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

Islamic SlaveryHumane treatment of slaves in IslamIt is true that Islam urges Muslims to treat slaves humanely. Verses of the Quran listed above encourageMuslims to set slaves free (manumission) for various reasons, including for the redemption of involuntarilykilling a Muslim (not an infidel). In Islam, manumission is seen as an act of benevolence or expiation of sins.On the basis of these arguments, apologists of Islam would claim that ‘It is not true to say that Islaminstituted, or was responsible for the institution of slavery; it is more correct to say that it was the firstreligion, which put the first steps necessary for its extinction’ (personal communication). Joining this camp ofMuslims, Prof. Jonathan Brockopp of Pensylvania State Univerity writes:Other cultures limit a master’s right to harm a slave but few exhort masters to treat their slaveskindly, and the placement of slaves in the same category as other weak members of society whodeserve protection is unknown outside the Quran. The unique contribution of the Quran, then, isto be found in its emphasis on the place of slaves in society and society’s responsibility towardthe slave, perhaps the most progressive legislation on slavery in its time. 893Concerning Islamic injunctions for good treatment of slaves and their manumission, there was nothing new init. We have noted that, nearly a thousand years before the advent of Islam, Buddha had urged his followers totreat slaves well and not to overwork them. In Athens, the Greek statesman and political reformer Solon (c.638–558 BCE) had enacted a decree abolishing enslavement for debts, a major cause of enslavement at thetime.The tradition of manumission of slaves existed in Greece about a millennium before the advent ofIslam. Inscriptions in stones, belonging to the fourth century BCE and later, document emancipation of slavesin Greece, likely as voluntary acts of masters (predominantly male and also female from the Hellenisticperiod). To buy their freedom, slaves could either use their savings or take loan from friends or masters. 894The sense justice toward slaves in Greek Society can be guaged from Socrates' encounter withEuthyphro outside a law-court. Euthyphro's father had killed one of his slaves (accidentally, probably whilediscipling him), who had killed another slave. And Euthyphro took his father to court for his crime of killingthe slave. On Euthyphro's way to the court, Socrates stopped him so as to inquire about his motivation or therighteousness that inspired him to prosecute his own father. Euthyphro told Socrates that 'although his familythink it impious for a son to prosecute his father as a murderer, he knows what he is about. His family isignorant about what is holy, whereas he has 'an accurate knowledge of all that.' He therefore had no doubtabout the rightness of his action.' 895 While this case, undoubtedly, was an exception to norm, it nonethelessinforms us of the sense of justice toward slaves that had penetraded into the then Greek Society (a housandsyears before Muhammad)—something impossible even today in any Muslim soceity.The Islamic exhortation for treating slaves well and for freeing them was thus nothing new. Suchbenevolent practice existed in Greece nearly a millennium earlier. Solon had even enacted a ban on the majorform of enslavement in Athens nearly twelve centuries before the birth of Islam. Neither the practice ofemancipation of slaves was absent in Arabia during Muhammad’s life or prior to that; evidence for it comesfrom the following Islamic text [Bukhari 3:46:715]:Narrated Hisham: My father told me that Hakim bin Hizam manumitted one-hundred slaves inthe pre-Islamic period of ignorance and slaughtered one-hundred camels (and distributed them incharity). When he embraced Islam he again slaughtered one-hundred camels and manumitted893. Brockopp JE (2005) Slaves and Slavery, in The Encyclopedia of the Qur’ān, McAuliffe JD et al. ed., EJ Brill,Leiden, Vol. 5, p. 56–60.894. Slavery in Ancient Greece, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Ancient_Greece895. Gottlieb, A (2001) Socrates: Philosophy's Martyr, in The Great Philosopher (Monk R & Raphael F eds.),Phoenix, London, p. 28-29252