Why does islam allow slavery

Most striking is the case of the royal concubines who wielded tremendous influence and amassed considerable wealth in the later centuries of the Ottoman empire.

The issue of slavery in Muslim societies is not purely historical but has lingering contemporary effects, especially in certain parts of Africa and the Gulf states. Some majority Muslim nations — Saudi Arabia, for example — were among the last to outlaw slavery in the twentieth century. Vestigial effects of domestic slavery still exist in certain Gulf nations in the failure of police and lawmakers to protect immigrant household workers against potential abuses by employers.

Women employed as maids and nannies have little recourse against sexual coercion or harsh beatings; in some cases, those who have escaped and sought refuge with police have been forcibly returned to their employers. It is important to note that these women are not legally enslaved, and they generally receive compensation for their work that differentiates their situation from that of those in debt bondage.

However, because of the acceptance of controls on their mobility employers often take their passports , and the refusal of law enforcement officials to respond to complaints of maltreatment, they are particularly vulnerable to abuse.

In some African nations, actual slavery continues. Repeated attempts to outlaw slavery in Mauritania have had little effect. In the Sudan, Christian captives in the ongoing civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission citation.

The existence of actual and quasi-slavery is by no means unique to the Muslim world; slavery and slavery-like practices are found in numerous nations world-wide. Further, they are not found everywhere in the Muslim world; there specific socio-economic and political factors that help to account for their existence.

Still, the claiming of religious justification for slaveholding in some of these cases makes them particularly urgent to address. To be clear, this means a concubine, bondmaid or a slave, but intercourse has to be consensual. Rape is forbidden as it is violent, and Islamic texts legislated for the proper and honourable treatment of slaves. Even consensual sexual relations with a slave were not permissible if it caused harm and abuse elsewhere e.

Furthermore this is not an entitlement. In any case, marriage was encouraged Chapter with slaves. Islamic texts list a plethora of avenues to free slaves, as it was seen as a highly virtuous act. Conveniently this is something the extremists ignore, and this example further enforces the point that religious illiteracy is a root cause of extremism. Islamophobic extremists as well as Islamist extremists like Isis who promote and validate sexual violence through unspecific passages in the Quran - or without context - do so to justify their own violent mindsets.

There is widespread consensus across all nations on this, including Muslims ones. The majority of sane, law-abiding Muslims do not seek to impose themselves on others by force or aggression. Celebrating University Press Week. Buy Elsewhere Bookshop. Black lives matter. Black voices matter.