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
