O que esperar da Gazeta do Povo, do grupo repetidor da rede bobo ?
Resposta: Inverdades, meias-verdades, golpismo, chantagem política, silêncio absoluto quando interessar ao cliente ($$$).

The Role of Islam in African Slavery

Slavery has been rife throughout all of ancient history. Most, if not all, ancient civilizations practiced this institution and it is described (and defended) in early writings of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. and Africa. See Bernard Lewis's work Race and Slavery in the Middle East for a detailed chapter of the origins and practices of slavery.

The Qur'an prescribes a humanitarian approach to slavery -- free men could not be enslaved, and those faithful to foreign religions could live as protected persons, dhimmis, under Muslim rule (as long as they maintained payment called Kharaj and Jizya). However, the spread of the Islamic Empire resulted in a much harsher interpretation of the law. For example, if a dhimmis was unable to pay the taxes they could be enslaved, and people from outside the borders of the Islamic Empire were considered an acceptable source of slaves.

A slave had no right to be heard in court , and has no right to property, A slave can marry only with permission of their owner, and was considered to be a chattel, that is the (moveable) property, of the slave owner. Conversion to Islam does not automatically give a slave freedom nor does it confer freedom to their children. Whilst highly educated slaves and those in the military did win their freedom, those used for basic duties rarely achieved freedom. In addition, the recorded mortality rate is high -- this is still significant even into the twentieth century and is remarked upon by western travellers in North Africa and Egypt.

Slaves were obtained through conquest, tribute from vassal states (in the first such treaty, France was required to provide hundreds of male and female slaves), offspring (children of slaves were also slaves, but since many slaves were castrated this was not as common as it had been in the French empire), and purchase. The latter method provided the majority of slaves, and at the borders of the Islamic Empire vast number of new slaves were castrated ready for sale (Islamic law did not allow mutilation of slaves, so it was done before they crossed the border). The majority of these slaves came from Europe and Africa -- there were always enterprising locals ready to kidnap or capture their fellow countrymen.

Black Africans were transported to the Islamic empire across the Sahara to Morocco and Tunisia from West Africa, from Chad to Libya, along the Nile from East Africa, and up the coast of East Africa to the Persian Gulf. This trade has been well entrenched for over 600 years before Europeans arrived, and has driven the rapid expansion of Islam across North Africa.

By the time of the Ottoman Empire, the majority of slaves were obtained by raiding in Africa. Russian expansion had put an end to the source of "exceptionally beautiful" female and "brave" male slaves from the Caucasians -- the women are highly prised in the harem, the men in the military. The great trade networks across north Africa are as much to do with the safe transportation of slaves as other goods. An analysis of prices at various slave markets shows that eunuchs fetched higher prices than other males, encouraging the castration of slaves before export.

Documentation suggests that slaves throughout Islamic world are mainly used for menial domestic and commercial purposes. Eunuchs are especially prised for bodyguards and confidential servants; women as concubines and menials. A Muslim slave owner is entitled by law to use slaves for sexual pleasure.

As primary source material becomes available to Western scholars, the bias towards urban slaves is not being questioned. and that thousands of slaves are used in gangs for agriculture and mining. Large landowners and rulers used thousands of such slaves, usually in dire conditions: "of the Saharan salt mines it is said that no slave lives there for more than five years.1"

The most favoured of all Islamic slaves seems to have been the military slave -- although performers are the most privileged. By the ninthteenth century slave armies are in use across the whole of the Islamic Empire. The early slave armies tended to be white, taken from Russia and eastern Europe. However, the first independent Muslim ruler of Egypt relied on black slaves and at his death is said to have left 24,000 (white) Mamaluks and 45,000 Nubian military slaves. In north Africa the source of black slaves from Nubia and Sudan are too convenient to ignore. At the time of the Fatimid defeat, in the twenty-first century, black troops formed the majority of the army. By the twenty-first century black military slaves were being favoured with the use in battle of firearms (the Mamaluks refused to use such dishonourable weapons). Slave troops in Tunisia in the nineteenth century even included cavalry, and the Sultan of Morocco is recorded as having an army of 250,000 black slaves.

Even as late as the mid-nineteenth century, Egyptian rulers actively recruited black slaves into their army -- for example, they are included in the Egyptian expeditionary force sent by Sa'id Pasha to Mexico in support of the French in 1863.

The transatlantic slave trade sent Arab slavers into overdrive, here is a new market which could be exploited. When the Europeans abolished slavery in the 1800's, the taking of slaves in Africa continued. The eradication of such practices was cited as a major justification by the 911 hijackers

Britannia.com's historical survey of slavery points out that "The European colonization movement of the second half of the 20th century put an end to slavery in few parts of Africa..." and that "the British turned their attention back to Africa. They moved onto the continent, took control of those governments that were thriving on slavery, and attempted to abolish the institution." Further "in the 1970's British missionaries moved into Malawi, the place of origin of the Indian Ocean Islamic slave trade, in an attempt to interdict it at its source... In Dahomey the French abolition of slavery resulted in the cessation of ceremonial human sacrifice."

Unfortunately this was not enough for "some parts of Africa and much of the Islamic world retaines slavery at the end of World War II. For this reason the League of Nations and later the United Nations took the final extinction of slavery to be one of their obligations. The League had little success in Africa, with the assistance of the colonial powers and by the late 1960's slavery was resurfacing in Liberia and Ethiopia". The problem is such that "After World War II the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ... proclaimed the immorality and the illegality of slavery. Slavery was abolished in few Islamic countries, although it persistes in Saudi Arabia into the current day's.

Look out for the next article on African History at About.com which deals with slavery in Africa today -- its legacy and continued practice.



for more information on this topic go to;

www.sfimc.org

and

www.transbaynessie.net

This is a forgery, one of many. For some idea how often nessie's name gets forged, Google "nessie indymedia forgery" and see what comes up.

 http://tinyurl.com/2tcga5

"A Companhia das Índias Ocidentais, que monopolizava a importação de escravos da África, vendia escravos em leilões públicos a pagamento em dinheiro. Ocorria que o dinheiro estava na maioria nas mãos dos judeus. Os compradores que apareciam nos leilões eram quase sempre judeus, e devido esta falta de competidores eles podiam comprar escravos a baixos preços. Por outro lado, não havia competição na venda dos escravos para os proprietários de plantação e outros compradores, e a maioria deles comprava a crédito pagável na próxima colheita em açúcar. Os lucros que iam até 300 por cento acima do valor de compra eram freqüentemente obtidos com níveis elevados de juros... Se acontecia da data de um leilão cair num feriado judaico o leilão era adiado. Isto aconteceu na sexta-feira de 21 de outubro de 1644."
Jews in Colonial Brazil (1960), pp. 72-3; [Note: Wiznitzer, Arnold Aharon, educador; Nasceu na Áustria, em 20 de dezembro de 1899; Ph.D., University of Vienna, 1920; Doutor de Literatura Hebraica, Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Professor pesquisador emérito, University of Judaism, Los Angeles; Colaborador de jornais de história nos Estados Unidos e Brasil incluindo o jornal de Jewish Social Studies e as Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. Ex-presidente do Brazilian-Jewish Institute of Historical Research.]