It’s important to note that although these particular instances involve women captured by ISIS, they were sold all across the Islamic world [4]. And despite the prevalence of these crimes, there is a conspicuous lack of prosecutions in Islamic countries [5]. This absence raises concerns about the commitment to justice for victims of chattel slavery within these jurisdictions. This should be a global scandal, yet even when convictions occur in non-Islamic countries, they barely make the news.

Why is Chattel Slavery Overlooked Today?

The UN, media, and academia refuse to confront slavery in the Islamic world, possibly fearing accusations of ‘Islamophobia.’ After all, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’ (OIC) is the largest voting block at the United Nations, wealthy, representing the global community — the ‘ummah’ of Islam — and has published an ‘Islamophobia’ report every year since 2007 [6].

Following this lead, In 2021, a Canadian student event featuring Nobel Peace Prize winner, and author Nadia Murad, who was captured and ‘plunged into sexual slavery as a teen,’ was cancelled by the school board because ‘the book would be offensive to Muslims and “foster Islamophobia” [7].

In 2022, the U.N. designated March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, mistakenly conflating criticism of Islamic doctrine with prejudice against people. The U.N. also publishes media guides on how to discuss Islam, and Western governments are quick to comply [8].

As for the media, not only do Islamic organizations publish booklets instructing journalists how to report about Islam, but IPSO — the independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the United Kingdom — also publishes its own ‘Guidance on reporting of Islam’. The message is clear: tread carefully when reporting on Islam [9].

This ‘Guidance’ includes examples of cases being brought against newspapers for reporting on issues like halal slaughter and an article about the child ‘grooming gangs’ in Rotherham, where a photograph including a mosque was criticized for suggesting a connection between Islam and child sexual exploitation — even though this connection has been clearly established [10].

Whatever the reason — perhaps an unwillingness to admit that Europeans were also castrated and traded as slaves in Islamic markets — Western institutions and academia focus almost exclusively on transatlantic slavery, which ended over 150 years ago, while ignoring the ongoing practice of chattel slavery in the Islamic world. This selective outrage conveniently avoids uncomfortable truths about Islamic doctrine — the Koran and Hadith — which not only endorse slavery but do so eternally.

Islamic Law (Sharia) Permits Slavery

Under Islamic law, non-Muslims — referred to as ‘kafirs’ — can be subjected to slavery, as evidenced by historical and doctrinal practices. The term ‘kafir’ applies to anyone who does not accept Islam, marking them as permissible targets for enslavement, warfare, and subjugation according to sharia. Kafirs are ‘less than cattle’ (Koran 7:179)

Civil law to protect them from slavery was only recently introduced in several Islamic states: Qatar 1952, Saudi Arabia 1962, Yemen 1962, UAE 1963, Oman 1970 and Mauritania 1981

It’s important to note that while these dates represent official abolition, the practice of slavery has persisted in some regions beyond these proclamations and the situation for non-Muslims in the Middle East today is certainly not that of a dominant culture, but rather that of an oppressed one.

For instance, although Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981, there was no means of enforcement, and it wasn’t until 2007 — less than 20 years ago — that laws criminalizing slavery were enacted [11]. In Niger, it is estimated there are 130,000 descendant slaves and actual slave markets still exist [12]. Since slavery is halal according to the sharia, Islamic countries can and do turn a blind eye [13].

Slavery and Islamic Doctrine

Slavery is not forbidden in Islam — it is regulated. The Koran explicitly allows slavery and Mohammed himself owned and traded slaves.

The example Muslims are expected to follow and obey is Mohammed — right down to which foot should enter or leave a room first (Koran 4:59). There is no exact number given for how many sex slaves Mohammed had, but Islamic sources confirm that he:

• Owned and had sexual relations with multiple slave women in addition to his wives,
• Received captives from war as part of his share of booty and
• Distributed female and other slaves to his followers.

Not only the Koran, but also the Hadith are rife with examples of slavery, here’s just a few.

• Koran 33:50 — The verse explicitly allows Mohammed to have unlimited wives, slave women, and female captives:
  “O Prophet, We have made lawful to you your wives to whom you have given their due compensation and those whom your right hand possesses from what Allah has given you as spoils of war …”
• Koran 4:24 — Permits Muslim men to have sexual relations with slave women, even if they were married to someone else before being enslaved:
  “And [forbidden to you are] married women, except those your right hands possess…”
• Koran 8:69 — Encourages taking war booty, which included women:
  “So consume what you have taken of war booty [as being] lawful and good, and fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”
• Koran 70:29–30 — Reinforces that sex is only allowed with wives or slave women:
  “And those who guard their private parts, except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they will not be blamed.

Sharia legal texts (Reliance of the Traveller, o9.13) state that captives can be enslaved [14, 15].

Enslavement and Conversion

While Islamic law forbids enslaving Muslims, conversion to Islam did not obligate an owner to grant freedom. Consequently, many who converted remained in bondage, hoping for manumission that never came. Even those who gained their freedom — and their descendants — often remained at the lowest levels of society, where they may still be mocked or derided using ‘Abd’ (slave) as a pejorative term, not as a ‘slave of Allah’ (16).

• Hadith, Bukhari 2534 ‘A man amongst us declared that his slave would be freed after his death. The Prophet [Mohammed] called for that slave and sold him. The slave died the same year.’

In the Islamic world, chattel slavery was a prevalent and flourishing institution for nearly 1,400 years. During its heyday, the Ottoman Empire levied a tribute of children from its Orthodox Christian subjects, and during the first 70 years of the 19th century, imported between 16,000 and 18,000 slaves annually. Unlike in the transatlantic slave trade, slave breeding was not practiced; instead, the slave population was replenished through conquest, forced recruitment, or trade. Captive markets in places like Istanbul thrived with Eastern European slaves. In addition to millions of white Europeans and Slavs (hence the word ‘slave’), many Africans were brought into Islamic regions through the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trades. Enslaved males were often castrated. Even after the Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1919, slavery persisted well beyond the Second World War in successor Arab states and continues covertly to this day [17–20].

Recent cases prove that chattel slavery is not a thing of the past. Sharia endorses it, Western Muslims are engaging in it and it is widespread in Islamic states where sharia is enforced [21].

Yet authorities in non-Islamic countries continue to facilitate demands for sharia — an ideology they neither understand nor question. Relying on advice from its proponents, they unknowingly pave the way for its broader implementation, the total collapse of Western society to sharia.

How much worse will this become? How many steps are there from global halal marketing and Islamic finance to global Islamic law [22]?

Conclusion

Cassius Clay became a Muslim in 1961 when he joined the ‘Nation of Islam.’ His public conversion came after he won the heavyweight championship on February 25, 1964. A few days later, on March 6, 1964, he announced his name change to Muhammad Ali, stating that “Cassius Clay was my slave name.”

It’s deeply ironic that Cassius Clay, a man named after a fierce American abolitionist, rejected his name because he mistakenly believed it was tied to slavery, while adopting a name associated with the founder of Islam — Mohammed — and his companion, Ali — both of whom owned, bought, sold, captured, and traded slaves [23].

The Atlantic slave trade, horrific as it was, pales in comparison to the Islamic slave trade, which:

• Lasted over 1,400 years and continues in some places today.
• Took millions more victims than the transatlantic trade.
• Had a far higher mortality rate, especially owing to castration and forced marches across the Sahara.

Today, the role of Islam and its doctrine endorsing slavery is ignored, while the West is endlessly blamed for a practice that Islam has engaged in for centuries longer and in far greater numbers.

Historical truth would be a good start. Let’s talk openly about the Islamic slave trade — including the enslavement of European and Slavic populations, the ongoing enslavement of men, women, and children in places like Niger, and the brutal legacy of Islamic law that endorses slavery today, and every day.

If Islam succeeds in its goal of global dominion, the need to appease those ‘kafirs’ who oppose slavery will vanish.

And then what?

News Link: https://rairfoundation.com/chattel-slavery-is-halal/