Re: Farrakhan article

Submitted by Leigh Harrison (United States), Jul 18, 2010 at 19:03

Dear Mr. Pipes,

I am appalled at the casual lies and blithely stated inaccuracies of Louis Farrakhan. The truth about the slave trade is that historically, every continent had slaves, from the Chinese (enslaving fellow Chinese), to the South Americans (one conquering Inca tribe enslaving another), as well as the Jews in Egypt). But what most people (including Farrakhan) omit mentioning is that the original slave trade in Africa was of the black Africans enslaving each other in tribal wars. This was followed by the North Africans (read: Arabs) following suit, and buying the black Africans from warring tribes. They then sold the black Africans to other nations, and -- eventually -- to the Americans. Thus, it was really the other blacks, and then the Arabs, who started what became slavery in America.

It is reprehensible for Farrakhan to promulgate such a tissue of lies about both slavery and about the Jews part in it -- since the Jews had little or no part in starting slavery --and, in fact, have been the one people who have fought against slavery -- both their own and others! -- since their days in slavery in Egypt.

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