Saudi Religious Leader Calls for Slavery's Legalization

I wrote about slavery in discussing the future of Islam in July 2002, commenting that things can get better for Islam but this "requires that Muslims tackle the huge challenge of adapting their faith to the realities of modern life." By way of examples, I offered two:

Five hundred years ago, Jews, Christians and Muslims agreed that owning slaves was acceptable but paying interest on money was not. After bitter, protracted debates, Jews and Christians changed their minds. Today, no Jewish or Christian body endorses slavery or has religious qualms about paying reasonable interest.

Muslims, in contrast, still think the old way. Slavery still exists in a host of majority-Muslim countries (especially Sudan and Mauritania, also Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) and it is a taboo subject. To enable pious Muslims to avoid interest, an Islamic financial industry worth an estimated $150 billion has developed.

The challenge ahead is clear: Muslims must emulate their fellow monotheists by modernizing their religion with regard to slavery, interest and much else. No more fighting jihad to impose Muslim rule. No more endorsement of suicide terrorism. No more second-class citizenship for non-Muslims.

Well, I was wrong about slavery being a taboo subject. We learn today from the dissident Saudi Information Agency that a prominent Saudi religious authority recently called for slavery to be re-legalized in the kingdom. Ali Al-Ahmed reports on the views of Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, the author of a religious textbook (At-Tawhid, "Monotheism") widely used to teach Saudi high school students as well as their counterparts abroad studying in Saudi schools (including those in the West).

"Slavery is a part of Islam," he announced in a recent lecture. "Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam." He argued against the idea that slavery had ever been abolished, insulting those who espouse this view as "ignorant, not scholars. They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel."

Al-Fawzan is no maverick. He is:

• A member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia's highest religious body;
• A member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research;
• Imam of the Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh; and
• Professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning.

That such a viewpoint can be asserted by a card-carrying member of the Saudi religious establishment is a tragic commentary on the state of Islamic discourse today. (November 7, 2003)