Slavery and Islam: Part Two-Slave Labor

America's turbulent history of slavery has been used by many progressives as a club to intimidate political opponents and push for redistribution of wealth. However, these same people turn a blind eye to the rampant slavery that continues to this day in the Islamic world. In part one of this series, we examined the slave trade as it pertains to sexual slavery along with some very nasty comments from influential figures urging Muslim legislators to restore the legal status of sex slavery. Part two is focused on the more traditional version of slavery that Americans read about in our own history: slave labor. Slavery has been a part of Islamic expansionism since Mohammed began spreading his message because it broke the spirits of defeated peoples while providing free labor and human shields to build the empire.

The North African country of Mauritania, just south of Morocco, is a perfect example of the slavery that still exists in Islamic countries and how it is divided along racial lines. Mauritania was one of the last countries in the entire world to write legislation outlawing slavery in 1981. However, these laws are rarely enforced. Some estimates have current slave numbers somewhere around the 600,000 mark (about 20% of the entire population). Mauritania was a center of the Arab slave trade for many years, and the descendants of the black slaves (the Haratin) make up the vast majority of current slaves. This racial tinge is not unique to Mauritania. Part three of this series will delve more deeply into the racial underpinnings of Islamic slavery.

Our "good friend" Pakistan is also rife with instances of slave labor, especially in the rural north. In particular, household servants (drawn largely from the minority Christian population) are routinely beaten and raped. There are numerous cases of Muslim landowners claiming that someone owes them a debt (without proof) and demanding bonded labor until the fictional debt is repaid. People who have refused to work for such masters have been attacked by mobs and arrested. Even children are forced to work, usually young girls as maids. Some children have been abducted in order to pay off a family debt (real or imagined). In most cases, the slaves are offered better conditions or even cancellation of the debt if they convert to Islam (historically a common tactic by victorious Muslim armies).

It should be telling that Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Mohammed and the spiritual heartland of Islam, did not formally abolish slavery until 1962, and even then only under intense international pressure. While the slave markets of centuries past stand deserted, the underlying philosophy has not changed. The oil-rich nations of the Arabian Peninsula have a workforce almost entirely composed of foreigners. These foreign workers are often abused and forced to work in miserable conditions by their employers. In addition, despite the fact that they make up the backbone of the economy (and comprise a third of Saudi Arabia's population), foreign workers are consistently mistreated in the legal system. It is not only Saudi Arabia that has this problem. As Dubai has rapidly expanded in the last decade or so, there has been a flood of semi-skilled laborers. These laborers were lured by the promise of work but find themselves working in horrible conditions and paid so little that they cannot return home.

While isolated incidents involving members of a group does not mean that the group itself is at fault, the sheer number of abuses in Muslim countries and the theological support from the Koran means that the problem is deeper than a few individuals. I do not mean to denigrate the efforts of those Muslims who choose to stand against slavery; on the contrary, those efforts are deserving of the highest praise. But individual nobility does not excuse centuries of history and a culture that places a lower value on some human beings than others. As Winston Churchill said, "Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in all the world." And this was coming from the guy who went toe-to-toe with Nazism in England's darkest hour. If he says Islam (or "Mohammedanism" as he called it) is a negative influence, we should take his word for it.

Stay tuned for the third and final installment, "Slavery and Islam: Part Three Spoils of War," next week.