Fawzi Turki claims that in Islam there is no distinction made among people, whether on the basis of ethnicity, culture, race, or language:
“Thus, Islam’s transnational, transcultural, transracial and translinguistic ethos, throughout history, never differentiated between black and white, African and Afghan, Levantine and Oriental, seeing all Muslims as equal denizens of the umma,is today a subject of special interest in African-American Studies, and certainly to African-Americans as a whole.’
“One such, Edward Curtis, the Millennium Chair of liberal Arts and Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University, dwells, in his book, The Call of Bilal: Islam in the African Diaspora (2016) on “the historical figure” that became the first muezzin in Islam, whose rise from slavery “inspires Muslims of African descent to reclaim their heritage and to play a legitimate role as moral leaders for Muslims worldwide.”
Comment:
But if Islam has always been indifferent to the nation, ethnicity, race of Believers, as Fawaz Turki claims, then why would there be any need to use the tale of Bilal in order to “inspire Muslims of African descent to reclaim their heritage and to play a legitimate role as moral leaders for Muslims”? What had happened, over the centuries, to cause them to need to “reclaim their heritage”? What led them to lose it in the first place? And why haven’t they played “a legitimate role as moral leaders for Muslims”? If there really is this “indifference” to race, as Turki claims, there should never have been a problem for Muslim blacks to “play” their “legitimate role” as moral leaders.”
“Never in Islamic history had an adhan recital given to us such a full yield of meaning [as] that delivered by Bilal Bin Sabah — Companion of the Prophet (PBUH), consummate warrior and an enchanting muezzin.
So Islam, Fawaz Turki insists, is completely lacking in racism. He offers exactly one example of a black man who had a favored position — Bilal, who became the first muezzin.
Let’s take a look to see if Islam really is as lacking in racism as Turki claims.
The evidence, I’m afraid, goes the other way. There are three hadith in Al-Bukhari where Muslims are told to obey a ruler, even if he were a black man, as here: ”Narrated Anas bin Malik: Allah’s Apostle said, “You should listen to and obey, your ruler even if he was an Ethiopian (black) slave whose head looks like a raisin.” In another, Ahmad ibn Abi Sulayman, the companion of Sahnun said, “Anyone who says that the Prophet was black should be killed.” (Ibn Musa al-Yahsubi, Qadi ‘Iyad, p.375).
And there is this from the celebrated historian Al-Tabari: “Noah prayed that the hair of Ham’s descendants [Africans] would not grow beyond their ears, and that whenever his [Ham’s] descendants met Shem’s, the latter would enslave them.” (Al-Tabari, Vol. 2, p. 21, p. 21)
Why was it so terrible for the Prophet to be called “black”? Because for the Arabs, blacks were unquestionably inferior. Such misidentification, according to Ahmad ibn Abi Sulayman, was an insult to the Prophet, and deserved death. And blacks, as descendants of Ham, were fit only to be slaves (Shem’s descendants “would enslave them”).
Many of the most famous Arab writers and Islamic scholars were unambiguously “racists” in the full meaning of that word.
Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) was, among other things, an Islamic jurist, Islamic lawyer, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, and hafiz (one who has memorized the entire Qur’an). He is one of the most important figures in Islamic history. Here are two disparaging remarks, among so many that he makes about black Africans in his Muqaddimah:
“Therefore, the Negro nation are, as a rule, submissive to slavery, because [Negroes] have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals, as we have stated.”
“Beyond [known peoples of black West Africa] to the south there is no civilization in the proper sense. There are only humans who are closer to dumb animals than to rational beings. They live in thickets and caves, and eat herbs and unprepared grain. They frequently eat each other. They cannot be considered human beings.”
Ibn Sina or Avicenna (980-1037), was another celebrated figure in Islamic history: a Hafiz, an Islamic psychologist, scholar, and theologian and, by our lights, a racist: “[Blacks are] people who are by their very nature slaves.”
Ibn Qutaybah (828-889), was a renowned Islamic scholar from Kufa, Iraq: “[Blacks] are ugly and misshapen, because they live in a hot country.”
Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1201-1274), was a Shia Muslim Scholar and Grand Ayatollah:
“If (all types of men) are taken, from the first, and one placed after another, like the Negro from Zanzibar, in the Southern-most countries, the Negro does not differ from an animal in anything except the fact that his hands have been lifted from the earth –In no other peculiarity or property – except for what God wished. Many have seen that the ape is more capable of being trained than the Negro, and more intelligent.”
“[The Zanj (African) differ from animals only in that] their two hands are lifted above the ground,… Many have observed that the ape is more teachable and more intelligent than the Zanj.”
Al-Muqaddasi (945/946-1000) was a medieval Muslim geographer:
Of the neighbors of the Bujja, Al-Muqaddasi had heard that “there is no marriage among them; the child does not know his father, and they eat people — but God knows best. As for the Zanj, they are people of black color, flat noses, kinky hair, and little understanding or intelligence.” [Kitab al-Bad’ wah-tarikh, vol.4]
Al-Masudi (896-956), was a Muslim historian and geographer, known as the “Herodotus of the Arabs”:
“Galen says that merriment dominates the black man because of his defective brain, whence also the weakness of his intelligence.” (Al-Masudi, Muruj al-dhahab)
Ibn al-Faqih was a Muslim historian and geographer:
“A man of discernment said: The people of Iraq … do not come out with something between blonde, buff and blanched coloring, such as the infants dropped from the wombs of the women of the Slavs and others of similar light complexion; nor are they overdone in the womb until they are burned, so that the child comes out something between black, murky, malodorous, stinking, and crinkly-haired, with uneven limbs, deficient minds, and depraved passions, such as the Zanj, the Somali, and other blacks who resemble them. The Iraqis are neither half-baked dough nor burned crust but between the two.” (from his Mukhtasar Kitab al-Buldan, 903 AD)
These are just a tiny sample of the hair-raising racist remarks made by noted figures in Islamic intellectual history. All of these remarks have apparently escaped the notice of Fawaz Turki. I have the feeling that even were he to be made aware of these passages, he would prefer to pass over them in silence, and certainly would wish that they not be brought to the notice of Unbelievers, lest they think ill of his beloved Islam.
Nor does Turki take any notice of the Arab slave trade in black Africans, that began earlier, and lasted longer, and claimed millions more victims, than did the Atlantic slave trade of the Europeans. Slavery lasted longer because it was sanctioned by the practice of Muhammad himself, who bought, sold, and traded slaves. That is why there never was a Muslim William Wilberforce. Slavery was formally abolished in Saudi Arabia very late, in 1962, and only under pressure from Great Britain. In the same year it was abolished in Yemen, and in Oman, slavery ended only in 1970. And even now, despite the formal abolition of slavery, there are hundreds of thousands of black slaves, with Arab masters, in Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. In Libya slave markets, with black African slaves, have sprung up in the last few years; those for sale are black Africans who came to Libya hoping to make it to Europe, but instead found themselves stranded for lack of funds,, and subsequently were enslaved by local Arabs. In Sudan, during the long civil war, northern Arabs enslaved hundreds of thousands of black Africans from the south. The continuation of this practice — Arab masters, black African slaves — right up to the present, in several Arab-dominated countries (Mali, Mauritania, Niger), confirms the racist view of blacks among Arabs, a view promoted in so many Arab texts, from several hadith in Al-Bukhari, to passages in Ibn Khaldun, Al-Tabari, Ibn Sina, Al-Masudi, Al-Qutaybah, and many others.
mortimer says
Mohammed considered black slaves to be animals of half the value of white slaves.
The Islamic View of Black Slaves: Islam and Slavery in the Hadith
revereridesagain says
Well, one way they were indifferent to race: They’d enslave anybody. You were no more safe from them on the south coast of Ireland than the north coast of Africa.
Niemoller says
Actually, they were not indifferent, they had rigid hierarchies of slaves based on race. The Arab muslims only castrated black African male slaves, not Middle Eastern or European Christian slaves, who were closer to indentured servants. Also the price for a slave was based on race.
Anjuli Pandavar says
Also, white females were/are prized for sex, while black females were/are prized for housework.
Niemoller says
+1
maghan says
Some historical connections are in order. Being “Arab” simply meant “someone whose first language was Arabic”. Thus there were black Arabs during Muhammad’s time. See below black Al-Jahiz on the black Arabs of the Middle East
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Jahiz.
A number of the slave dealers on the East African coast were black Arabs as was in the case of Tippu Tip who traded is slaves bound for the East African islands of Zanzibar and Pemba.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&channel=crow&biw=1026&bih=478&tbm=isch&q=tippu+tib+slave+images&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio0eyIit_iAhVEz4UKHbV-DJIQBQg9KAA#imgrc=V20T-iTgjijvXM:
Given the primitive nature of agriculture and industry in the Arabian peninsula and the Middle East in general there was little need for large importation of slaves for any agricultural or productive work. This was a world of goats and camels mainly. The Turks and others in that general area of what is now called the Middle East preferred to engage in the enslavement of East European Slavs(the word “slave” supposedly derives therefrom)–especially females for harem breeder purposes
Compare that with the thriving and very productive commerce involved in the Triangular Trade involving Western Europe, West Africa and the Americas. Much business in agricultural production, building, mining, and general trade.
Plus the enslavement and servage(serfdom) of persons was the norm until the Industrial revolution. The old empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhay all had slaves–as in the case of Mali king Mansa Musa who took 12,000 slaves with him on his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Musa-I-of-Mali
It should be noted too that most of those Arab writers based their knowledge of blacks on hearsay and other sources–given that they did not actually live in the areas and people they described.
Michael Copeland says
Chapter 66. Selling Animals For Animals Of Different Amounts Or Quality, Hand to Hand
The Prophet said: ‘Sell him to me.’
So he bought him for two black slaves.
Sahih Sunan an-Nasa’I, 4625
Cited in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxOM4GrqElw at 5.33
b.a. freeman says
thank U, mr. fitzgerald, for collecting all this evidence in one place. i have seen much of it before, but i don’t have easy access to the kutub al sittah (at least, not using proper tools like EREs and PCREs, to which web pages prevent easy access), so i deeply appreciate being able to point out to nominal leftists that pious believers of their pet religion are cut from the same cloth as kluxers and nazis. not that they pay any attention to the fact that when they got together, nazis and pious mulsims got along famously, of course; why pay any attention to evidence when fairy tales make one feel so good about oneself?
gravenimage says
Fawaz Turki in the Gulf News on white Arabs and black Africans In Islam (Part 2)
……………….
Yes–Turki does not mention Muslim slavery of Black Africans going on to this day.
jewdog says
Islam is popular with American blacks despite all the slavery and abuse that goes on in Africa. It’s the power of identity politics which in this case seems to cloud any rational judgment. Blacks need to be better informed about Islam and what is happening in third world countries to their brethren, and stop being suckered by slick propaganda.
Lilith Wept says
Well there is a religious movement among blacks where they believe they are the Real Jews….that the Jews in Israel are false, they, the black People, are the true Chosen people of the Bible.
I watched a few videos of someone who believe this , expounding on the subject, listing the “evidence” for this and it’s ludicrous.
It’s as if some black People want to belong to a religious family, a community….so they try to rewrite history to make themselves the “real Muslims” or the “real Jews”…
and they reject Christianity as the religion of the people that enslaved them, ( when it was the Arabs , who,were Muslims….or their fellow Africans who belonged to another tribe) that Christianity was forced on them by their owners in the US…..and they wont acknowledge that originally their people were pagans in Africa, worshiping many gods.
maghan says
Less that 1% of U.S. blacks are Muslim. But they should have equal problems with practiced Christianity too except the Coptic variety of Ethiopia. After all, it was Spanish Catholic priest, Bartolome de las Casas who recommended to the Pope and the Spanish monarchs of the time that Africans would be an apt replacement for the Native Americans who were already enslaved by the Spaniards for 100+ years.
Las Casas just wanted to save the NAs for Christianity.
gravenimage says
True, Jewdog.
Jennifer King says
One tends to think of slavery as a Negro business, but it involves not only Africa and Arabia, and it also involved Caucasian Europeans, sold by the Jewish agents based in Europe and the sea ports of Italy, on to clients in Arabia and North Africa. Slavery is common in Africa, and is religious law in Judaism and Islam.
Read the fascinating book WHITE GOLD by Giles Milton!
maghan says
Slavery has been abolished in Africa now for more than 100 years–though pockets still exist in Mauretania and Sudan–on the grounds that slavery is sanctioned by Islam. Africa’s population is 1.2 billion and less that less than 1% are slaves.
gravenimage says
There were some Jews involved in slavery as agents, but they were never a big part of it. You cannot say the same for Islam.