Letters From Grandpa #149

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 149

Dearest grandchild,

Since slavery is so much in the news, today’s letter will deal with Islam and slavery. This is a subject you probably won’t hear much about in the news, or classroom. Don Richardson, in his excellent book Secrets of the Koran quotes Louis Farrakhan as saying: “Christianity is the religion of those who enslaved black Africans. Conversely, as a religion that has long championed the rights of the black race, Islam deserves the allegiance of black Afro-Americans”. Richardson’s son at the time was taking a course in African history at a Southern California university and his Muslim professor from Kenya leveled the same charge. Richardson’s son asked if this was true?

Don directed him to start by searching for the history of slavery in any encyclopedia. The word “slave” comes from “Slav” and relates to Rome enslaving the Slavs of eastern Europe. It was the Muslims, however, who first enslaved the people of Africa. Islam spread across Africa in the 600s and in the 700s began arming the blacks in the north which enabled them to enslave the blacks in the south. By trial and error they discovered that even after a forced march across 1,200 miles of desert, enough slaves would survive to guarantee a profit. Muslims were enslaving blacks in Africa 900 years before the Europeans did.

Starting in the 1600s it is estimated that as many as 11 million African slaves were transported to Central and South America to Portuguese, Spanish, and French possessions. Only 5% went to the United States. An estimated 28 million slaves, however, went to the Muslim Middle East. An estimated 80% of these slaves died en route. The death toll from 14 centuries of Muslim slave trading in Africa is estimated to be over 112 million.

Since Mohamed owned slaves it is logical to assume that his followers would do the same. The idea that Islam is a religion that frees slaves is as untrue as the specious that it is a religion of peace. The Morocco World news reported on June 26, 2017 that when ISIS invaded Northern Iraq and began annihilating the Yezidis, thousands of young women and girls were captured and sold as sex slaves. While 2 out of 3 slaves shipped to America were men destined for agricultural work, 2 out of 3 slaves shipped to Muslim countries were women destined to be sex slaves. It was customary to castrate the men and up to 90% died from complications after the surgery. In the 10th century, Muslim Calipha of Baghdad had 7,000 black eunuchs and 4,000 white eunuchs serving in his palace.

While slavery is officially illegal in the Muslim West African country of Mauritania, there are more black slaves there than anywhere else on earth. The slave population is estimated to be from 100,000 - 600,000. Slavery of blacks has existed there since the 12th century. While technically a Muslim is not supposed to enslave a fellow Muslim, often racism trumps religion in this regard. Consequently, the practice of Muslims enslaving Muslims is alive and well in Mauritania. These poor slaves are the wholly owned property of their masters and are even passed down through inheritance from one generation to another. Like pieces of property these wretched souls are given as wedding gifts, or bartered and sold at the whims of their Muslim masters.

Maluritania is not alone in Muslim slave trade. Thousands of Afghan girls and boys are trafficked into sexual slavery every year. According to Azza Soliman, Egypt comes in 2nd in trafficking women to wealthy Muslims. Makram Ouda, executive director of the Jordanian Women Union, recently discovered 70 Egyptian women brought into Jordan as a part of the sex trade network. As many as 70,000 children have fallen victim to sexual exploitation in Indonesia. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad noted three landlords who forced 170 bonded laborers to work at gunpoint. Pakistan’s Daily Times Newspaper quoted the labor minister of neighboring Punjab province that landlords hold millions of forced laborers in “private prisons” across the country. Children between 5 and 12 years old are sold to wealthy Muslims in Saudi Arabia as sex slaves. In the Sudan the Muslims in the north have exercised the ancient “right” of taking slaves as war booty. Slavery was supposed to be over in Yemen in 1962, but a recent decision by a judge to pass on the title deed of a slave from one master to another has blown the lid off this hypocrisy.

There is, of course, much more to be said on this subject. You are young and intelligent and are able to do further research on your own. As always, follow the truth wherever it leads.

As I said, don’t expect, however, to hear the facts about Islam and slavery in the classroom or on campus. For some reason it is not politically correct to expose Muslim hypocrisy. Go figure!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce