Ask Your Favourite Scholar

Ask you favorite Muslim scholar the following question and you might be surprised about the answer:

“I will ask you a question and I want you to choose from four answers. The question is this: Assume, there will be an Islamic state in the future which upholds Islamic law and has a proper Islamic leader. Assume further, this state wages a just war against another nation, makes war captives and turns them and their offspring into slaves being sold at slave markets.

Assume, a middle-aged man goes to a slave market and buys a nine year old girl for the purpose of sexual intercourse. The girl does not like to have intercourse with the man and the man knows it. However, the man insists, because he believes that it is his right and the girl gives in, because she believes it is her duty.

Do you believe the behavior of the man is morally acceptable?

Choose one of the following answers:

(A) no (B) yes (C) it depends (D) don’t know / no opinion”

This is it. Simple, isn’t it?

Think about which answer you might expect from your favorite scholar. Probably, you expect your favorite scholar to reply without hesitation with “It is answer A: No, the behavior of the man is not morally acceptable”, don’t you?

Of course, I don’t know who your favorite scholar is. Maybe it is some one who indeed will pick answer A with no reservation. However, don’t be shocked if this is not what happens, because most respected Muslim scholars will actually not choose A.

Why? Because selecting A would imply that our medieval Muslim scholars endorsed something that was morally not acceptable. Since most Muslim scholars define themselves as their successors or followers, bringing down the classical scholars would bring down themselves, too.

Instead, they usually try to come up with the following compromise: They will say, slavery and sexual exploitation, although it might be preferable if they did not exist, are not always bad, but are acceptable under certain conditions, which are not met today, but might have been met in the past. They will say, our ancestors who enslaved and raped women were good people, although not enslaving and raping might be even better, though not morally necessary. Probably they will not like the word rape, because it sounds too violent, although it properly describes what happened.

They can get away with all that, because most Muslims fail to ask the right questions.

You can make a difference today. Ask the right questions. Ask the imam of your local mosque. Ask the chaplain at school or at work. Ask those people who offer advise or classes on the Internet. Ask that sister or brother in your community who insists on things no one understands the purpose of. Ask that popular person who travels around to give talks. Ask questions to make a change.

References: Traditionalist View on Sex Slavery