Funny indeed, Aliyah

Submitted by Jeff (United States), Aug 10, 2007 at 21:53

"America has always been beating, killing, torturing black people for decades and yet they now act righteous and decide other people are the ones who do these things and try to make them bad in the eyes for the world. I could say about the white people that they are all racists who have always only used people from other countries as slaves because for some strange reason they think they are superior. A woman in America is raped every 3 seconds...."

That is quite a statement, Aliyah. With all that beating, torture and killing always going on for decades, you'd think all the black folks I know and work with every day would be dead or have left this country and gone someplace else by now. Funny though, I don't know a single black person who's done that. They, like me, just keep showing up for work every day. Strange, isn't it? Beaten, tortured, killed, and then show up for work the next morning. I just can't explain it, can you?

The USA outlawed slavery in 1863. That's about one hundred years before Saudi Arabia outlawed slavery. With the additional difference that the USA actually meant it, and enforces that law, unlike Saudi Arabia.

I don't know how many women have been raped in the USA. But the reported numbers have to do with the simple fact that if a woman is raped in the USA, she can report it to the police, and the rapist goes to prison, not the rape victim, as in Islamic republics. Rape victims don't get buried up to their chests in dirt and stoned to death in the USA. It's little wonder the reported rape rates in Islamic republics are very low.

Another telling statement: "but yes slaves have always existed and a person is allowed to keep a slave/servant but only if they treat them good and well...feed them, clothe them etc. Cannot beat or abuse them"

We rather think the very act of slavery is, in itself, abuse. I see you disagree. But you are in good company: Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, Imam of the Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, recently said "Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam." With his credentials, I figure he knows what he's talking about.

So here is interesting news. Mauritania just announced it actually intends to enforce the innovative law it passed in 1981. What innovative law? The one outlawing slavery. A law, to date, not worth the paper it was written on. But they say all that will change now, and the Arab slave traders will be out of business. So is Mauritania risking a fatwa now, with this threat to slavery? Perhaps some religious folks should fly some planes full of ordinary people into buildings full of ordinary people down there, and teach those Mauritanians a lesson.

"bible was a book of God before it was all changed to suit peoples needs...that true christianity also taught peace and love."

Mmm, could you give me some details on when the Bible was "all changed?" Is this why, if someone tries to enter Saudi Arabia with a Bible in his suitcase he sees it ripped up and thrown in the trash before he's thrown in prison? If I could get a copy of the Bible from before it was "all changed," could I bring it with me into Saudi Arabia? I notice you put Christianity's teaching of peace and love into the past tense. The simple truth is slightly different from what you say, and is as follows: true Christianity also teaches peace and love. Present tense.

Though Jesus never Himself ran around freeing slaves, (at least, not in a legal sense) he espoused a philosophy and a faith that are incompatible with slavery (that "all changed" Sermon on the Mount, for example). As evil as much of the behavior of people who label themselves Christian has been, it was not a coincidence that the anti-slavery movement was born in Christian England, Europe and America. China and Japan had slavery until the end of World War II, and the Arab world and Africa still practice it today. Turkey and Iran are at the center of the world's sex slave trade. Even at the height of slavery in the USA, 150 years ago, it was a source of tension and disagreement, and at its height about 1.4% of Americans held slaves. The anti-slavery movement worked tirelessly for years, outlawing slavery in England in 1805 and the USA in 1863. Can you give me a history of an anti-slavery movement in Arabia in the 1700's and 1800's? Is there one now? Groups such as the American Anti-Slavery Group and Christian Solidarity International have for years attempted to stop slavery in Mauritania, raising funds to buy slaves' freedom and assisting former slaves. Those groups are celebrating the Mauritanian government's recent announcement. Can you describe for me Muslim groups that are taking similar action against slavery in Africa today?

But it's so much easier just to blame Americans and white people for every problem in the world, isn't it? I suggest you stick with that approach.

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