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

Islamic Slaveryuntil the end of the human race. In Islamic doctrine, slavery is integral in Allah’s eternal plan; it’s a part ofHis divine grace to humankind. All Schools of Islamic jurisprudence, the Sharia, and the religious doctors ofIslam throughout history have unequivocally and proudly accepted and preached slavery as an integral part ofIslam. The great Islamic thinker Ibn Khaldun recognized mass enslavement of non-Muslims in gloatingreligious pride when Muslims had transformed Africa into a slave-hunting and -breeding ground. In practicingslavery, writes Lewis, ‘‘(Muslims) were upholding an institution sanctioned by scripture, law (Sharia), andtradition (Sunnah) and one which in their eyes was necessary to the maintenance of the social structure ofMuslim life.’’ 897 Hughes correctly asserts that in Islam, ‘slavery is interwoven with the Law of marriage, theLaw of sale, and the Law of inheritance... And its abolition would strike at the very foundation of the code ofMohammedanism.’ 898Ibn Khaldun thought the extensive enslavement of Blacks in Africa by Muslims was justified,‘because they have attributes that are quite similar to dumb animals.’ 899 In the annals of Muslim historians,enslavement in general, especially of the allegedly barbarian Blacks, became a matter of pride. It was alsodeemed as an act of generosity toward curing them of their barbaric nature and sinful religions by bringingthem into the true faith and civilized world of Islam. About this line of thinking of the devout Islamicthinkers, writes Arnold, ‘devout minds have even recognized in enslavement God’s guidance to the truefaith…’ 900 The Negroes from the Upper Nile countries were violently enslaved in massive numbers andconverted to Islam. They were summarily castrated and transported across great distances; in the course ofthis, the majority of them (80–90 percent) perished. Of those, transported across the Atlantic to the newworld, some 30–50 percent perished ‘in transit to the coast, in confinement awaiting shipment and at sea onthe way to Americas.’ The mortality of slaves on board ships in their passage to the New World is estimated at10 percent. 901This tragic doom of captives of mammoth proportion was also seen as a generosity and ‘God’sgrace’ in Islamic mindset of which, writes Arnold, ‘God has visited them in their mishap; they can say ‘it wasHis grace’, since they are thereby entered into the saving religion.’ 902 Even many religious-minded Westernhistorians, echoed this tune of Muslim thinkers about the massive enterprise of enslavement of Blacks inAfrica. Bernard Lewis summarizes the general sentiment in this regard as thus: ‘…slavery is a divine boon tomankind, by means of which pagan and barbarous people are brought to Islam and civilization… Slavery inthe East has an elevating influence over thousands of human beings, and but for it hundreds of thousands ofsouls must pass their existence in this world as wild savages, little better than animals; it, at least, makes menof them, useful men too…’ 903This divine justification, indeed inspiration, for the enslavement of Blacks was so strong amongstMuslims in Africa that they had ‘given up wholly to the pursuit of commerce or to slave hunting’; and as aresult, they were hated and feared by the people as slave-dealers, notes Arnold. 904 Sultan Moulay Ismail (d.1727), as noted already, had slave-breeding nurseries in Morocco. In the Sudan region of Africa, there werefirms that specialized in the breeding of Black slaves for sale like cattle and sheep even in the nineteenth897. Lal (1994), p. 175898. Hughes, p. 600899. Lal (1994), p. 80900. Ibid901. Curtin, p. 182902. Arnold TW (1999) The Preaching of Islam, Kitab Bhavan, Delhi, p. 416–17903. Lal (1994), p. 60904. Arnold, p. 172–73,345–46254