Amid the politically hot debate in the United States about the legacy of slavery, a major Middle Eastern news outlet has posted an impassioned defense of the institution.
Particularly of slave girls.
The Middle East Media Research Institute cited the Arabic-language website of Al-Jazeera, the Qatari-funded media empire, and its "fascinating defense of slavery, particularly the role of slave girls in Islamic civilization."
"The lengthy piece, approachable but with scholarly pretensions, was a feature on the site's Islamic 'Heritage' section which also carried pieces on 'the European Defeat before the Andalusian Majority,' and 'Caliphs and Jurists who built Churches and Crusaders who Christianized Mosques,'" MEMRI said.
The author, Muhammad Shaaban Ayyub, features a quote from an 11th century Muslim slave trader from Spain: "In my possession now are four Roman girls who were ignorant yesterday, but today are wise scholars."
MEMRI noted slavery is in the news, "driven by progressive activism and movements against police brutality in the West."
"Statues and memorials of such consequential figures as Columbus, Washington, Jefferson and even Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, have been targeted. Calls to radically redesign education, economics and society to address the curse of slavery have followed."
Slavery is a "historical horror" to many people, MEMRI noted, but "this garment-rending masochism seems to be a Western thing."
"In the Middle East, there are still statues honoring slave masters and mass slavers. But beyond physical memorials, slavery as an institution can still be defended in print, with zero accountability or reprimand. Why this is the case is an interesting question worth pondering."
The Al Jazeera piece said most of the mothers of the caliphs of the powerful Abbasid dynasty that controlled most of the Muslim world were slaves.
"Much of the article is given over to describing the training of these slave girls, who were schooled in all sorts of arts and skills, and how some excelled and become so valuable as to be worth exorbitant sums – a hundred thousand silver dirhams (equal to $125,000) or even a thousand gold dinars (equal to more than a million dollars). The more trained the girl, the higher the potential profit."
MEMRI noted that in contrast to American images of slavery, these slave girls were of Caucasian origin.
ISIS has "openly championed the return of slavery, particularly the very type of slavery this piece romanticizes," MEMRI pointed out.
The Al Jazeera article also focuses on the "accomplished slave girls," but it "rings hollow" because it does not mention "all those others, faceless and nameless, who must not have made the grade."
MEMRI noted that while many would consider the article in poor taste, there are Islamic apologists who openly advocate for the continuation or restoration of Islamic practices such as the dhimmi system -- the subjugation of non-Muslim minorities -- and the jizya tax enforced on non-Muslims. And slavery.
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