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The True Color of Humanitarian Muhammad
Thursday, 24 February 2011
by Dr. Radhasyam Brahmachari

A deceptive Muslim scholar spout blatant lies to depict Muhammad as the greatest humanitarian in history. This article reveals the true color of Muhammad's humanitarianism...

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This year, February 16 was 12th of Rabi-ul-awwal in Islamic Hijri calendar. On this day in 570 AD Hajarat Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was born in the city of Mecca. On this very day, he also left this material world in 632 AD. Muslims across the world observe this day as Eid milad-un-nabi or Fateha Doaz Daham. The 16th February edition of Bartaman, a Kolkata based Bengali daily, published an article “Manabatabadi Hajrat Muhammad (S)” (i.e. Humanitarian Hajrat Muhammad), written by a Muslim writer Kazi Masum Akhtar.

It is well known that the All-Knowing and All-Observing Allah has given a clean chit to every Muslim to tell lies to glorify Islam and its Prophet, known as Taqiyyah or 'holy deception'. And Akhtar has exploited this sanction of Allah to the fullest extent by telling outright lies about the life and deeds of Prophet Muhammad. In a nut shell, he has made a sheep out of a hyena.

The reader can guess that projecting Muhammad as a humanitarian person is an outrageous lie. Neither was Muhammad, nor is his creed called Islam, humanitarian. If at all, Islamic humanitarianism or brotherhood is confined amongst Muslims alone; for non-Muslims, Islam has nothing but hatred and terror. And Muhammad, the founder and propagator of this creed, exercised this hatred and terror toward non-Muslims in the fullest extent. Swami Vivekananda accurately articulated the so-called Islamic humanitarianism and brotherhood as thus: “Mohammedans talk of universal brotherhood, but what comes out of that in reality? Anybody who is not a Mohammedan will not be admitted into this brotherhood; he will more likely to have his throat cut.” (‘Complete works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 4, p. 380, 1990)

To begin his article, Mr. Akhtar writes:

“On this auspicious day we should remember how an illiterate, orphan and a poor shepherd, who from his childhood, belonged to a society that was immersed in the darkness of ignorance, could raise Islam as a World religion with unthinkable rapidity, as if by magic? What was his tool behind this achievement? History tells us that his message of equality and brotherhood, or in other words, the timeless principle of humanitarianism was that infallible weapon. The chief aim of his religious instructions and conducts was to bring the entire humanity into a disciplined force for the well being of the entire humanity. So, even today, after passage of so many centuries, his teachings and ideals are relevant and pertinent. It is because, Prophet Muhammad had translated and adapted all his teachings in his own life. His life was an uncompromising commentary of the holy Koran.”

The author continues:

“The Prophet wanted to instill these ideas into every heart and he succeeded to accomplish his mission. Swami Vivekananda could grasp this point and said, “If any religion could move up to the first step of socialism then it is the religion of Islam.” (But the author has not provided the source wherefrom he has collected this quotation) It was Prophet Muhammad, who unequivocally said, “The exploitation of an individual or a group of people by another group of people cannot be tolerated. Every individual must have the right to have an equal share of produced goods. Only labour must be the basis of production, distribution and lively-hood of every individual. No one should have right to others’ labour and to accumulate that.”

The lies

Let us see what Mr Kazi Masum Akhtar wants to say. Muslims are used to lying or deceiving shameless when it comes to their religion; they are not ashamed of telling outrageous lies, as their creed inspires them to lies for the benefit of Islam. Islam is barbaric and inhuman in its heart, and if the Muslims tell the truth, the world would learn about its heinous color and it would fall apart like a house of sand. So, the author says: due its humanitarian appeal, Islam could have become a world religion within short span of time. In reality, all original biography of Muhammad and history books of Islam tell us that this so-called humanitarianism of Islam was the sword or forcible conversion at the point of sword that helped the quick spread of Islam. Swami Vivekananda right said: “…Muslims are …most sectarian. Their watch-word is: there is one God (Allah), and Mohammed is His Prophet. Everything beyond that is not only bad, but must be destroyed forthwith, at a moment’s notice, every man or woman who does not exactly believe in that must be killed; everything that does not belong to this worship must be immediately broken; every book that teaches anything else must be burnt. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, for five hundred years blood ran all over the world. That is Mohammedanism (Islam)!” …“In this line the Mohammedans were the best off; every step forward was made with the word the Koran in the one hand and the sword in the other” Take the Koran, or you must die; there is no alternative." (ibid, Vol 4, p. 126, p. 369-370)

The author tries to impress that the message of Islam is equality of man and humanitarianism. But those, acquainted with even a, b, c of Islam, know that it divides the entire humanity sharply into two categories: Muslims or Momins and non-Muslim infidels or kafirs. Islam truly means surrender or submission, not peace. In Islamic context, it stands for unconditional surrender to commands of the Koran and Prophet Muhammad. Those, who surrender to Koran and Prophet Muhammad, are imandar Mussalmans; those, who do not, are despicable kafirs. Allah holds intense hatred for the kafirs and instructs the Muslims to do likewise.

In the eye of Allah, kafirs are the worst of all creatures, and He instructs Muslims to hate, attack, torture, kill them, to plunders wealth, and to take their women and children as captives, with women to be raped as sex-slaves.

Amongst the Koran's kafir-hating verses are:

1. “We have created, for hell, many genii (races) of men, ….and they are like brute beasts” (7.179)
2. “Verily, those who disbelieve our signs, we will surely cast them to be broiled in the hell-fire, so often as their skins shall be well burnt, We will give them new skins in exchange, so that they may taste the sharper torment” (4.56)
3. “Whosoever followeth any religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted of him in this life, and in the next life he shall be of those who perish” (3.85)
4. “I will cast a dread into their hearts of the unbelievers” (8.12)
5. “Therefore cut off their heads, and strike off all the ends of the fingers. This shall they suffer because they have opposed Allah and His Prophet, and whosoever shall oppose Allah and His Prophet, verily Allah will be severe in punishing them” (8.13)
6. "moreover, as for the non-believers, I will punish them with grievous punishments in this world, and in the world is to come” (3.56)
7. “Allah loves not the unbelievers” (3.57)
8. “they shall suffer a grievous punishment” (3.77).

In light of these hatred-inciting verses of Allah, Dr Ambedkar rightly observed:

“Islam is a close corporation and the distinction that it makes between Muslim and non-Muslims is a very real, very positive and very alienating… The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is the brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is a fraternity but its benefit is confined to the Muslims alone. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity.”

To highlight this aspect of Islam, Dr Ali Sina, an scholar of Islam from Iran, says:

“The Quran is a book full of hate of the nonbelievers. To overlook this fact is a gross error that could cost millions of lives. … In Islam, terrorism is prescribed in the Quran; it is encouraged and recommended. The prophet of Islam laid the example of terror for all followers to follow. He raided civilians, massacred his prisoners of war, raped their women (for example, Mohhammed raped Jewish woman Rehana after killing all her male family members) enslaved women and children, looted their belongings, assassinated his opponents, burned trees, and showed no mercy to any one who dared to stand in his way. Muslim terrorists are just doing that. You cannot fight Islamic terrorism without fighting Islam.”

Mr. Akhtar has tried to convince that Muhammad had said: "The exploitation of an individual or a group of people by another group of people cannot be tolerated. Every individual must have the right to have an equal share of produced goods. Only labour must be the basis of production, distribution and lively-hood of every individual. No one should have the right to exploit others’ labor and to accumulate that.”

It seems from the quotation that Muhammad was a Marxist; he was a true originator of Marx’s theory of socialism many centuries earlier than Marx. The author, one can fathom, indirectly suggests that Marx borrowed his theory from Muhammad.

Muhammad was a Mass Murderer

While Mr. Akhtar intends to establish that Muhammad was a great humanitarian, but his life and deeds after his immigration to Medina tells a diagonally opposite story. There lived 3 major Jewish clans -- namely Beni Kanuika, Beni Nadir and Beni Koreiza -- in Medina. These Jews were rich and well-off in Medina. Muhammad tried to convert them to Islam. And when it became clear that the Jews were not going to accept Islam, they became the target of Muhammad’s extreme hatred and violence. Meanwhile, Allah, reading Muhammad's mind well, revealed a verse, terming the Jews "apes and pigs".

Muhammad became hell-bent on evicting or exterminating the Jewish communities of Medina, thereby, to grab their riches and wealth. To that end, he first warned them to embrace Islam; otherwise they should be ready to face grave consequences. At the same time, he produced a series of Jihad verses to empower Muslims to kill any Jew at anytime and anywhere. His first victim was the Jewish clan of Beni Kanuika, after suffering defeat and surrender, agreed to leave Medina, leaving most of their belongings behind.

Next, one day, Muhammad went to house of Beni Nadir leader to discuss some dispute, and suddenly he rushed to Medina without telling anyone the reason for his departure. Later on, he brought the allegation that the Jews had planned to crush him by rolling down a stone from the top of a house. Based on this unsubstantiated accusation, he ordered them to evacuate from Medina. When the Beni Nadir Jews declined to leave Medina and the Muslims put their fortified colony under seize. Ultimately, the entire tribe, except two families who converted to Islam, had to leave Medina. Some of them settled at Khaibar, a place nearly 100 miles in the north of Medina and the rest moved further ahead to Syria.

In 626 AD, the Prophet brought allegation against the Beni Koreiza that they had entered into a secret intrigue with the Koraish of Mecca against Muslims, an allegation that was never substantiated. After attacking and defeating them, a 'kangaroo court' was set up by Muhammad, headed by Sa’d -- fanatic follower of his -- and he issued a bloody verdict: all the able men would be beheaded, women and children would be captured as slaves. About 800 adult male-members of the tribe, judged by pubic hair growth, slaughtered on that day. The Prophet selected young Rihana, most beautiful among the women, to be his sex-slave.

To describe the incident Sir W Muir, the celebrated biographer of Muhammad, writes:

“The butchery, begun in the morning, lasted all day, and continued by torchlight till the evening. Having thus drenched the market-place with the blood of seven or eight hundred victims, and having been commanded for the earth to be smoothed over their remains, Mohammad returned from the horrid spectacle to solace himself with the charms of Reihaha, whose husband and all her male relatives had just perished in the massacre. He invited her to be his wife; but she declined, and chose to remain his slave or concubine”. The Life of Mahomet, Voice of India, New Delhi, 1992).

This author has never seen a Bengali Muslim biographer of Muhammad narrate this cold-blooded massacre of 800 people by the Prophet. Only one Bengali biographer, Abdul Aziz Al Aman, has mentioned it in his Kabar Pathey (On the Road to Kaaba): he called the massacre of the Koreiza Jews a blot in the history of Prophet’s stay in Medina as well as a blot on Islam. So, obviously apologists like Mr Kazi Masum Akhtar will always refrain from describing this bloody episode of their Prophet; because it would then be impossible to portray Muhammad as a humanitarian and apostle of peace. During his 10-year stay in Medina, Muhammad organized 82 raids, as a part of his jihad, on non-Muslim settlements and caravans of Arabia, massacring thousands who refused to accept Islam. Out of these 82 raids, Muhammad participated in 26.

The Beni Nadir, who had settled at Khaibar after being evicted from Medina, suffered worst violence later on. In August, 628 AD, he invaded Khaibar with a 1600-strong army after sunrise (just after finishing the fazr or early morning prayer), when the inhabitants of Khaibar were totally unprepared. Massacre of unarmed people continued throughout the day drenching the land with blood. Young Kinana was the leader of the Jews. Information reached Muhammad from a traitor Jew that Kinana had concealed his treasure of gold ornaments and utensils, which he had received as dowry while marrying Safiya. One would be shocked to know the inhuman torture that Muhammad inflicted on Kinana to force him reveal where he hid the treasure. Muhammad placed burning charcoal on his chest and fanned it to glow red hot. Many believe that the torture continued till the burning charcoal penetrated Kinana’s heart and lungs. When another Jew disclosed the secret place, Kinana was beheaded. Safiya, Kinana’s wife, aged 17, was extremely beautiful and Muhammad took her as his sex-slave and raped Safiya her on the same night. Such was the most humanitarian Prophet of Islam.

Prophet Muhammad, the embodiment of mercy?

The author Kazi Masum Akhtar then writes, “As the basis of Muhammad’s teachings, he used to say – It is the birthright of every individual to for freedom and equal dignity and self respect. He praised the idea of international brotherhood." He also said, “The entire human society is a member of the one world-family of man and hence every man is equal before the law.” This was the fundamental spirit of his teachings regarding an ideal state. To protect religious tolerance and the safety of the religious minority community, he said, “If in an Islamic state or in a society dominated by the Muslims, the people of the religious minority are deprived of their rights, then it would be a cursed society and Allah will not forgive those who are responsible to bring such inequality.”

When Muslim tell such blatant lies, they can't provide reference, never they will. We have seen above, how Muhammad dealt with the Jews, a religious minority group, in Medina. We also see how the minority groups like Jews, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists are being treated in the Islamic states like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, and so on---although much better than how Muhammad's barbaric treatment of minorities. Muslims' persecution of non-Muslim communities in those countries is only a legacy of Muhammad’s own treatment of the Jews and other non-Muslim Arabs of Medina.

The author then writes,

“Prophet Muhammad, the embodiment kindness and compassion, to feel the torment and agony of the poor and unprivileged, accepted poverty and insolvent life till his death. His mission was to help the poverty stricken people of the society to make their ends meet. The introduction of mandatory jakat (kind of today’s income tax) and fitra (alms) were two pillars of his program for helping the poor. The unfortunate slaves and even the birds and animals were not deprived of his kindness. Innumerable such examples are strewn in the pages of the Koran and the Hadiths.”

We have seen above, how Muhammad -- an alleged embodiment of kindness and compassion -- could massacre the Koreiza Jews of Medina, and enslave and sell the women and children. The young and charming girls were not sold, but distributed amongst his jihadis for using as sex-slaves, with Muhammad himself keeping the prettiest catch of the lot as his personal sex-slave. The Muslim migrants, who came to medina with the Prophet, were very poor. They were called muhajirs or refugees, and the rich converts of Medina, who helped these muhajirs, were called ansars. At first, Muhammad tried to create a fund by collecting sadka (alms) from the well-off Muslims to be distributed among the muhajirs. After passage of time, this sadka turned into mandatory jakat. It is interesting to note, though Muhammad made jakat mandatory for every Muslim, but he refused to pay the same. He used to say, “There is no jakat for me and the families of my kin.” Such was the kindness and compassion of Muhammad for the poor.

Kazi Masum Akhtar then writes: “It was Muhammad, who said - After getting a work done by a laborer, he should be paid in full before drying up of his sweat. One day, he saw a man drawing water from a well and offering that to a dog to drink and said, “This man (for showing compassion to a street dog), would certainly enter Allah’s paradise.” In reality, Muhammad hated dogs, which is well-known. He used to say that the dogs were embodiment of the Satan. On one occasion, he ordered his followers to kill all the street dogs of Medina, which was promptly carried. For this reason, dogs are hated in Islam; it is un-Islamic, even today, to keep dogs as pet.

Kazi Masum Akhtar then writes, “Abolition of slavery was one of his declared policy. But his most important step was to declare jihad for liberating the women by breaking the stubborn wall of gender apartheid of the dark middle ages.” These claims on abolition of slavery and liberation of women of Kazi Masum Akhtar deserve an elaborate discussion; we hope to tackle them in the next part of the article.

[amyfongste]

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Humanitarian Muhammad: Did Muhammad Abolish Slavery?

Saturday, 05 March 2011
Dr. Radhasyam Brahmachari

That is the grossest lie and only Muslim can claim so, because lying to mislead the kafirs in the interest of Islam is a religiously-sanctioned doctrine in Islam, called Taqiyya, for which they will be richly rewarded by Allah.

Slavery and Islam

It has been mentioned in the previous article, The True Color of Humanitarian Muhammad, that the Bengali Muslim author Kazi Masum Akhtar wrote in his essay, “Manabatabadi Hajrat Muhammad (S)” (i.e. Humanitarian Hajrat Muhammad):“Abolition of slavery was one of his declared policy. But his most important step was to declare jihad for liberating the women by breaking the stubborn wall of gender apartheid of the dark middle ages.”

Mr. Akhtar tries to impress upon his readers that Muhammad abolished slavery. In reality, Muhammad approved slavery as Allah considered slavery as a social and lawful institution. Justifying slavery Allah says in the Koran: “Prophet, We have made lawful to you the wives to whom you have granted dowries and the slave-girls whom God has given you as booty." (33:50) This verse clearly mentions that, for a Muslim, taking slaves, or more pointedly sex-slaves, in war is a God-given right; and it certainly impossible for Muhammad to disobey Allah’s will.

In fact is:

"Islam institutionalized slavery. Muhammad began to take slaves after he moved to Medina, and had power. Slaves were usually taken in raids on nearby (non-Muslim) Arab tribes, or war, either through offensive or defensive actions. Islam allows the taking of slaves as "booty", or reward for fighting. This has led to numerous "jihads" by Muslim states and tribes to attack other non-Muslim groups and obtain slaves. Islamic jurisprudence laid down regulations for the proper treatment of slaves. However, abuses have occurred throughout history”, says Silas (real name unknown). He also says, “From the days that Muhammad drew his sword to rob and conquer non-Muslims to this very day, Muslims have been taking non-Muslims, and even other black Muslims, as slaves.”[i]

According to scholar says K S Lal:

“Slaves were mainly prisoners of war, but destitutes, debtors and convicted criminals were also sometimes drafted into slavery and commandeered for specific assignments. …In ancient Egypt, as elsewhere, slaves supplied the labour force and were used in any capacity and for any type of work. An almost fabulous number of slaves were employed for the building the Pyramids of Egypt dating from 3000 B.C. to 2300 B.C. According to Herodotus,(the ancient Greek historian) the Great Pyramid (of Cheops) took 100,000 men for ten years to make a causeway 3000 feet long in order to facilitate the transport of stone from the quarries, and the same number of men for twenty years more to complete the pyramid itself. Modern research considers these figures to be exaggerated as Herodotus inquired from people during his journeys and depended on hearsay. What is important in this regard is that the nine pyramids existing at present, are supposed to have been built by respective kings as tombs and memorials of themselves by a very substantial labour force. Slaves in Egypt were also employed on various other jobs."[ii]

Lal adds:

“Among the Greeks also slavery was a rooted institution. In two city states or poleis (singular polis means a city plus its environment) of Athens and Sparta slavery prevailed as also in other lesser known city states. Ancient Greek society was divided into three classes. …In Rome also slavery was extensively prevalent. There the great landed estates were accumulated in a few hands and the cultivation of these lands was done mostly by swarms of slaves leaving war as the chief occupation of honour for the elitist citizens. …The Prophet (Muhammad) himself had made slaves in war and peace. …The Islamised Arabs started taking pride in keeping male and female slaves.”

Historically, the major juristic schools of Islam traditionally have accepted slavery as religiously sanctioned institution. The Islamic prophet Muhammad and many of his companions bought, sold, freed, and captured slaves. It has been mentioned in the previous article that after defeating Banu Koraiza Jews, a community of some 2000 heads in Medina, Muhammad had enslaved the 1200 women and children and distributed amongsy Muslims after massacring about 800 of their adult men. The Prophet took one-fifth of them as his own share of the booty. He distributed some of them among his closest followers and sent the rest to the slave-market at Nejd, to be sold as slaves.

On one occasion, Muhammad took a male-slave to his daughter Fatema’s house to present the slave to her. At that moment, Fatema was not properly dressed and she became busy to cover herself with her veil. But Muhammad told her that though he was a male, but a slave and it was not necessary for her to cover herself in before a slave. After the battle of Badr, Muslims could capture many of the defeated Koreish army. All of them were turned into slaves and freed in exchange of fat ransom. All these incidents reflect that, Muhammad accepted slavery as an established social custom and he neither said word against slavery and nor he took any step to stop this inhuman practice.

Furthermore,

“In Islamic law the topic of slavery is covered at great length. The Qur'an (the holy book) and the hadith (the sayings of Muhammad) see slavery as an exceptional condition that can be entered into under certain limited circumstances. Only children of slaves or non-Muslim prisoners of war could become slaves, never a freeborn Muslim. They also consider manumission of a slave to be one of many meritorious deeds available for the expiation of sins. According to Sharia, slaves are considered human beings and possessed of some rights on the basis of their humanity. In addition, a Muslim slave is equal to a Muslim freeman in religious issues and superior to the free non-Muslim.”

“Muslims were enslaving black Africans long before any slave ships sailed for the New World. Muslims were taking and making slaves all over the lands they had conquered. Later, when slave ships were loaded with black slaves, often, a Muslim slave broker had the human cargo all ready to go. American slavers rarely had to go into inland to capture slaves, they were already waiting there, courtesy of some Muslim ruler, and/or slave broker! In many cases, if the black slaves were not sent to the New World, they were sent to the Mideast to be enslaved by Arabs, or kept by other black Muslims as slaves.” [ref. 1]

Koran approves slavery

From the following verses of the Koran, it becomes evident that Allah approves slavery as a standard social practice:

“The believers truly believe in the Day of Judgement and dread the punishment of their Lord, for none is secure from the punishment of their Lord, and restrain their carnal desire, save with their wives and slave-girls, for these are lawful to them.” (70:26-30) Also “Marry of the women, who seem good to you, two, three or four of them. But if you fear that you cannot maintain equality -among them, marry one only or any slave-girls you may own.” (4: 3) [The term “slave-girls” in the above two verses stands for women purchased in lieu of money, as any other commodity of commerce; and also non Moslem women captured as captives by the Muslims in a battle.]

This verse tells how Muslim males are allowed to have sexual relations with their wives and slave-girls. Implicit in this is that Muslim males can have slave-concubines. The verse (23.5) also tells an almost similar story. Mariyah and her sister Sirin were slave-girls given as gifts to Muhammad by Egyptian governor. Muhammad gave Sirin to Hasan Thabit, the poet. Ibn Sa'd says that Muhammad "liked Mariyah, who was of white complexion, with curly hair and pretty." Ibn Sa'd's "Tabaqat", gives a clear description of Muhammad having sexual relations with Mariyah, his Coptic slave.

Elsewhere the Quran says: “You are forbidden to take in marriage married women, except those(captives) whom you own as slaves (your right hands possess). Such is the decree of Allah.” (4: 24) [The term “married women” in this verse stands for believing married women. As for the non-believing women, whether married or un-married, the Muslims can do anything to them; in fact Muslims have a divine right to even kill those disbelieving women, and as such to enjoy them sexually , even by force, is a much less punishment to them— it is rather a mercy.]

A subset of other verses of Allah that support slavery are:

1. “If any of you cannot afford to marry a free believing woman, let him marry a slave-girl who is a believer.” (4:25) “Show kindness to the slaves, whom you own.” (4:36)
2. “He (a believer) that accidentally kills a believer must free one Muslim slave.” (4:92)
3. “O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war. We well know the duties We have imposed on the faithful concerning their wives and those whom they own as slave-girls.” (33:50) [The spoil of war means women captured by them as booty. A Captive woman, as per Islamic law, automatically becomes a slave. This verse clearly shows that Muslims believe that taking slaves in war was a God-given right. These slaves were considered 'booty' or the spoils of war. As the saying goes, “to the victors go the spoils.”
4. “It shall be unlawful for you (Muhammad) to take more wives or to change your present wives for other women, though their beauty pleases you, except where slave-girls are concerned.” (33:52)

The Quran also instructs Muslims not to force their female slaves into prostitution (24:34), and even allows Muslims to marry slaves if they so desire, and to free them at times as a penalty for crime or sin (4:92, 5:89, 58:3) and even allows slaves to buy their liberty, if they meet certain of their master's conditions (24:33). “While I think it's nice to allow a slave to obtain his freedom, (at his master's discretion) it is tragic that Islam allows them to be enslaved in the first place. That's like robbing a bank and giving some of the money back to the bank, and thinking you did the right thing,” says author Silas. Silashas quoted several hadiths Bukhari and others in his article to show that the hadiths also support slavery. (ref. 1)

Muhammad supported and patronized slavery

Kazi Masum Akhtar claims that Muhammad abolished slavery. But his deeds bear witness that he supported and patronized slavery for the benefit of Islam; more importantly, for his personal benefits. In the 82 raids and wars on non-Muslim settlements, which Muhammad had organized and/or led in his 10-year-stay in Medina, his main aim was to obtain spoils or war-booty. Men and women captured in such raids were also considered war-booty and were kept or sold as slaves. The young and charming girls were used as sex-slaves by Muhammad and his companions. Muhammad used to take one-fifth of the booty as holy khoom and he used to pick the most charming girls in the lot as his personal sex-slave, with whom he usually had sex with on the same night.

In one instance, the Muslims attacked the Banu Mustaliq, and took the women and children slaves after slaughtering their men. The female-slaves were distributed amongst his Muslim soldiers. Being away from home for long, the soldiers were craving for sex and wanted to have sex with the female captives. But they were also worried that if they fell pregnant from the sex-act, their market-value will drop. So, they went to Muhammad and asked if they could do coitus interruptus (i.e. release the semen outside). He advised them to have sex with the slaves, but not to practice coitus interruptus. In effect, Muhammad okayed the rape of the female prisoners. Muhammad took Juwareya, the prettiest young captive in the lot and forced her to have sex with him on the same night.

Muhammad used to barter his slaves, obtained as war booty, in exchange of horses and other weapons for launching jihad or organizing raids against non-Muslim Arab settlements for capturing more.

After Muhammad's death, his cousin Jubair became filthy rich and left 1000 slaves behind when he died.

Above discussion makes it crystal-clear that neither Muhammad did, nor Islam does, take any step to abolish slavery. On the contrary, Muhammad engaged in slavery in his founding years of Islam. Moreover, Muhammad himself used the young and pretty female-captives Rihana (of Banu Koreiza), Juweria (of Banu Mustaliq), Safiya (of Banu Nadir, Khaybar) and others as sex-slaves; indeed, he raped them on the same night he had massacred all their husbands and other male family members. So the idea of Muhammad abolishing slavery cannot arise; any allusions to such a possibility are pure lies.

And following the legacy of Muhammad, Arab Muslims carried out lucrative slave-trade from 8th century to 19th century, across the world. As a matter of fact, slave-trade continued in Sudan till 2005. The Islamist government in Sudan used the state machinery to organize raids in predominantly Christian southern Sudan to capture unarmed common villagers and transport them as slaves to the Arab and Gulf countries. This oppression on the people of southern Sudan went on up to 2005.

So Kazi Masum Akhtar's claim that Muhammad abolished slavery is not supported by facts; instead Muhammad did exactly the opposite vis-à-vis slavery. But Mr. Akhtar has not committed any offence by telling such blatant lies, because telling such lies to deceive infidels in the interested of Islam is a religiously sanctioned doctrine in Islam, called taqiyyah, and he will be rewarded by Allah.

- - - footnotes - - -

[i] Slavery in Islam: http://www.answering-islam.org/Silas/slavery.htm)

[ii] K S Lal, Muslim Slave System in Mediaeval India. Library- www.islam-watch.org