Born to be a slave in Niger

February 13, 2005

This dhimmi BBC report gives no hint of why slavery still exists in Niger, which is 80% Muslim: because the Qur'an sanctions it.

Slavery continues to blight the lives of many millions around the world. Although officially abolished in some countries two centuries ago, people trafficking, bonded labour and child labour still exist. There are some places on earth that few outsiders visit or know about, vast empty sections of the earth where time has stood still for centuries.

Niger is one of those places. It is a country that you can drive through for hours without seeing a soul.

A nation of vast, barren and windswept landscapes, a country of people who live almost entirely off cattle, and off the labour of human slaves.

Slavery in Niger is not an obscure thing, nor a curious relic of the past, it is an intrinsic part of society today.

A Nigerian study has found that almost 8% of the population are slaves.

You wonder how this can be in the 21st Century and why people do not know about it?


Yes, and the BBC ain't telling, even though it can't conceal that the slave interviewed in this story is named "Fatima," after Muhammad's daughter.

Also note this:

When we spoke to her masters they denied owning slaves. The practice of slavery was outlawed in Niger last year.

Last year. Imagine the outcry if a Western country hadn't outlawed slavery until 2004. Yet moralists continue to speak of slavery in the United States as if it was something sui generis and uniquely horrible in the history of mankind, while ignoring massive evidence of continuing slavery in the Islamic world -- or glossing over its Islamic character, as does this report.

Dhimmi Watch: Born to be a slave in Niger