Slavery allowed in Koran
Reader comment on item: A Modern-day Mock Devshirme

Submitted by Margaret (United States), Jun 18, 2006 at 10:32

The Koran specifically allows slavery of both non-Muslims and fellow Muslims. It states that if a man inseminates one of his slaves, regardless of her religion -- a common practice in Mohammed's time and even today in Saudi Arabia-- he has to marry the girl to give the child a name. Enslavement of women in the Islamic world is a given; they are considered the property of their masters, fathers, husbands, brothers, or the closest male relative.

My daughter has been such a slave, having been kidnapped to Saudi Arabia 9 years ago by her father. She is not allowed to have a passport, travel, marry, attend school, or exercise her religious rights as a Christian and her Constitutional rights as an American citizen. She is a slave both under the Wahhabi Sharia and under Saudi civil law. She is not allowed to express or even have thoughts contrary to Sharia, at the risk of beheading. I argue that under Sharia, all women are slaves.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

Slavery needs to be distinguished from the terrible treatment of women in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries - these are different phenomena.