paternal and maternal aunts . . . Also married women,
except those whom you own as slaves. Such is the decree of
God’’ (Sura 4:23–24).
Islam was born in an era when slavery was taken for
granted. A warrior acquired slave girls after every victorious
battle. A man could gather as many slavegirls as he was
able, in addition to his wives. Such behavior would be a
relic of the past were it not for the fact that the Koran, by
assuming the goodness of slavery in such passages, gives
slavery the seal of Allah’s words. Thus the only place in the
world where slavery persists today is in Sudan and
Mauritania, two Muslim countries, and there is evidence that
its practice is more widespread than that. Amnesty
International has found that Muslim Pakistan is ‘‘both a
country of origin and a transit country for the trafficking of
women for domestic labor, forced marriage and prostitution.
This form of slavery is organized by crime networks that
span South Asia. Some women, both local and trafficked,
are killed if they refuse to earn money in prostitution.’’[25]
Slavery also seems to be quietly tolerated today in other
Muslim countries.
While the Bible was also written at a time when slavery
was a fact of life, its teachings about the dignity of all
human beings before God ultimately allowed antislavery
forces to work for abolition under the banner of Christianity.
This is much more difficult in Islam: what Allah says is
applicable for all times, unless He Himself abrogates it.
Also, the Koran nowhere teaches that all human beings have
dignity before Allah. Its repeated and vociferous