Sheik Saleh Al-Fawzan is a well-known scholar, leading Saudi Government cleric, and prolific author of the country’s religious curriculum. He believes Islam advocates slavery. Al-Fawzan argues against the idea that slavery has ever been abolished, insulting those who espouse this view as “ignorant, not scholars. They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.” This is a man of great influence within the Muslim world. Al-Fawzan is a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia’s main center of learning for the strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Al-Fawzan is a leading opponent of curriculum reform; he opposes elections and peaceful demonstrations as Western influences, is against Arab women
What is Slavery? First, let’s establish the definition of slavery. The United Nations defines slavery to be “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised” and slave as “a person in such condition or status”. But there are many types of slavery. Chattel slaves are property and can be traded as such. They have no rights, are expected to perform labor (and sexual favors) at the command of a slave master. This is the form of slavery practiced in the Americas during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
There are reports that chattel slavery still exists in Islamic North Africa, in such countries as Mauritania and Sudan (despite both countries being participants in the 1956 UN slavery convention). One example is that of Francis Bok, who was taken into bondage during a raid on his village in southern Sudan in 1986 at the age of seven, and spent ten years as a chattel slave in the north of Sudan before escaping.
The Sudanese government denies the continued existence of slavery in its country. Debt bondage, bonded labor, or peonage, is a type of slavery that involves the use of people as collateral against debt. Labor is provided by the person who owes the debt, or a relative (typically a child). It was unusual for a bonded laborer to escape their debt, since further costs would accrue during the period of bondage (food, clothing, shelter), and it was common for the debt to be inherited across generations. In the Americas, peonage was extended to include criminal peonage, where prisoners sentenced to hard labor were ‘farmed out’ to private or governmental groups. Africa has its own unique version of debt bondage called pawn ship. Some claim that this was
this was a much milder form of debt bondage compared to that experienced elsewhere, since it would occur on a family or community basis where social ties existed between debtor and creditor. Forced labor, otherwise known as “unfree” labor, was based on the threat of violence against the laborer (or their family). Laborers contracted for a specific period would find themselves unable to escape their so-called employers.
This was used to an overwhelming extent in King Leopold’s Congo Free State and on Portuguese plantations of Cape Verde and San Tome. Serfdom is a term usually restricted to medieval Europe in which a tenant farmer was bound to a section of land and was thus under the control of a landlord. The serf achieved subsistence through the cultivation of their lord’s land, and was liable to provide other services, such as working on other sections of land or joining a war-band. A serf was tied to the land, and could not leave without his lord’s permission. A serf also required permission to marry, to sell goods, or to change their occupation.
Any legal redress lay with the lord. Although this is considered a European condition, the circumstances of servitude are not unlike those experienced under several African kingdoms, such as that of the Zulu in the early nineteenth century. When did slavery begin? Slavery began long before there was the written word. One of the earliest accounts is in the Old Testament, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt because they were jealous of the good relationship he had with their parents.
They wanted him out of the way. In fact, Joseph was not the only slave in Egypt at that time. There were already hundreds, perhaps thousands, of black slaves constructing the pyramids. Many years later, in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, there were already a significant number of black slaves in Saudi Arabia. The most famous was Bilal. From the earliest writings, it is apparent that other Arab countries also imported slaves from Africa. Thus, we can safely say that slavery began long before the birth of Jesus Christ and persisted long after his death. Today, we view slavery from the prism of a global civilization. We look at the atrocities committed throughout history, from
ancient Egyptian slavery to the modern Jewish holocaust, and wonder what religion could legitimate or endorse such actions. We must ask ourselves, how does Islam permit slavery, even while its teachings and its laws were intended to liberate humanity from servitude in whatever form? True Muslims believe God revealed Islam for the happiness of all mankind, all generations, for all time.
How does this allow slavery? How did this religion, founded on complete equality, returning the entire human race to a single origin, and treating all men on an equal footing by virtue of this common origin, integrate slavery in its system and legislated about it? Could it be that Allah wants men divided forever into two categories: masters and slaves? Is this God’s will on earth? It seems so. Does not Allah address the human race by saying… “Verily, we have honored the sons of Adam, they will be a commodity that is bought and sold like mules”.
