Over at Atlas Shrugs I discuss the increasingly common phenomenon of sex slavery sanctioned by the Qur’an:
Bikya Masr reported last week that “a new report from George Washington University professor Michele Clark and Coptic rights activist Nada Ghaly has
argued that thousands of young Coptic Christian girls in Egypt are the
victim of kidnapping and forced servitude by Muslims in the North
African country.” Meanwhile, every day seems to bring fresh reports of
Muslim gangs in Britain forcing young non-Muslim girls into prostitution
and sex slavery. Muslims from the Twin Cities area ran an interstate sex trafficking ring
until they were caught and indicted in late 2010. The dirty secret
behind such reports is that this behavior is sanctioned in Islam.The Qur’an forbids Muslim men to have sexual relations with “wedded
women, save what your right hands own.” (4:4) “Prosperous are the
believers who in their prayers are humble and from idle talk turn away
and at almsgiving are active and guard their private parts save from
their wives and what their right hands own then being not blameworthy.”
(23:1-6)Those whom their “right hands own” are slaves, and inextricable from
the concept of Islamic slavery as a whole is the concept of sex slavery,
which is rooted in Islam’s devaluation of the lives of non-Muslims. The
Qur’an stipulates that a man many take four wives as well as hold slave
girls as sex slaves. These women are captured in wartime and are
considered the spoils of war. Islam avoids the appearance of
impropriety, declaring that the taking of these sex slaves does not
constitute adultery if the women are already married, for their
marriages are ended at the moment of their capture. A manual of Islamic
law directs: “When a child or a woman is taken captive, they become
slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman’s previous marriage is
immediately annulled” (Reliance of the Traveller, o9.13).This is by no means an eccentric or unorthodox view in Islam. The Egyptian Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni declared in May 2011
that “we are in the era of jihad,” and that as they waged jihad warfare
against infidels, Muslims would take slaves. He clarified what he meant
in a subsequent interview:“¦Jihad is only between Muslims and infidels”¦.Spoils, slaves, and
prisoners are only to be taken in war between Muslims and infidels.
Muslims in the past conquered, invaded, and took over countries. This is
agreed to by all scholars–there is no disagreement on this from any of
them, from the smallest to the largest, on the issue of taking spoils
and prisoners. The prisoners and spoils are distributed among the
fighters, which includes men, women, children, wealth, and so on.