Slavery In The Arab States

5

Mitchell Bard reminds us here that for all the outrage expressed over putative Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, there is no such outrage over the prevalence of slavery, or of near-slave conditions for domestic workers, in the Arab countries.

The hypocrisy of those purporting to believe in social justice and ranting about white privilege and colonialism is well documented. The antisemitic obsession of those who see Israel as the world’s only violator of human rights and declare their fealty to the Palestinians is especially galling given their lack of interest in the abuses committed by Palestinian leaders against their own people, the persecution of Palestinians in Lebanon, and the torture and murder of Palestinians by the Syrian regime. Even more remarkable is the silence of human rights advocates regarding slavery in the Arab world.

The subject received brief notoriety in the 1980s with the publication of John Laffin’s book The Arabs as Master Slavers (1982) and Murray Gordon’s Slavery in the Arab World (1989). Both traced the history of slavery in the region. Laffin noted that “the slave trade was first begun in Africa by the Arabs; they were the procurers and suppliers” and that “from the earliest period of the history of Islam in Africa, slaves were frequently mentioned as tribute or taxes paid to political superiors.”

Story continues below advertisement

Laffin quotes The Economist from 1956: “Saudi Arabia seems to be the most guilty as far as ‘classical’ slavery is concerned.” The Saudis were the last to abolish slavery in Arabia – in 1962. Nevertheless, Laffin noted that “by the 1960s slavery in Arabia was flourishing as never before.”

The 600,000 slaves who were in Saudi Arabia when the Kingdom agreed, in 1962, to do away with slavery, were not suddenly set free. Many of them were no longer called slaves, but their treatment remained exactly the same as before. Even into the 1980s, one could see ads in Saudi newspapers offering to “trade a hardworking Indian girl” for a “late-model American car.” The status of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia even now, especially that of female domestic workers, is deeply disturbing and akin to a kind of slavery. Like all foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, their passports are held by their employers, who have the power either to keep them from leaving their employ, or to expel them from the country at a moment’s notice. These workers are supposed to be entitled, according to the latest regulations intended to “improve working conditions,” to “nine hours of rest” a day, which leaves a potential 15 hours for work, six days a week. Some of these workers are sexually abused by their masters, with no recourse. Conditions have been so bad that several countries, including Uganda, Ethiopia, and the Philippines, have prohibited their nationals from going to work in Saudi Arabia until working conditions in the Kingdom have improved.

Fast forward to the present.

A report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) was just released that found an estimated 50 million people living in modern slavery conditions in 2021, including 3.3 million children. Of these, 28 million are trapped in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriage.

Over 10% of them[the 50 million slaves] were in the Arab states, which had the highest rates of forced labor (5.3 per thousand people) and forced marriage (4.9 per thousand people).

According to the Global Slavery Index (GSI), more than 500,000 people are slaves in Arab countries.

Shravan Raghavan, the editor of Statecraft, a publication focused on South Asia, explained, “Workers are brought in under what is known as the kafala system, wherein they essentially become the property of employers.” These immigrants usually have no idea what they are getting into.

Under the terms of the kafala system,” he notes, “workers cannot quit their job or leave the country without their sponsor’s permission, and those same sponsors withhold their passports and salaries and even demand payment to authorize their release.”

Many are abused:

Workers can be paid as little as 80 cents an hour and be forced to eat leftovers and be on call throughout the day with no time off. They are also subjected to intense physical, verbal and sexual abuse, harassment and intimidation. Law enforcement agencies offer little respite, and generally send battle-weary workers right back to their abusers when they dare to raise an alarm.

All this reminds us that in Islam it is deemed licit to hold slaves. Muhammad himself bought, sold, and owned slaves, which has made the practice permissible for Muslims ever since, for Muhammad was the Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil) and Model of Conduct (uswa hasana).

It also reminds us that Muslims are taught in the Qur’an that while they are the “best of peoples” (3:110), Infidels are the “most vile of created beings.” (98:6) Not all Muslims accept, much less act on, that view. But fanatical Muslims feel that they can treat non-Muslims with as much cruelty as they wish. They are, after all, Infidels.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding. Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.

Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.

Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.

Follow Pamela Geller on
Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.

Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.

If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
danknight
danknight
1 year ago

That … plus child-pedophile-“marriage” – aka child-sex-slavery in the Muslim ‘world’ …

Anyone who doesn’t think this is Satanic or at least satanic … has a screw loose.

Rob Porter
Rob Porter
1 year ago

Western selective morality and double standards in no surprise to me. As a South African who openly oppose apartheid, I marvelled at the hypocrisy of, in particular, Sweden, Canada and Australia over apartheid. Apartheid for all its injustices did not remotely equate to that of China’s brutal actions in Tibet were about 2 million died as a result of China’s invasion, or (2) of Sudan’s Muslim government Khartoum having its military in a two decades war murder more than 2 million mainly Christians in southern Sudan and Darfur, or (3) of Indonesia’s genocide after invading East Timor in 1975. Yet Sweden, Canada and Australia – and others like the U.S. – largely ignored China’s, Indonesia’s and Sudan’s atrocities while loudly condemning South Africa. Canada very deliberately ‘milked’ its holier than thou anti-apartheid position to gain greater influence in’s the U.N. and Commonwealth, and then, low and behold, we discovered Canada’s disgraceful racist conduct in respect of residential schools for aboriginal children where many died from abuse. How the chickens came home to roost!

Harry Brennan
Harry Brennan
1 year ago
Reply to  Rob Porter

Rob Porter
9 hours ago

Western selective morality and double standards in no surprise to me also, some hypocrites who opposed South African apartheid refuse to oppose or condemn Israeli apartheid.

Harry Brennan
Harry Brennan
1 year ago
Reply to  Harry Brennan

Western selective morality and double standards is no surprise to me also, some hypocrites who opposed South African apartheid refuse to oppose or condemn Israeli apartheid.

edD
ed
1 year ago

So….when do our loony leftist politicians, the NAACP and BLM start demanding “reparations” from the Arab states that are still practicing slavery ???

Sponsored
Geller Report
Thanks for sharing!