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''
Oh mankind! We created you from a single pair of a male and a
female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know
each other {not that you may despise each other}.
Verily the
most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is {he who is most
righteous of you}. And Allah has full knowledge and is well
acquainted {with all things}.''
Quran 49: 13
"It
is not possible that a man, to whom is given the Book and
Wisdom, and the Prophetic office, should say to people: ''You be
my slaves other than Allah's; but rather {he would say}'' You be
worshippers of Him Who is truly the Cherisher of all: for you
have taught the Book and you have studied it earnestly.''
Quran 3: 79
The nefarious
institution of slavery has existed since earliest times and has
cast its shadow across the vast landscape of human history.
Even today, we are
told by media outlets and periodicals, of the horrific practices
of slavery in the Sudan, where it is reported that Arab Muslims
in the North are enslaving multitudes of African Christians and
animists in the South.
These are, of course,
troubling allegations and a source of embarrassment and shame to
many-pious and devout Muslims world wide. But are these
allegations of slavery in the Sudan really true? Or are they yet
another thrust in a propaganda assault aimed at disturbing
confidence in Islam and frightening people away from the path of
Light and Justice?
According to the McNair
report on allegations of slavery in the Sudan, investigators
could find no evidence of Muslims enslaving Africans [or anyone
else] in the Sudan.
There was evidence,
however, of The Sudan's People Liberation Army {S.P.L.A.} led by
John Garang [and predominately Christian] abducting and
enslaving African youngsters for the purposes of military duty
and labour.
The dismal and often
fatal plight of these children has been verified and documented
by organizations such as Human Rights Watch/Africa and The
Children's Rights Project. In fact, Christian Solitary
International, an organization which is largely responsible for
reporting on ''Muslim enslavers in the Sudan'' would do
better to use its resources and close connection to S.P.L.A. to
persuade them to release the tens of thousands of African
children that they have abducted and forced to fight, work, and
live in squalid life threatening conditions.
The mainstream media
seems ever anxious to flash Christian Solitary International
film footage and photographs depicting [ what appears to be]
Muslims selling Africans to benevolent Christians who have taken
it upon themselves to facilitate the release of these ''enslaved''
people. However, a closer look will reveal that this is not the
case at all.
The evidence shows
that these were hostages taken in battles and local skirmishes
fought over land and water rights disputes. And the abductions invariably
took place in areas that were not controlled by Muslims, but
controlled [at the time] by the S.P.L.A.
Alex de Waul, the
co-director for African Rights, has reported: ''It is most
probable that they were in fact paying a ransom to a go-between
in a scheme whereby families pay, through a middleman, for their
hostage children to be redeemed. They were not in a slave
market.''
Anti-Slavery
International has also reported on the allegations of Sudanese
government involvement in slavery, revealing that: ''The
charge that [Muslim] government troops engage in raids for the
purpose of seizing slaves is not backed by the evidence.''
Let us now turn our
attention to a land which has a verifiable tradition of
imprisonment and slavery; both historically and in contemporary
times.
Slavery in the
American Prison System
Although most people
believe that slavery is not only illegal in the United States
but non-existent, in fact the institutions and the practices of
human bondage in America are very much alive and well.
The same amendment to
the United States constitution that appears to abolish slavery
in America, also legalizes it.
The thirteenth
amendment to the U.S. constitution clearly states that: ''Neither
slavery nor involuntary solitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.''
This amendment is skilfully
written to leave a window open for the continuation of legal
slavery, thus the words ''except as a punishment for a
crime''.
Imprisoning and
enslaving a huge segment of the non-white, the poor, and the
disenfranchised has a long history in America. It was a routine
practice during the Reconstruction period into the 1950's and
1960's for poor people to be arrested on trumped up charges, ''dully
convicted'' and remanded to to prison labour camps, chain gangs,
and sweathouses to work off their sentences.
Common charges used
for this purpose were vagrancy, loitering, and drunk and
disorderly. Poor women, walking home from their jobs or waiting
for the bus, were habitually waylaid by police and sheriff's
authorities and charged with ''solicitation for
prostitution.''
Since the mid-1970's
this trend of incarceration and the resulting enslavement, has
reached epic proportions.
In 1975, local state,
and federal government agencies spent 4 billion dollars on their
prison infrastructure. By 1994 that figure had skyrocketed to $36
billion. The federal government devotes a huge chunk of its
budget to prison construction and maintenance and many states
spend more money on its prison networks than it does on social
programs and education combined.
Within the last ten
to fifteen years, there is a concerted effort to harmonize and
[in some instances] merge prison labour with the desires of
business and the needs of production. Currently prisoners turn
out $10 billion worth of products, replacing over 500,000
workers from the main work force. In some states, such as Oregon
and California, prisoners are paid the minimum wage, but this is
unusual, and even then, after taxes are taken and money for ''room
and board'' deducted, they end up with less than 20% of
their ''wages''. Most prisoners in America, however, are
paid a mere pittance, averaging only enough to buy a few
toiletries and personal items from the prison canteen at the end
of the month. While the fruits of their labour is sold in the
open market , reaping huge profits for corporations and
lucrative cutbacks for prison and government officials.
Captive Consumers
Inmates in American prisons and jails are also exploited as
captive consumers. By existing within the fishbowl of
confinement, they have little choice but to purchase the items
selected for them at the prison store for the price designated.
A startling example of this is pay phones. It is reported that a
prison pay phone can net 10 thousand dollars a year in profit.
If you multiply that by 100 [i.e. one million in profit] we
begin to get the picture.
The Media
The corporate
controlled media does its part in facilitating the
prison-industrial complex by sensationalising crime and
criminals; yet tactfully passing over both the causes and
solutions. Thus the cry resounds through out the land of ''lock
them up and throw away the key.'' And once locked away they
can conveniently and legally become a source of slave labour to
boost the manufacturing quotas and to increase profits.
Slave Import Business
in U.S. Yearly in the United States, as many as 50,000 people
are brought to the country and enslaved. Most are forced to work
as prostitutes [sex slaves] in private homes or public clubs,
and labourers in sweat shops and on farms; or as servants in the
homes of the affluent and the influential.
International
Organizations report that over two million women and children
are ensnared in a world wide slave trade, with many of the
victims being imported to North America. So vile and insidious
is this practice, that young women and adolescent girls and boys
are in constant danger [ particularly in so-called third world
countries] of being snatched up and shipped over seas to serve
as sex toys for the rich and decadent in a litany of U.S. cities
such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia,
and San Francisco. In fact, these unfortunate enslaved people
are smuggled into the U.S. at every point. Asians through the
West Coast, mainly through Seattle and Los Angeles. Those that
are abducted in Mexico and South America come through Florida,
Texas, and California; and Africans are smuggled via major
cities on the eastern seaboard.
Jennifer Stango is
co-founder of the Los Angeles based Coalition to Abolish Slavery
and Trafficking, an organization which helps victims of the
modern day slave trade. She mentions that slave traders prey on
those who are considered most vulnerable. People who are young
and poor, with little or no formal education; and who find
themselves disoriented once they reach the United States.
Authorities predict that the trafficking in human beings,
whether for sale in the labour market or to be utilizes in the
sex industry, will soon exceed illicit drug trade as the world's
most lucrative illegal enterprise.
According to Micheal
Gennaco, who heads the civil rights section of the U.S.
Attorney's Office: What we are experiencing in this country is a
modern form of slavery. In many ways it parallels the same
experience that victims felt in the antebellum days of the
south. The people that are brought here are essentially not
brought in chains, but they're brought accompanied by
traffickers. They're made sure that as soon as they arrive at
the point of destination, that they're whisked away to an
unfamiliar situation in the same way that the slaves in the
South were whisked away to the slave master or the slave trader
to an unfamiliar location. And then, once the slaves are
acculturated and the master starts feeling comfortable about
their ability to be trusted and not to run away, they were then
released from their chains.
Notes and
References
The McNair Report on
Allegations of Slavery and Slavery-like Practice in The
Sudan.
Slavery in America;
accessible online at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june01/slavery_3-8.html
Slavery Reinstituted
in America; accessible online at: http://thewinds.arcsnet.net/archive/racial/a011297a.html
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