Women and Islam

Everything I ever heard about slavery is despicable. The West is familiar with the history of slavery in the New World. However, few people in the West know about Islam and slavery. Muslims were enslaving black Africans long before any slave ships sailed for the New World. 

Slavery still exists today in Islamic communities and is condoned in the Quran. There are Islamic religious leaders who approve of Muslims raping infidel females and having sex slaves.

The Quran actually devotes more verses, such as 33:50, 23:5, 23:6 to making Muslim men know they can keep women as sex slaves than it does telling them to pray five times a day.

In 2013 The Telegraph.UK .co reported that Dr. Taj Hargey, an imam of the Oxford Islamic Congregation, said race and religion were inextricably linked to the recent groups  of Muslim men targeting under-age white girls. The victims are sexually assaulted and frequently forced into prostitution and sold as slaves.

In May 2011 Salwa al-Mutan, a female Kuwait politician, spoke in favor of the Islamic practice of sexual slavery of non-Muslim women. She stated that it is in accordance with Islamic law and the parameters of Islamic morality. Furthermore, she asked the Mufti: Is sex slavery forbidden?

He answered, “Absolutely not. Sex slavery is not forbidden.” In the Quran sex slaves are called milk al-yamin.

In America, in May 2013, it was reported that Arial Castro was charged with kidnap and rape of three women and kept some as long as 10 years. Castro’s crimes are pale compared to the fact that a religion (Islam) has condoned rape and sex slavery since its formation.

According to ReligionOfPeace.com, Muslims are encouraged to live in the way of Muhammad, who was a slave owner and trader. Using this, the Quran and the Hadith Islamic leaders openly preach its practice in current time.

Ibn al-Arabi, a Muslim spiritual leader, confirmed that a man’s sexual right is grounded in the Quran. He said that payment (dowry) creates a master-slave relationship between husband and wife.

According to the Quran a wife can be treated no better than a sex slave. Nonie Darwish, writer of “Cruel and Usual Punishment” was born and raised a Muslim in Egypt. Darwish claims that Qazi Khan states, “No wife shall refuse her husband what he wants from her except on religious grounds, when fasting or at the time of menstrual flow. If he does not believe her, it is lawful for him to have intercourse with her anyway.”

Even though sex slavery is against the law in some Islamic dominated countries, such as Dubai, it still exists. The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted five men of sexually exploiting a 30-year-old woman, abusing her neediness and forcing her into the sex industry.

In May 2013 the “International Christian Concern” reported that, in Bangladesh, more than 140 children have been rescued from Islamic training centers (madrassas) in the previous nine months. The majority of the children were targeted because of their Christian faith.  The females, accounting for nearly half of those rescued, reported that they were used for forced labor and sex slavery.

It is interesting to note that, in Islam, women are required to be obedient and totally submissive  to their husbands. The husband is permitted to beat his wife and not be questioned, according to the Hadith.

Combining all of the above and the fact that Muslim men have permission to have four wives, own sex slaves, are allowed to marry children as young as or younger than 9 years of age and still enter into temporary marriage contracts (legalized prostitution) it is easy to see why sex slavery is in practice in the Islamic world.

Ed Ziegler is past president of the New Jewish Congregation’s Brotherhood. He can be reached at EdZiegler@embarqmail.com.