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Answering lies about Islam and Prophet Muhammad
Did Islam Ignore Slavery and legalize its existence?
Historical examples of nations who tried to forcefully prohibit slavery
United States of America
Living conditions of slaves in the United States of America were horrific characterized by barbarity and inhuman deterioration. Slaves were whipped savagely in case of mutiny and the punishment can escalate to rape and execution. The only exceptions were some slaves who practiced medicine and the hired slaves who were treated better as they were not directly owned.
Education was forbidden for slaves to prevent their intellectual maturity which can give them ideas to rebel and escape. Medical care was done by the slaves themselves who had some medical experience gained by their African origins from the traditional African medicine at that time.
Some states prohibited religious practices for slaves so they would not gather and hence plan mutiny.
Punishment of disobedient slaves included whipping, burning, mutation, branding with fire and can reach hanging. Sometimes there was no reason for the punishments except as a display of power and control of the master.
Slave traders sexually abused slaves and any female slave who objects could get killed. During these times women in general, black or white, were considered private property in the Southern areas so sexual assault was very common.
To maintain racial purity white women were not allowed to have any sexual relation with a black man however a white man can have sexual relation with a black woman.
The most famous attempt to free the slaves was made by Abraham Lincoln. Was his goal human right or to keep the unity of the United States is undefined as he himself said: “If I can keep the unity without freeing any slave I will do it and if I can keep it by freeing all slaves I will do it. And if I can keep it by freeing some slaves and leaving others I will do it too."
To read the full text please visit http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org - Letter to Horace Greeley
Lincoln launched an attack on slavery throughout the land of the United States which the Southern states considered as a violation of their constitutional rights and part of the plan to abolish slavery permanently. Lincoln was elected president in 1860, but before that seven states, whose economy depended largely on cotton and hence had lots of slaves, declared their separation from the union and they constitutes a confederation. Six of them had the highest percentage of slaves in its population which is estimated to be about 49%.
Slavery was the main catalyst for the rising political tension in the United States in the fifties of the nineteenth century. The Republican Party insisted on prohibiting slavery, many Southern leaders threatened to separate from the union if Lincoln won the presidential elections in 1860.
After Lincoln became president, many white Southern states felt secession act were the only solution as the government was committed to restricting slavery.
Civil war started on April 12th 1861. The reasons for the war were complicated and argumentative. James C. Bradford Said: "This case became more complicated for historians who tried to present diverse reasons for the war".
Slavery was completely abolished from the United States by the spring of 1865 when the confederate armies surrendered. All slaves were freed. The result of the war was around 1,030,000 victims (around 3% of the population). 620,000 died of diseases. The number of died in the civil war equals the sum of the number of deaths in all other war in which the United States took part.
By that we conclude that the forceful freeing of slaves had horrible results.
Sudan: The Mahdy Revolution
The attempt to prohibit slavery was one of the main causes of the Mahdy revolution in Sudan which was led by Mohammed Ahmed AlMahdy. At that time in Sudan slave trade was one of the mail sources of income for many people in Sudan.
The Khedive Ismail, ruler of Egypt and Sudan at that time, took some serious steps against the centers of slave trade in Sudan and he assigned Colonel Gordon to lead these raids and supplied him with soldiers, money and privileges.
In March 17th 1874 Colonel Gordon decided that Ivory trade would be totally monopolized by the government because Ivory trade was used as a cover for slave trade. The decision also forbade any person from going to the tropical division without prior permission from the commandant of Sudan and the total prohibition of importing gunpowder and firearms to this area.
These decisions had a great negative impact that was a directly caused the Mahdy revolutionas said by Dr. Mohammad Kamal Yahia in his book (The Historical roots for Egyptian Woman Liberation). The explanation of this was that when traders had to take permission to send their ships across the White Nile to reach the tropical division and because the orders were very strict, navigation through the river nearly stopped. This led to the suspension of commercial activities whether slave trade or legal trade. This situation caused turmoil among all traders who decided to resist the government. Slave traders were on top of the list of supporters of Mohammed Ahmed AlMahdy and they ignited the whole revolution in Sudan. This turmoil caused tens of thousands of victims whether killed or wounded.