Islam And Slavery

This month, a UK British Muslim woman named Saaeda Khan was convicted of trafficking a Tanzanian woman to use as a household slave. Saaeda Khan was a former hospital director in London.

Let's review some facts about Islam and slavery:


Back in the Stone Age, when I was in school, we studied a bit about this in world history.

Schools will not present this material now.

At one time, however, the information was common knowledge. From goodreads.com:

Sufferings in Africa: The Incredible True Story of a Shipwreck, Enslavement, and Survival on the Sahara

Listed by Abraham Lincoln, alongside the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress, as one of the books that most influenced his life, few true tales of adventure and survival are as astonishing as this one.

Now, even as old as I am, I didn't read Sufferings in Africa in school. In fact, I didn't learn that the book was one of such great influence on our sixteenth President until I read that information in the book review of a biography of Abraham Lincoln.

And where did I read that particular book review? In Time Magazine! The whitewash of Islam wasn't as prevalent back then. Indeed, the whitewash of Islam has increased exponentially since 9/11.

But I digress.

Continuing now with the book review from goodreads.com:

Shipwrecked off the western coast of North Africa in August of 1815, James Riley and his crew had no idea of the trials awaiting them as they gathered their beached belongings. They would be captured by a band of nomadic Arabs, herded across the Sahara Desert, beaten, forced to witness astounding brutalities, sold into slavery, and starved. Riley watched most of his crew die one by one, killed off by cruelty or caprice, as his own weight dropped from 240 pounds to a mere 90 at his rescue.

First published in 1817, this dramatic saga soon became a national bestseller with over a million copies sold. Even today, it is rare to find a narrative that illuminates the degradations of slave existence with such brutal honesty.

I venture to guess that few Americans today are familiar with the book, much less required reading in classrooms. Mustn't insult Islam, you know.

FYI, Sufferings in Africa is available for purchase at Amazon.