Slavery in 21st-century Islamism

Quasi-state level Islamist groups, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have captured and enslaved women and children, often for sexual use.[1][2]

Enslavement

By Boko Haram

According to Islamism expert Jonathan N.C. Hill, in 2014 Boko Haram began kidnapping large numbers of girls and young women for sexual use. The attacks echoed kidnappings of girls and young women for sexual use by Algerian Islamists in the 1990s and early 2000s, and may reflect influence by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.[3][4]

By ISIS

The Economist reports that ISIS has taken "as many as 2,000 women and children" captive, selling and distributing them as sexual slaves (Matthew Barber, a scholar of Yazidi history at the University of Chicago, later stated to have compiled a list of 4,800 captured Yazidi women and children, and estimated that the overall number could be up to 7,000).[5] According to reports endorsed as credible by The Daily Telegraph, virgins among the captured women were selected and given to commanders as sexual slaves.[6] In November 2014 The New York Times reported on the accounts given by five who escaped ISIS of their captivity and abuse.[7]

Islamist theological support for slavery

In recent years, according to some scholars,[8] there has been a "worrying trend" of "reopening" of the issue of slavery by some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars after its "closing" earlier in the 20th century when Muslim countries banned slavery and "most Muslim scholars" found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality."[9][10]

In 2003 a high-level Saudi jurist, Shaykh Saleh Al-Fawzan, issued a fatwa claiming “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.”[11] He attacked Muslim scholars who said otherwise maintaining, “They are ignorant, not scholars ... They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.” At the time of the fatwa, al-Fawzan was a member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning in the country.

According to multiple sources, religious calls have also been made to capture and enslave Jewish women. As American journalist John J. Miller said, "It is hard to imagine a serious person calling for America to enslave its enemies. Yet a prominent Saudi cleric, Shaikh Saad Al-Buraik, recently urged Palestinians to do exactly that with Jews: 'Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women?'" [12]

Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri of Karbala expressed the view in 1993 that the enforcement of servitude can occur but is restricted to war captives and those born of slaves.[13]

Abdul-Latif Mushtahari, the general supervisor and director of homiletics and guidance at the Azhar University, has said on the subject of justifications for Islamic permission of slavery:[14]

"Islam does not prohibit slavery but retains it for two reasons. The first reason is war (whether it is a civil war or a foreign war in which the captive is either killed or enslaved) provided that the war is not between Muslims against each other - it is not acceptable to enslave the violators, or the offenders, if they are Muslims. Only non-Muslim captives may be enslaved or killed. The second reason is the sexual propagation of slaves which would generate more slaves for their owner."

British Muslim commentator Mo Ansar said "If slaves are treated justly, with full rights, and no oppression whatsoever… why would anyone object?".[15]

According to CNN and The Economist, the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant "justifies its kidnapping of women as sex slaves citing Islamic theology." An article entitled, 'The revival (of) slavery before the Hour,' (of Judgement Day), published in the ISIL online magazine, Dabiq, claimed that Yazidi women can be taken captive and forced to become sex slaves or concubines under Islamic law, "[o]ne should remember that enslaving the families of the kuffar -- the infidels -- and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah, or Islamic law."[5][16][17] It not only justified the taking of slave but condemned as apostates from Islam those who "deny or mock" the verses of the Koran or hadith that justified it, asserting that as concubinage is specifically justified in the Koran, anyone who objected to it would be an apostate: "he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Koran and the narrations of the Prophet … and thereby apostatizing from Islam.".[18] ISIL appealed to apocalyptic beliefs and "claimed justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world."[19] In late 2014 ISIL released a pamphlet on the treatment of female slaves.[20][21][22][23][24][25]

Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist group, said in an interview "I shall capture people and make them slaves" when claiming responsibility for the 2014 Chibok kidnapping.[26] Shekau has justified his actions by appealing to the Quran saying "[w]hat we are doing is an order from Allah, and all that we are doing is in the Book of Allah that we follow".[27]

See also

References

  1. Spencer, Richard (14 October 2014). "Monday 20 October 2014 Thousands of Yazidis sold as sex slaves, say Isil". Irish Independent. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  2. McPhee, Rod. "The schoolgirls stolen as sex slaves by Nigeria's anti-education jihadists Boko Haram" (3 May 2014). Daily Mirror. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  3. Hill, Jonathan N.C. (July 30, 2014). "Boko Haram, the Chibok Abductions and Nigeria’s Counterterrorism Strategy". Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  4. Marina Lazreg, “Consequences of Political Liberalisation and Sociocultural Mobilisation for Women in Algeria, Egypt and Jordan,” in Anne-Marie Goetz, Governing Women: Women’s Political Effectiveness in Contexts of Democratisation and Governance Reform (New York: Routledge/UNRISD, 2009), p. 47.
  5. 5.0 5.1 EconomistStaff (October 18, 2014). "Jihadists Boast of Selling Captive Women as Concubines". The Economist. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  6. Sherlock, Ruth (18 October 2014). "Islamic State commanders 'using Yazidi virgins for sex'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  7. Semple, Kirk (November 14, 2014). "Yazidi Girls Seized by ISIS Speak Out After Escape". The New York Times.
  8. Khaled Abou El Fadl and William Clarence-Smith
  9. Abou el Fadl, Great Theft, HarperSanFrancisco, c2005.
  10. Clarence-Smith, William G. "Islam and Slavery" (PDF).
  11. "Shaikh Salih al-Fawzan "affirmation of slavery" was found on page 24 of "Taming a Neo-Qutubite Fanatic Part 1" when accessed on February 17, 2007" (PDF).
  12. Miller, John J. (May 20, 2002). "The Unknown Slavery: In the Muslim World, That Is—and It's Not Over". National Review.
  13. In 'The Elements of Islam' (1993) cited in Clarence-Smith, p.131
  14. You Ask and Islam Answers, pp. 51-2
  15. Cohen, Nick (May 17, 2014). "How did Mo Ansar become the voice of British Muslims?". The Spectator.
  16. Abdelaziz, Salma (13 October 2014). "ISIS states its justification for the enslavement of women". CNN. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
  17. Mathis-Lilly, Ben (14 October 2014). "ISIS Declares Itself Pro-Slavery". Slate. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  18. Wood, Graeme (March 2015). "What ISIS Really Wants". The Atlantic. Retrieved 26 February 2015.
  19. Malas, Nour (November 18, 2014). "Ancient Prophecies Motivate Islamic State Militants: Battlefield Strategies Driven by 1,400-year-old Apocalyptic Ideas". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
  20. Smith, Amelia (September 12, 2014). "ISIS Publish Pamphlet On How to Treat Female Slaves". Newsweek.
  21. "ISIS publishes guide telling fighters how to buy, sell and abuse captured women - Daily Mail Online". Mail Online.
  22. Greg Botelho, CNN (12 December 2014). "ISIS: Enslaving, having sex with 'unbelieving' women, girls is OK - CNN.com". CNN.
  23. Katharine Lackey (13 December 2014). "Pamphlet provides Islamic State guidelines for sex slaves". USA Today.
  24. "Islamic State issues abhorrent sex slavery guidelines about how to treat women - Christian News on Christian Today". Christian Today.
  25. "Isis releases 'abhorrent' sex slaves pamphlet with 27 tips for militants on taking, punishing and raping female captives". The Independent.
  26. Lister, Tim (22 October 2014). "Boko Haram: The essence of terror". CNN. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  27. Ferran, Lee (5 May 2014). "Boko Haram: Kidnappers, Slave-Owners, Terrorists, Killers". ABC News.