Charles Jacobs of the American Anti-Slavery Group writes eloquently about modern jihad slavery in Sudan in the Forward.
It is during Passover that we Jews are most sharply reminded that we walk the earth as redeemed slaves. But while human bondage may for us be a thing of the distant past, for many others slavery is not a matter of history. This year, as we celebrate our redemption at Seder tables around the globe, there are by conservative estimate 27 million slaves serving masters on every continent.One of the worst cases of slavery is in the African country of Sudan. There, a Taliban-like fundamentalist regime took power in 1989 and launched a jihad that revived the trade in black slaves. Until just a few months ago, when an American-initiated peace process established a shaky cease-fire, the Sudanese regime sent Arab militias to raid black villages in heavily Christian southern Sudan. They shot the men and captured the women and children. The latter group — often raped and gang-raped at the point of capture — were marched north, bought and sold, and often forcibly converted to a faith not their own. Estimates range from tens of thousands to more than 100,000 slaves still in captivity.
The war that has been raging in Sudan since 1983 has killed more than 2 million people and driven millions more from their homes. According to international aid experts, more than 100,000 were forcibly starved to death. Colin Powell told Congress in 2001 that there is "no greater tragedy on the face of the earth today" than Sudan.
Yet it was a long, arduous struggle to get the media to focus on Sudan and to get the public or an American administration to respond. No establishment human rights group has led a sustained campaign for the victims of slavery and slaughter in Sudan. Until prodded by scenes of modern-day abolitionists redeeming slaves on American television, Unicef, the world's most prominent protector of women and children, was quiet.
But thanks to pressure brought by an unlikely coalition that includes Christian and Jewish groups, the Congressional Black Caucus, black church leaders and secular activists, stopping the horror in Sudan is now American policy. After years of speeches, protests, op-eds, divestment campaigns and even arrests for acts of civil disobedience, this left-right coalition in 2002 got Congress to pass with near unanimity and the president to sign the Sudan Peace Act, which has funded a comprehensive American-led peace process.
The Southern People's Liberation Movement and the Sudanese government agreed to a cease-fire in 2002 and are now in the process of trying to negotiate a settlement. A settlement will not be easy. Antagonism between the Arab (and historically slaving) north and the black tribal south predates the decision of English mapmakers to paste them together into "Sudan." The list of items to be negotiated include power-sharing, the sharing of oil wealth, the nature of cultural autonomy, the political disposition of black enclaves in the north and the religious status of the capital, but the overarching issue is how — or if — these two civilizations should share a nation-state.
This already difficult task is made even tougher because the Sudanese regime will not acknowledge it took slaves. And State Department diplomats participating in negotiations have not made the liberation of the slaves a precondition. But if the slaves are not freed, there will be no peace.
Worse still, the Sudanese regime, its southern front now quiet, has launched a genocidal attack on Darfur, a largely black Muslim province in western Sudan, which also seeks cultural autonomy. U.N. workers report widespread abuses against civilians, including "killings, rape and the burning and looting of entire villages." A top USAID official calls Darfur "arguably the worst humanitarian crisis in Africa." A U.N. relief worker told journalists, "There is a systematic removal of populations of non-Arab origin."
And there is reason to think pro-government forces may be taking black Muslim slaves in Darfur. Human rights groups have documented mass abductions, particularly of children, by government-backed militias. A farmer from the village of Kishkish in Darfur told an Amnesty International worker that raiding militias cursed the African villagers: "you are black and you are... our slaves. Darfur is in our hands and you are our herders." In light of what is happening in Darfur, can we expect the peace in the South to hold? Will slave raids begin there anew?
Why is it so hard to get the media and the progressive activist community to care about the slavery and slaughter of blacks in North Africa, when they led the charge to free blacks from an arguably lesser horror in apartheid South Africa? Can it be that the South Sudanese were abandoned because they have the "wrong" oppressors? Have our progressive elites abandoned the principle of "Justice for All," marching instead only under banner "Not in My Name?" Is the only point expiation? Is evil committed by non-whites simply beside the point?
This Passover let us think about universal justice. Let us fight for the liberation of all slaves — no matter who their masters may be. As Jews around the world sat at the Seder table this year, we asked the traditional Four Questions. We might well have added a fifth: What can we former slaves do to help those in bondage today?
Why is it so hard to get the media and the progressive activist community to care about slavery and slaughter of blacks in North Africa? We could change all the words following the word care in this sentence to just about anything that does not fall within the narrow focus of their agenda. Not only do they ignore everything else, their reporting is slanted and biased, full of half-truths, inuendo, and misrepresentation to smear and vilify the West, especially the United States.
No one should be surprised, then, that slavery in Sudan is ignored by the press and activists groups. As of yet they haven't found a way to pin it on the West, and bringing it to the attention of the world would only show Islam in a bad light...not on their agenda.
Every report I have read about the fighting in Sudan labels it "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide". There is no mention of the word "jihad". The media, at least here in the Northeast, has never been able to call it like it is, but always has romanticized Islam and pronounced it 'hijacked' by the 'fanatics'.
I am puzzled by the siding of black americans (themselves descendents of redeemed slaves)with muslim leaders, and their silence towards modern slavery. What does Jesse Jackson think of this?
Today I was pondering the Muslim situation and wondered, "What is it they are trying so hard to protect from the light of the modern world?" "What is it they hate so much to lose, since, by democratizing their society, they would not lose their freedom of religion?"
The answer came to me - SLAVERY. When you think about it, the women are slaves in their culture. The men decide everything about the lives of the women: marrying them off when they are still children, forcing them to bed men they detest, forcing them to bear children and beating them if they should protest. Women can easily be killed if they rebel- police are simply paid a little money to ignore it.
There is an Arab saying, "Beat your wife every day,- if you don't know why, she does." Recently, we heard about the woman who was raped by her brother in law while the husband was away. She said nothing because the woman is not believed unless there are two or three male witnesses,!! but she bacame pregnant. They were going to stone HER for infidelity! Imagine being a powerless human being in that ridiculous situation.
Now, imagine how the liberation of Arab women would upset the Muslim men! No more slaves, no more beast of burden to beat and threaten to throw out the door. Because if a women is 'divorced', thrown out, she is shunned and has an even worse life.
I think much of the Muslim 'religion'(cult) is built around slavery, even the poorer men subjected to the richer more powerful ones. Maybe our mission is to help eradicate another round of slavery from the earth the way we eradicated it from our own society. FREE THE ARAB WOMEN!
To change the culture you would effectively need to totally obliterate it in its current form. What will you put in its place and how would you acheive it?
We could impose the 'modern world' with its progressive forms of violence, racial hatred, sexual perversions such as paedophiles preying on the children in third world countries, our humanity as we gorge ourselves while the rest of the world starves, our spending embarrasing amounts of money on transplants while children in the third world die from lack of basics such as immunisation and clean water, have poverty stricken countries so indebted to the west with interest payments despite having repaid the initial debt sometimes several times over.
We in the West are so good 'cause we don't repress women and they have rights, and of course people can vote so we have democracy, and freedom of speech is allowed and encouraged so we have an open society.
Bahtoo,
you said:
"We could impose the 'modern world' with its progressive forms of violence, racial hatred, sexual perversions such as paedophiles preying on the children in third world countries"
Bahtoo, that is how you see the modern world. {Why did you leave out all the good stuff?) But if you think about it, other countries besides the West have the problems you mentioned, PLUS many others, including horrible government, corrupt leaders and inhumane practices - to each other!
Then you said: :"our humanity as we gorge ourselves while the rest of the world starves, our spending embarrasing amounts of money on transplants while children in the third world die from lack of basics such as immunisation and clean water".
Bahtoo,
Many countries besides the West are having problems with obesity now, including China. India will be next as her standard of living improves. It goes with the territory of capitalism, - people get fat. And how would you develop the science of transplants, wait until everyone on the planet could afford one. Right now as an American, if I needed a transplant, I'm not sure I could get one because I don't have much money. But I could get most other things if I tried hard enough. That's progress.
And about the babies of the third world - they are mostly dying from AIDS and the gov'ts of countries like Africa wouldn't even let doctors give medicine to people with AIDS because the leaders denied it's existance or thought the doctors were trying to poison them. Meanwhile, the African men insist on their priviledge of sleeping with anything that moves, picking up disease and taking it back to their wives who have no right to refuse them sex. THAT'S why the continent is in such trouble, not because modern countries squeeze all their resources. The minute these leaders begin to take responsibility for what THEY are doing to their countries, rather than simply blame their 'Rich Uncle Sam' for everything, they will start to thrive, like the rest of the world.
I used to be like you, blaming America first, until I lived in other countries and saw the hypocrisy and the corruption, the classism and rascism - worse than we have EVER had here. Ever.
Patricia, pleeeeze. African men having sex is the problem. Hallo remember Clinton your most public wick dipping. 'R' movies, high divorce rates, promiscous society. AIDS medicine wasn't available to 3rd world countries because the corporations refused to allow generic cheap brands be manufactured so that poor countries could afford them. Its also a really bad generalisation to say the kids are dying of AIDS. Girl you need to do some travel and get your head out of the sand.
I too have read the most horrific accounts of Muslim persecution in Sudan over the past five years. Not iN the mainstream western press but from christian web sites at al.
In these countries Islam does not play by western rules in its attempts to take over.
And we are very guilty of doing nothing and misreporting these attacks (eg Miss world outrage in Nigeria).
The war islam fights against third world countries is a far more viscious one that it fights in western countries AT THE MOMENT.
OUr Christian congregations who pray peacefully in Western Churches have not yet had their throats slit in Islamic rituals.
IF we carry on doing nothing that day will surely come.
Are witnessing the first days in the Islamification of the entire planet ?
Only if we follow the appeasers.
otherwise we are witnessing the first death throes of the most evil religion to have disgraced this planet.
The story of a "subdued" one:
Tears In The Sand
In 1995 Rasika Perera, a young widow and mother of two small children, was doing her best to get her life on track. Tragedy had taken her husband of 4 ½ years. There was little to do in a country where the masses were and are still being denied an education and therefore relegated to servile labor of some type. The woman looked at her hungry children, not knowing what the future held. She had no home, no money, and no land. Her parents were not able to help as they themselves sat on the edge of poverty. One brother had been killed in action against the Tamil insurgents and another brother, despondent about the lack of a future, took his own life. The only option she had was to take her two small children to their paternal grandparents for safekeeping while she headed for employment on the Arabian Peninsula. She worked in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and finally in Saudi Arabia. It was in the latter place that she came face to face with the ugly side of humanity.
Her journey into the abyss began on December 15, 1999. She entered the doors of Bandaranaika airport full of hope yet anxious about her children and apprehensive about what awaited her in Ryad. She had made the journey from this airport several times before, but each of these journeys yielded the sought after money and after each uneventful sojourn Rasika return home to see her children. This odyssey, however, would prove to be a stark contrast to her previous experiences on the Arabian peninsula. The arrival at Ryad airport proved to be uneventful enough, she was met by her sponsor, Hussein Al Mutlak (phone number #4729446). He took her to his family’s residence where she was employed for nearly three months. It was then, that the first problems arose. Hussein’s first wife insisted that Rasika wear the Hejab inside the house saying that she should live like Muslim. During Ramadan she extended the prohibition against eating to Rasika and to make sure that she would not eat the old woman locked the icebox. Rasika, exasperated, hungry, and generally harassed confided in “Mama Hoda” one of Hussein’s other wives. When Hoda confronted the other wife about her treatment of Rasika, the woman insisted that she had done nothing of the kind, and the fight between the two wives was on.
The dispute between the two wives of Hussein was more than Jehia, the son of the elder woman could bear. The solution, he said, was to send Rasika packing. He insisted that after this there should be a Muslim, not a Buddhist nor a Christian, working in the house. The elder Hussein quickly spirited Rasika away to the employment agency run by Jehia and a friend. Though Hussein had sponsored Rasika, he now abrogated his responsibility to her and violated the terms of his sponsorship and sold her to Maheer who promptly removed her to Jeddah. Maheer’s wife was in Indonesia at the time. Soon after Rasika’s arrival in Jeddah Maheer decided to take a trip to Indonesia, but instead of leaving Rasika in his elder mother’s charge, he gave her over to the supervision of his sister and her husband Mahammet, a policeman in Jeddah.
Rasika’s journey had been far from smooth, but the story was about to take an even more bizarre turn. Maheer’s sister was pregnant and due to deliver about the time Rasika entered her employ. When the delivery date neared and she entered the hospital Mahammet began to show more than a casual interest in Rasika. He constantly came into the areas where she worked and attempted to caress her, at one point he caressed her legs. Rasika, fearful of the outcome of his unwanted advances fled the house. She ran into the street carrying a small bag, wearing only her abaya, no shoes, and more seriously no hejab. She was quickly stopped by the Medina police who wanted to know why she was not covered and where she was going. After questioning they transported her to a dormitory for women where she remained for twelve days until it was discovered that she was not a Muslim, but a Buddhist. At this point she was segregated from the Muslim women some of whom hailed from Palestine others from Sri Lanka.
The young woman whose world was already in disarray was then taken to the Medina Jail where she spent 2 ½ months awaiting action. She did not have access to toiletries, soap, or feminine hygiene products. When she was able to cleanse herself she had to make do with laundry detergent. She was harassed daily as a kaferin, given inadequate food, allowed no contact with the Sri Lankan embassy in Riyad, and more significantly no real effort was undertaken to determine what had brought her to the Jail. At one point mutaween religious police asked her if Maheer had known that she was not a Muslim. She intuitively answered that she did not think that he knew what religion she was. She was afraid to say otherwise because he was in Indonesia, and she had no idea when he would return. She feared that to say otherwise would see her incarcerated a good while longer, at least until Maheer would return from Indonesia.
During Rasika’s detention the jail matron sought to convert her to Islam. The matron insulted her daily, insisting that she was a kaferin. Rasika sank to a new low when she drank tide to escape her miserable surroundings. She was taken to a nearby hospital where her system was purged. She was also given some medicine and then returned to jail. Under the duress of the isolation and daily emotional harassment Rasika ultimately yielded and agreed to study the Koran. She understood that to study the Koran she would have some privileges restored and this meant that she would finally get to wash with soap. Rasika also assented to study the Koran because she feared retribution if she did not acquiesce.
As noted before, Rasika was not able to contact the Sri Lankan embassy and during her confinement she had but one visitor. Maheer’s mother came to see Rasika one time and brought her one months salary. The remainder of her belongings, however, were never accounted for. She lost all her documents, private papers, and the clothing that she had purchased with the money she had earned in Ryad. The belongings she lost amounted to four months of salary. To add insult to injury the authorities used the money brought by Maheer’s mother to purchase an airline ticket to take Rasika from Medina to Ryad. There was little she could do by way of protest, instead she accepted her now miserable fate thinking that she would soon be in Ryad and on her way to the Sri Lankan Embassy. Though once again her hopes were dashed as she was ferried from the airport to a jail in Ryad. Here she remained for two weeks until she was quickly taken out by Jehia Al Mutlak who had been approached by the mutaween police about the case.
Jehi Al Mutlak took Rasika to the agency office and once again made arrangements to place her with local employers. She was sent to a number of different places, one or two days at a time. After a number of short stints Rasika was sent to a Palestinian household, where she had to endure daily insults. She was referred to as a kaferin and was told that she was the same as a Jew. Her diet consisted of salted rice at lunch and meager rations at night. After one week she decided to make a break for it and headed to the Sri Lankan Embassy. She ran out of the house without her abaya and hejab. Some Sri Lankan laborers on their way to work, fearing the worst if she were caught by the police, gave her some money to take a taxi to the Sri Lankan Embassy. When Rasika arrived at the embassy she was asked what she wanted. She informed them that she had no money and asked them to please find a job in a good house for one year. After two tense days she was placed with Abdul Raman Abdul Agamri (phone#053105094; or #4242714). Here Rasika was treated well and given good food, including American Fast food and Sri Lankan dishes. Still the ordeal she underwent since her arrival in Saudi Arabia had left is mark on the spirit of the young woman.
Rasika asked her new employer why she was treated in this way. They told her not to worry that Allah would give these people trouble. After staying with this family for one year Rasika returned to Sri Lanka, arriving in February 2002. Rasika immediately reported all that had happened, as she had done at the Embassy in Ryad, to the authorities at Bandarnaika airport, and to the Buddhist Committee. She was thanked for the information and that was the end of it. She has never quit talking about this experience and shows a great deal of stress from her traumatic experience in Saudia Arabia. The authorities in Medina and Ryad, and the agency at which Jehia Al Mutlak worked are all to blame for her treatment, her incarceration and subsequently the failure to rectify this situation. She lost time, money, and self-esteem. She was denied humane treatment to include proper nutrition and hygiene. She was cursed for her beliefs even though in the Qur’an one is told:
The Disbelievers
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
[109.1] Say: O unbelievers!
[109.2] I do not serve that which you serve,
[109.3] Nor do you serve Him Whom I serve:
[109.4] Nor am I going to serve that which you serve,
[109.5] Nor are you going to serve Him Whom I serve:
[109.6] You shall have your religion and I shall have my religion.
The young mother from Sri Lanka who sought nothing other than an adequate wage to support her two children was sold almost as a slave from one employer to another. She was exposed to sexual harassment and near rape, again the Qur’an admonishes the faithful:
[4.27] And Allah desires that He should turn to you (mercifully), and those who follow (their) lusts desire that you should deviate (with) a great deviation.
The young woman’s belongings were taken and her hard earned money taken by the authorities to send her to Ryad. The sponsor should have been responsible for the payment as he illegally transferred her to Maheer in Jedda.
In the final analysis a good deal of damage has been to Rasika Dilani Perera. Not a day goes by that she does not refer to the events in Jeddah and Medina. At a meeting with a Doctor and Social Worker recently it was said that she will need a good deal of counseling to deal with these unresolved issues. Not a day goes by that she does not remember Mahammets foul attempt at violating her virtue. Not a day goes by that she does not recall the inhumane incarceration, the repeated slurs, and the discrimination she faced as a Buddhist. In short it has affected her ability to relate to her children and her family. It will take years, if ever, before she trusts anyone again.
The Sri Lankan government has been reluctant in this and many other cases, to step in to help its own because it does not want to disrupt the flow of foreign exchange netted by the cheap labor in Saudi Arabia. Still, this does not exculpate those responsible in Ryad, Jeddah, and Medina.
“Last year [2001], at least 2,800 Sri Lankan housemaids ran away from their Saudi sponsors, claiming they had been overworked, sexually abused or physically mistreated by jealous wives. They are among the countless foreign "guest workers" in Saudi Arabia who live and work under conditions that are sometimes compared to modern-day slavery.”
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/webspecials02/saudiarabia/day3/story1.shtml