Posted on 11/09/2003 10:36:09 AM PST by Alouette
(Washington)… November 7, 2003 …The main author of the Saudi religious curriculum expressed his unequivocal support for the legalization of slavery in one of his lectures recorded on a cassette and obtained exclusively by SIA news.
Leading government cleric Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan is the author of the religious books currently used to teach 5 million Saudi students, both within the and in Saudi schools aboard – including those in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
“Slavery is a part of Islam,” he says in the tape, adding: “Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.”
Government spokesman Adel Al-Jubeir and other officials have repeatedly claimed religious curriculums are being reformed, but Al-Fawzan’s books continued to be used according to the minister of education’s statements published by Al-Watan daily September 14th, 2003.
Al-Fawzan is member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning in the country.
Al-Fawzan refuted the mainstream Muslim interpretation that Islam worked to abolish slavery by introducing equality between the races.
“They are ignorant, not scholars,” he said of people who express such opinions. “They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel.”
Al-Fawzan’s most famous book, “Al-Tawheed – Monotheism”, is taught to Saudi high school students. In it, he says that most Muslims are polytheists, and their blood and money are therefore free for the taking by “true Muslims.”
Among Al-Fawzan’s other controversial beliefs is the right to ban the marriage of Arab women to non- Arab Muslims, according to his book “Al-Mulkhas Al-Fiqhee” (“Digest of Law”). He has also issued a fatwa forbidden the watching of TV.
Al-Fwazan is also is a leading opponent of those who seek to introduce change to the Saudi school curriculum. He also claimed that elections and demonstrations are western imitations.
According to Saudi liberal writer and scholar Sheikh Hassan Al-Maliki, Al-Fawzan threatened him with beheading if he continued in his criticism of the extremist Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Al-Maliki, who worked for the ministry of education, was fired after he wrote a 50- page paper criticizing Al-Fawzan’s book “Al-Tawheed”.
Good for a trivia column. :-)
Among Jews there are two classes of `avadim, `avdei Yisra'el (Jewish slaves) and `avdei Kena`an (non-Jewish slaves). There are special laws pertaining to each one.
While I do not think slavery is itself a positive mitzvah, there are cases when a thief or debtor cannot make restitution and he is sold by the Beit Din for that purpose.
According to Rabbi Yirmiyahu Bindman, the sovereign power of a nation has the right to abolish slavery, which is what ours did in 1865. Plus, the slavery that existed in America prior to that time was not, as I understand it, in conformity with halakhah.
Whatever the case, the fact is that the Torah is Perfect and Eternal, and when Mashiach comes he will restore it in its entirety. This means that all those "irrational" laws and regulations which are repugnant to the modern mind will be reinstituted.
I doubt very seriously if the slavery practiced by moslems is halakhic, but I would be very careful about attacking something sanctioned by the Torah because it doesn't fit our modern, secular mentality (I also wince when conservatives attack islam for being "theocratic").
Besides, slavery still exists in this country. It's called "working for somebody else," and the massa doesn't even have to take care of you. Of course, you have the right to quit your job, but the right to starve comes right along with it.
There is a saying that, One who aquires a slave for himself also aquires a master.
This also includes the knowledge that in Jubilee years that all slaves were set free. That would be every 50 years. If one aquired a slave the year prior to a Jubilee year, he would have to release that slave the next year. In addition, the master is responsible for the total well being of the slave and would be held accountable for it under the law.
The laws of Jewish slavery are not simple and have consequences for both slave and master.
No argument there. But I wince whenever people rip islam for "theocracy," "intolerance," "backwardness," etc., which are also found in the Torah.
The point is, all the Laws of the Torah are eternal, no matter how out of step with the contemporary world. Rabbi Yirmiyahu Bindman deals with these theoretical laws of slavery and polygyny (more than one wife) as they apply to non-Jews in his book, The Seven Colors of the Rainbow.
Well, I'm glad we got this straight!
...now we know!
It is a specific sign of evil when one is cruel to the kind and kind to those who are cruel. It is particularly frustating when kindness of Judaism is equated with the cruel and idolotrous practices of Islam. The Torah is hardly backward or intolerant and does not in any way mimic the murderous evil that is found in the Koran and the Wahabbists who practice it.
I did not mean to equate Torah with islam, G-d forbid. I merely wanted to point out that Torah is an eternal document which represents Absolute Truth no matter how "out of step" it is with our "enlightened" modern times and that some of the things attacked in islam are perversions of Torah positions. I do not expect liberals to make the distinction, and they would therefore attack Torah Law (which binds all humanity as either TaRYa"G HaMitzvot or Sheva` Mitzvot Benei Noach) in the same way.
I am still uncomfortable when islam is attacked specifically for "theocracy," "reaction," "slavery," the stoning of adulterers, etc., or for any other thing whose true teaching is a part of Torah.
You read my mind....LoL
In the Torah there were two kinds of slaves. There were those that were common slaves (Israelites) that had sold themselves to someone for the period of seven years. They had rights as slaves because they were more servants than slaves. Then there were "bond-servants" called "love-servants." These were people who had developed a relationship with their master (no, not homosexual) and trusted their master to the point that they sold themselves to their master for life.
The first group was free after seven years of servanthood with their debts ect taken care of. The second was servants for life.
Under no circumstance did the scripture advocate they type slavery that was here in the USA and that was practiced by slavers for generations. That was called "man-stealing" and was punishable by Capital Punishment in the scriptures. Those who practiced "man-stealing" were to be put to death.
Preachers of the gospel such as Charles Finney preached clearly that "no christian could own a slave." He prophesied in 1839 that "there are 2 million slaves being held in the US and that God would requite blood for blood regarding those slaves." Of course we all know that the civil war was our bloodiest war, 600,000 soldiers killed and 1,400,000 civilians killed also.
I was glad to see the war being waged against Osama Ben Laden if for no other reason than that he still remains as the leading slaver of our generation. His speciality is to enslave black Africans from christian tribes, mainly in the Sudan, and send the little boys and girls to muslim big wigs in the Arabic lands for sex slaves. We should have killed this man years before he ever raised a hand against the USA.
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