You helped in writing my book, The Muslim Economic Trap, The Correlation of Government Economic Power with Present-Day Terrorism."
Reader comment on item: Military Slaves: A Uniquely Muslim Phenomenon

Submitted by Carol M. Fuller (United States), Oct 4, 2008 at 16:33

I have read several of your books and find that your scholarship is without equal.

Using your writings and other sources I was able to see the similarities between military slavery and modern-day terrorism.

For centuries ordinary Muslims were reluctant to fight for their leaders because governments did not match the idealized vision of the "just rule" of Muhammad and of his immediate successors. Because of this failure to fight caliphs and sultans came to rely on an orderly system of military slavery.

As you skillfully point oit, the same idealized version of that early "just rule" is the vision followed by today's extremists and by the terrorists that arise from among them.

History does not support their vision. The government of Muhammad was very temporary and fell apart when he died. The first two caliphs etablished the military economy and administration of Islam, and early on there was dissention and trouble among the troops over the division of war booty.

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