islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Islamic SlaveryTHE PROPHETIC MODEL OF SLAVERYAllah did not rest with repeatedly reminding Muslims to engage in slavery, but also took the initiative toguide Prophet Muhammad on how to enslave the infidels, such as in the following verse:And He (Allah) brought those of the People of the Scripture (i.e., Banu Qurayza) who supportedthem (i.e., the Quraysh) down from their strongholds, and cast panic into their hearts. Some(adult males) ye slew, and ye made captive some (women and children)… [Quran 33:26–27]In this verse, Allah charged the Banu Qurayza Jews with supporting the Quraysh of Mecca "from theirstrongholds" against Muslims in the battle of the Trench (627). Based on this unsubstantiated accusation,Allah commanded that some of the Jews, the adult males, were to be slain, and the rest, the women andchildren, enslaved. The Prophet duly complied with this divine command. He distributed the enslaved womenand children among his disciples, himself acquiring one-fifth of them. The young and pretty ones amongst thefemale captives were made sex-slaves; the Prophet himself took beautiful Rayhana, whose husband andfamily members had been slain in the massacre. He took her to bed on the same night. 674After conquering Khaybar the following year, Muhammad carried away their women and children asslaves. In many other attacks, the Prophet and his followers enslaved and carried away the women andchildren of the vanquished. Therefore, after aggressively attacking and defeating the infidels, enslaving thewomen and children became a model of Muhammad’s wars. Some of the slaves could be sold or ransomed forgenerating revenues. The young and pretty ones amongst the female captives became sex-slaves.Since emulating Muhammad in action and deed is central to living a good Muslim life in Islamicthought, Muslims duly embraced his model of slavery (comprising enslavement, slave-trade and slaveconcubinage)and perpetuated it during the later centuries of Islamic domination. Muhammad’s example ofdealing with the Jews of Banu Qurayza or Khaybar became the standard template for capturing slaves. Thisled to a massive rise in enslavement, sex-slavery and slave-trade in medieval Islamdom. After Muhammad’sdeath, Muslims—armed with sanctions of the Quran and Sunnah—embarked on an unbridled mission ofwaging holy war to conquer the world for the purpose of spreading Islam and expanding Islamic rule. AsIslam burst out of Arabia, Muslim invaders became adept at capturing the vanquished infidels, particularly thewomen and children, in large numbers as slaves.In Islamic thoughts (as noted already), the civilizations preceding and outside of Islam are jahiliyahor erroneous in nature, invalidated with the coming of Islam. Only Muslims were in the sole possession oftruth in the form of the true faith of Islam. In their thoughts, the world outside the boundary and religion ofIslam, notes Bernard Lewis, ‘was inhabited by the infidels and barbarians. Some of these were recognized aspossessing some form of religion and a tincture of civilization. The remainder, polytheists and idolaters, wereseen primarily as sources of slaves.’ 675 Muslims captured slaves in such great numbers that slave-tradebecame a booming business enterprise; markets across the Muslim world became teeming with slaves.Accordingly, ‘it goes to the credit of Islam to create slave trade on a large scale, and run it for profit like anyother business,’ writes Lal. 676674. Ibn Ishaq, p. 461–70675. Lewis (1966), p. 42676. Lal (1994), p6206