Replies

I think they need to be more aware of the relationship of Islam and slavery....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT_RSDeAYjI

is a excellent vid they should be aware of.

After watching it, I can not understand why they would want to jump in to the pot...
It also helps explain how armies were raised to “cleanse” the mid east of Christians and Jews. I doubt very much that Arabs were on the front lines excepting where they had overwhelming manpower where the Christians/Jews knew they would be instantly annihilated.

Interestingly, slavery had practically died out in the West by the Middle Ages - until the contact with Islam brought it back.

Slavery was not a viable foundation for a “modern” economy and was replaced by serfdom (in the feudal system). As economies and wealth became more trade-based and less land-based, even this gave way to a sort of share-cropper system, something that may have had about the same effect, but was not quite as binding. Vestiges of slavery remained in indentured servitude (and apprenticeships, etc.) but even these were time-limited and the servant was not a chattel slave (that is, a piece of property) but had some limited legal rights.

Slavery returned to Europe after European contact with the Muslims, who captured hundreds of thousands of Europeans and sold them at slave markets, where they were often bought back (”ransomed”) by their families or other entities in Europe. Entire religious orders existed to raise money to buy back captives or even, in some cases, by trading their own members (who would then try to convert the Muslims).

Also, any place that had been invaded by the Muslims (such as Spain and Portugal) had had a slave-market installed by the Arabs during their occupation.

After the expulsion of the Muslims, the Portuguese were for some reason the great commercial negotiators in the Middle Ages. They would sail off to the Arab slave markets to buy back European captives. But because of Portuguese contacts with Africa, eventually they began buying African slaves from the Arabs simply for resale, and this was the beginning of Portugal’s involvement with the slave trade.

The same was true of England, also, which became involved in the slave trade through its Middle Eastern contacts.

Some European countries (Spain, at least) had a modified form of slavery which was essentially indentured servitude, where the slave was subject to very restrictive laws, but had legal rights and protections and was supposed to be permitted to earn money and buy his freedom or be manumitted. They usually practiced even this only in their colonies. Others, such as England and Portugal, practiced flat-out chattel slavery (like Muslim slavery) in their colonies.