whether Muhammad deserves to be respected from a Buddhist point of view/modern day ethics based on law then read on -
Having sex with a child was not the only thing morally questionable that Muhammad with respect to the question whether he was worthy of respect or not. There are plenty of other aspects to Muhammad's life which brings his behaviour into question. I will use the basic 5 precepts as well as Right Livelihood aspect of of Buddhism as benchmarks to see whether Muhammad meets these standards. If not then I don’t see a reason why as Buddhists we should show him any more respect than Mao or Stalin.
As for the links from the source I use which is WikiIslam I will give links to pages with quotes from Hadeeth and Quran – because those are the sources of Islamic teachings.
A. BUDDHIST PRECEPT ONE – TO REFRAIN FROM KILLING/HARMING SENTIENT BEINGS –
Here is a list of killings ordered or supported by Muhammad
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/List_of_Killi ... y_Muhammad
It shows a table with the names of people that got assassinated. The fourth column gives reference to the respective hadeeth about the incidents.
Quotes related to mass murder by Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... ass_Murder
Quotes related to violence by Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... r_Muhammad
Quotes related to terrorism by Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... _Terrorism
Quotes related to torture by Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... nd_Torture
Quotes related to warmongering by Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... rmongering
Quotes related to Islam and Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth where offensive jihad against non-believers is mandated
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... g_Mandated
Stoning (lapidation)
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... rs:Stoning
Amputation
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... Amputation
Conclusion – Muhammad was a murderer, an assassin and a torturer
B. BUDDHIST PRECEPT TWO – TO REFRAIN FROM STEALING THINGS
Quotes from Quran and Hadeeth on Muhammad and his plunders
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... Plundering
Conclusion – Muhammad stole in a massive scale
C. BUDDHIST PRECEPT THREE – TO REFRAIN FROM SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
Quotes related to Islam and Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth on Rape
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... olars:Rape
Mariyah the sex slave of Muhammad – the parts in the green boxes are from hadeeth and related quotes from the Quran
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Mariyah_the_S ... ly_Prophet
Conclusion – Muhammad committed rape, did not stop his followers from raping captive women and he also committed adultery with a woman and took he as her sex slave.
D. BUDDHIST PRECEPT FOUR – TO REFRAIN FROM LYING
Muhammad – evidence from Hadeeth that he considered it acceptable for Muslims to to lie why he himself admits that he lies sometimes.
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... _and_Lying
Quotes related to deception by Muhammad from Quran and Hadeeth
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... _Deception
More quotes on lying in the Quran and Hadeeth where some of them openly show support for lying and deception
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... _Deception
Conclusion – Muhammad did lie and encouraged Muslims to consider lying as acceptable
E. BUDDHIST PRECEPT FIVE – TO REFRAIN FROM INTOXICANTS
It is well known that Muhammad discouraged alcohol and this aspect of his life is consistent with the 5th Precept.
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
Muhammad practiced slavery. He caught and traded slaves till the end of his life.
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Had ... rs:Slavery
In the links to quotes from Quran and Hadeeth Muhammad lived a life where most of his time involved living a life contrary to 4 out of the 5 Precepts. So Muhammad from the viewpoint of Buddhism was not following Right Livelihood (Samma Ajiva)
Looking at the evidence from Islam’s own sources it is evident that Muhammad did not lead a life which was not consistent with but contrary to Buddhist ethics even its most basic and fundamental level.
Some might argue that the Quran is the only text in Islam and not Hadeeth. However Quran-only Islam is not a reality because it would be impossible to interpret the Quranic verses without using the Hadeeth to put them into context. The Quran has so many spontaneous verses about war inciting hatred to non-muslims and cursing them and calling them names that that without the Hadeeth, the Quran just looks like a disjointed rant.
But despite all of this whether we choose to respect Muhammad is up to us as individuals whether they want to respect him in the same way people respect people such as Gandhi or Mother Teresa or whether people want to respect him the way they ‘respect’ people such as Mao and Stalin.