Historical studies have shown that slavery was formally recognized from before Islam and in most eastern and western countries till around a century ago and buying and selling people as slaves was a prevalent and common issue.
The advent of Islam and execution of Islamic laws and rules in countering slavery resulted in a revival of the personhood of slaves and an implementation of human behavior in relation to them. It finally resulted in the negation of slavery in the Islamic society.
However, a study of the crimes of the West, specifically America, reveals the heinous circumstances of slavery in these countries from before the period of Western slavery, i.e., from the time that the English had first set foot in America.
This continued until the time when the Western countries took measures to fight against slavery in 1792 and laws forbidding the selling of slaves were passed. As a result, the acceptance of the law forbidding slavery by the League of Nations (1920-1946) in 1926 was considered a great success in this regard, particularly since according to this convention, all forms of slavery were prohibited at that time.
However, in the contemporary century, we clearly and statistically see that the West has not only not abolished slavery; rather it still preaches slavery, albeit it has changed its form and given it a modern face! For example, Urmila Bhoola, the United Nations Special Rapporteur has stated that more than 40 million people in the world are slaves, of which one fourth are children. This same number was reported by CBC news network as well which reported that 40 million people are enslaved in modern slavery like forced marriages and work and according to studies, 400 thousand of these are Americans.
Most countries have been colonized for years by these very Westerners and is colonization any different from slavery? Today too many apparently free countries do not have the right to drink water without permission of the West; most of the world’s mass media is under the control of Western capitalists and people of the world are slaves to their media and whether they want to or not, they have no choice but to pour their earnings into the pockets of these media owners. They are the ones that dictate to the people regarding what they should and should not buy, they impress on others what their needs are and sell their products to them. Therefore, most of the people of the world are slaves. However, they are slaves who are unaware of their own slavery!
Even today, some countries occupied by America, Britain, Israel, Germany, etc. are not only slaves to these countries; rather, they are their lab rats on whom they test their nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.
Can this be considered anything other than modern slavery? According to a report by the Reuters News Agency, the British Campaign for Slavery announced that there are currently 136 thousand slaves in Britain and a major part of the food industry of this country continues their activities through these people. Human trafficking, which is considered a new form of slavery in the present times, has become an illegal trade and albeit a rich source of income today in some countries like Saudi Arabia.
Sex slavery or prostitution is presently the third most profitable trade in Europe and America after weapons and drugs and according to statistics, the number of these slaves has gone up by 38 percent in 2018 compared to the year before and the profit obtained from human trafficking in the world is estimated as 32 billion dollars per annum!
In recent years, the Daesh had become the leading source of slavery in the twentieth-century; so much so that they would organize their combative plans to obtain slaves in accordance with their customers’ tastes! And many thousands of such examples which cut at the heart of all free human beings.
In this last year, following the murder of George Floyd, a new wave of public demonstrations against racism and injustice began and the pictures of four of the previous speakers of the parliament of America who were reminders of the era of slavery were taken down from its walls.
Across the world people are coming to the conclusion that they should not enslave their freedom and liberty to any thought, command, or taste of any oppressor and this is the result of the pervasive and sweeping wave of love for Islam and Iran that came about in the world due to the freedom and liberty of Imam Husain (peace be on him). It is similarly the result of inspiration from Khomeini the great who stood against the Eastern and Western superpowers as a brave and free person to shout out his country’s independence and bring about the ‘miracle of the age’. And it will not be long before these small flames smoldering under the ashes against the oppression and force of the superpowers become a raging fire that will swallow the enslavers and colonialists of the world. We hope for the day when all slaves become free from the imprisonment of their souls, wealth, power, hypocrisy, and oppression.
Author: Safura Taraqqi
Translator: Rashed