Muslim Woman Seeks to Revive Institution of
Sex-Slavery
by Raymond Ibrahim
FrontPageMagazine.com
June 6, 2011
http://www.meforum.org/2930/muslim-woman-seeks-to-revive-institution-of-sex
Last week witnessed popular
Muslim preacher Abu
Ishaq al-Huwaini boast about how Islam allows Muslims
to buy and sell conquered infidel women, so that "When I
want a sex-slave, I go to the market and pick whichever
female I desire and buy her."
This week's depraved
anachronism comes from a Muslim woman—Salwa al-Mutairi, a
political activist and former parliamentary candidate for
Kuwait's government, no less: She, too, seeks to "revive the
institution of sex-slavery."
A brief English report appeared
over the weekend in the Kuwait
Times (nothing, of course, in the MSM):
Muslim men who fear being
seduced or tempted into immoral behavior by the beauty of
their female servants, or even of those servants "casting
spells" on them, would be better to purchase women from an
"enslaved maid" agency for sexual purposes. She [Mutairi]
suggested that special offices could be set up to provide
concubines in the same way as domestic staff recruitment
agencies currently provide housemaids. "We want our youth
to be protected from adultery," said al-Mutairi,
suggesting that these maids could be brought as prisoners
of war in war-stricken nations like Chechnya to be sold on
later to devout merchants.
The Arabic news website, Al
Arabiya, has the sordid details, including a video of
Mutairi addressing this topic. I summarize and translate
various excerpts below (note: I am not making any of
this up):
The Kuwaiti female activist
begins by insisting that "it's of course true" that "the
prophet of Islam legitimized sex-slavery." She recounts how
when she was in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, she asked
various sheikhs and muftis (learned, authoritative Muslims)
about the legality of sex-slavery according to Sharia: they
all confirmed it to be perfectly legal; Kuwaiti ulema
further pointed out that extra "virile" men—Western
synonymous include "sex-crazed," "lecherous,"
"perverted"—would do well to purchase sex-slaves to sate
their appetites without sinning.
Here's a particularly
interesting excerpt from her taped speech on the rules
governing sex-slaves:
A Muslim state must [first]
attack a Christian state—sorry, I mean any non-Muslim
state—and they [the women, the future sex-slaves] must be
captives of the raid. Is this forbidden? Not at all;
according to Islam, sex slaves are not at all forbidden.
Quite the contrary, the rules regulating sex-slaves differ
from those for free women [i.e., Muslim women]: the
latter's body must be covered entirely, except for her
face and hands, whereas the sex-slave is kept naked from
the bellybutton on up—she is different from the free
woman; the free woman has to be married properly to her
husband, but the sex-slave—he just buys her and that's
that.
She went on to offer concrete
suggestions: "For example, in the Chechnyan war, surely
there are female Russian captives. So go and buy those and
sell them here in Kuwait; better that than have our men
engage in forbidden sexual relations. I don't see any
problem in this, no problem at all."
Mutairi suggests the enslaved
girls be at least 15 years-old.
She further justified the
institution of sex-slavery by evoking 8th century
caliph, Harun Rashid—a name some may recall from Arabian
Nights bedtime stories; a name some may be surprised
to discover politically active Muslims modeling their lives
after:
"And the greatest example we
have is Harun al-Rashid: when he died, he had 2,000 sex
slaves—so it's okay, nothing wrong with it."
Mutairi's rationale is
ultimately guided by a sense of efficiency, a desire for the
good of society: legalizing sex-slaves helps prevent Muslim
men from transgressing Allah's laws (as we have seen,
extramarital relations with fellow Muslim women is strictly
forbidden, but not with infidel sex-slaves, since they are scarcely
considered human). Thus, the institution of
sex-slavery provides a convenient, Sharia-compliant way of
satiating the libidinous urges of Muslim men.
The Kuwaiti activist's blunt
approach has universal parallels. For example, in the West,
some seek to legalize marijuana, arguing that, since people
use it anyway, let it be made compliant with the law. In the
Muslim world, some seek to legalize sex-slavery, arguing
that, since Muslim men will use women anyway, let it be made
compliant with Sharia law.
Such are the inevitable
differences between the Western mindset (based on reason and
universal rights) and the Sharia mindset (based on the life
of a 7th century Arabian
caravan-raider and slave-trader).
Mutairi concluded by piously
supplicating Allah: "Oh I truly wish this for Kuwait, Allah
willing—Oh Lord, Lord, you are bountiful…"
While she waits, Mutairi can
take solace in the fact that, if sex-slavery is not
institutionalized in Kuwait, it thrives underground
throughout the Muslim world, where non-Muslim girls—mostly
Christians—are routinely abducted, enslaved, and forced into
lives of unspeakable degradation.
After all, just because a
practice is not formally institutionalized does not mean
that those who deem it their divine right are not practicing
it.
Raymond
Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle
East Forum
