The Middle Eastern Passage
13th August 2009
It’s important to remember that the bulk of the slave trade went in the opposite direction — from Africa to the Arabian peninsula. The Arabs have been enslaving Africans since prehistoric times, and the slave trade in Saudi Arabia wasn’t abolished until the 1960s. An underground traffic in slaves continues to this day, particularly in Mauritania and other countries in western and northern Africa.
Islam has no objection, either formal or informal, to slavery.