Meshael Alayban, a Saudi Arabian princess was arrested in California earlier this month on suspicion of human trafficking after her Kenyan maid flagged down a passing bus in Irvine. The maid claimed she had been offered $1,600 per month to work for the Saudi family, but instead had received only $220 per month. She also said that upon arrival in the U.S., Alayban took her travel documents including her passport. As police investigated they discovered four Filipino women in the same household who also claimed they were being held against their will.
According to the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report for 2012, “Saudi Arabia is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and to a lesser extent, forced prostitution. Men and women…travel to Saudi Arabia as domestic servants or other low-skilled laborers, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude, including nonpayment of wages, long working hours without rest, deprivation of food, threats, physical or sexual abuse, and restrictions on movement such as the withholding of passports or confinement to the workplace. Although many migrant workers sign contracts delineating their rights, some report work conditions that are substantially different from those described in the contract. Other migrant workers never see a contract at all, leaving them especially vulnerable to forced labor, including debt bondage.”
It is not surprising that a strict shariah compliant Islamic nation such as Saudi Arabia would be a “destination country” for people subjected to force labor (a politically correct way of saying slavery). Muslims are taught to emulate Muhammad, and he was a slave owner and slave trader. Unlike the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that abolished slavery in the United States, Islam cannot be reformed or changed.
Over 28 million Africans have been enslaved in the Muslim world during the 14 centuries of Islam, and sadly there are still multitudes of Africans that are being enslaved by Islamists today. According to a Sudanese government official over 35,000 Sudanese Christians and non-Muslims are still enslaved after having been forced into slavery by Islamist militiamen. The price to purchase a slave from Sudan ranges from between $35 to $50, roughly the purchase price of two goats.
Slavery in Islam was certainly not limited to Africa, it is estimated that Islamists have sold over one million Europeans into slavery. From the mid to late 14th to the early 18th centuries, the Ottomans enslaved 500,000 to one million non-Muslim (primarily Balkan Christian) males. These slaves were also forcibly converted to Islam.
The Qur’an has many verses referring to slaves and the treatment of slaves (Sura 33:50, 23:5-6, 70:29-30, 4:24, 8:69-71, 24:32, 2:178, 16:75). In fact, the Qur’an has more verses informing Muslim men of their right to keep women as sex slaves than it does to tell them to pray five times a day!
Prayer Points:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17). Pray the Spirit of the Lord will permeate every nation, and that through the move of His Spirit there will be freedom for all.
Pray that those who have converted to Islam will realize that Islam’s very name means submission – and that by following the teachings of Islam they are selling themselves into slavery.
Pray for those caught in slavery and human trafficking to be freed. Pray that they will be able to find divine connections that help them escape, and that those involved in human trafficking will have an encounter with God through Jesus Christ.
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