Egyptian Cleric Dispels Doubt About Slavery in Islam

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/03/former-dean-of-islamic-law-at-saudi-university-misunderstands-islam-says-islamic-law-permits-possess.html

Just in case anyone is confused about the status of slavery in Islam, a former Dean of Islamic Law has stepped up to make sure that we know that slavery is perfectly acceptable in Islam.

The video should be watched. It is unbelievable how the man kindly smiles while explaining that not only is slavery OK in Islam, the enslaved actually have quite a few freedoms (Except the right to own oneself).

The arguments sound like those of Southern plantation owners in the US 160 years back. Why do we rightly condemn that view while ignoring that it is going on right now?

Leftists and Atheists will be quick to add that the Bible does not prohibit slavery and cite the New Testament as proof, but a person with a fifth-grade reading level would be able to discern appreciable differences. When slaves or slavery is treated in the NT, it is in a manner that acknowledges that slavery exists. It does not, as does the Koran or the Haddiths, provide examples of great slave owners to be emulated (All that Mohamed did should be emulated in Islam), what one can do with slaves (There is a lot of that in Islamic teaching, or specify who can be a slave (A whole lot of that too is in Islamic teaching).

From Jihad Watch - link is at top:

"But while the freeing of a slave or two here and there is encouraged, the institution itself is never questioned. The Qur’an even gives a man permission to have sexual relations with his slave girls as well as with his wives: “The believers must (eventually) win through, those who humble themselves in their prayers; who avoid vain talk; who are active in deeds of charity; who abstain from sex, except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess, for (in their case) they are free from blame…” (23:1-6). A Muslim is not to have sexual relations with a woman who is married to someone else – except a slave girl: “And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess. It is a decree of Allah for you” (4:24).

Slavery is still practiced more or less openly today in Sudan and Mauritania, and there is evidence that slavery still continues beneath the surface in some majority-Muslim countries as well -- notably Saudi Arabia, the home of Dr. Saud Al-Fanisan, which only abolished slavery in 1962, Yemen and Oman, both of which ended legal slavery in 1970, and Niger, which didn’t abolish slavery until 2004. In Niger, the ban is widely ignored, and according to a Nigerian study, as many as one million people remain in bondage there."

Note that "whom their right hand possesses" means those who have been taken in warfare/conquest.

Unlike Christianity and Judaism, Islam has not and actually cannot prohibit slavery. Islam has no room for any changes or fuller/better understandings of human rights or religion. What Mohammed did was the best example possible - any deviation or change to that is an affront to Allah.