Sex slavery concubinage Islam among Muslims, Allah & Muhammad

Debate Question: If you have a sister, daughter, or mother, how would you feel seeing her treated in this way?

10/25/2017

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Could any consequences from the Quran allowing sex with slaves be felt even today? Examine the following:

9/3/2015

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Based upon the work of two scholars, Wikipedia confirms that: "Under Islamic law, Muslim men can have sexual relations with female captives or concubines and slaves with OR WITHOUT her consent." That is, Islam permits the RAPE of slaves.

9/3/2015

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The online encyclopedia Wikipedia at this link used these two sources for its claim. First is a book by Kecia Ali:

The second source is a book by Shahla Haeri: In this book, the author also observes: "Sexual intercourse with one's own slave girl continued to be legitimate until recently in most Islamic societies. Slave ownership should not be confused with slave marriage. Slave marriage involves marriage of a slave with another person, with the permission of the slave master. Marriage is not necessary between a male slave owner and his female slaves. His ownership entitles him to a right of intercourse."

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After Muhammad & Allah took the momentous step of permitting in Islam sex slavery (Quran 70:29-30 & elsewhere), powerful Muslim leaders across the centuries have kept concubines & established harems.

7/27/2015

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We read in history that both Caliphs (successors to Muhammad, political & religious leaders of the worldwide Muslim community) and (especially) sultans had multiple sex slaves. As an example, the fourth Caliph Ali (Muhammad's son-in-law), so beloved by Shia Muslims, had (at least) two sex slaves, Humia and Umm Shuaib.
A most helpful book, Why concubines, sex slavery, and harems flourished under the Caliphs and Moguls: The Story of rented wombs, helps us gain better insight on how sexual slavery was conducted, and is quoted below;

Just who were the sex slaves? "A Sultan or Caliph could not take a Turk or an Arab Muslim woman as a concubine, a Muslim concubine was not allowed, this is why they imported slave girls from the Balkans and Eunuchs from Ethiopia." (emphasis added). We learn that being a sex slave was a fate consigned to non-Muslim females.
Was there any advantage to having a concubine instead of a wife? "[The Caliphs & Sultans] wanted rented wombs, not familial dynasties where a wife’s family would be a threat, they wanted to be known as the Caliphs and Sultans without any reference from the maternal side, it was a perverse living with reference to paternity only, and you would hardly find any maternal cousins within the Ottoman hierarchy." (emphasis added).
How did women end up as sex slaves to the powerful Muslims? "The only women who ended up in the Harem were kidnapped or sold into the slave market just as cattle were....Young girls of ravishing beauty were sent to the court of the Sultan as gifts from leaders of other countries. Others were bought from slave markets, abducted or sold by their families even poorer." (emphasis added).
Was life as a sex slave pleasant or difficult? "The harem life was a life in a snake pit and not easy, everyone had an interest in their survival and according to her capacity wove conspiracies to topple others. It was an imprisoned life, a segregated complex of buildings populated mostly by captured foreign slaves."

Some Debate Questions!
So, Muslims refused to enslave Muslim females as concubines, enslaving only non-Muslims in this matter, but how would the Muslims feel if another religion enslaved only Muslims as sex slaves?
Muhammad accepted two females, Mariya and Sirin, as gifts from an Egyptian ruler, and thus we have read (above) without being surprised that Sultans would later do the same thing. But is accepting another adult human as a "gift" moral or immoral?
Does keeping sex slaves eventually have a perverse effect on the minds of the male Muslim slave-owners?
Finally, can we be surprised that the Islamic State is acquiring female sex slaves in our own century?

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As Muslims know, an Egyptian Ruler gave Maria the Copt and her Sister, Sirin, to Muhammad as a "Gift." Now, is it Morally Acceptable to Accept Another Human as a Gift? Would you accept another adult human as a gift?

5/9/2015

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Maria the Copt, also known as Maria al-Qibtiyya

Maria the Copt became Muhammad's sex slave. [He may have married her later, though this is highly disputed]. But let us turn our attention to her sister, Sirin. Muhammad gave Sirin to Hassan ibn Thabit. Debate Questions: What kind of man gives an adult woman to another man as a gift? What did Sirin do to deserve becoming a sex slave?

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Muhammad, Adultery, Fornication, and Rape

1/2/2015

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One of the most striking hadiths I have found is provided below:
"We [Muhammad’s merry men] went out with Allah's messenger on the expedition to the Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing azl" (withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid conception). But we said: "We are doing an act whereas Allah's messenger [i.e., Muhammad] is amongst us; why not ask him?" So we asked Allah's messenger and he said: "It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born". (Sahih Muslim, Vol. 2, #3371)
Tellingly, the role model of the Muslims, Muhammad, does not exclaim:
“DO NOT FORNICATE WITH THE CAPTIVES!”

Nor does he exclaim to the married men: “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY WITH THE CAPTIVES!!”

Finally, we note that he does not yell: “DO NOT RAPE THE CAPTIVES!!!”
So the Debate Question is then: “Why did Muhammad not instead say, “Leave the poor captives alone!”?

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Debate Question: Is committing adultery with one's sex slave morally acceptable or morally unacceptable?

12/4/2014

2 Comments

Debate Question: If you have a sister, daughter, or mother, how would you feel seeing her treated in this way?

Could any consequences from the Quran allowing sex with slaves be felt even today? Examine the following:

Based upon the work of two scholars, Wikipedia confirms that: "Under Islamic law, Muslim men can have sexual relations with female captives or concubines and slaves with OR WITHOUT her consent." That is, Islam permits the RAPE of slaves.

After Muhammad & Allah took the momentous step of permitting in Islam sex slavery (Quran 70:29-30 & elsewhere), powerful Muslim leaders across the centuries have kept concubines & established harems.

As Muslims know, an Egyptian Ruler gave Maria the Copt and her Sister, Sirin, to Muhammad as a "Gift." Now, is it Morally Acceptable to Accept Another Human as a Gift? Would you accept another adult human as a gift?

Muhammad, Adultery, Fornication, and Rape

Debate Question: Is committing adultery with one's sex slave morally acceptable or morally unacceptable?

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