How to respond to the claim that the enslavement of women and children is a barbarity of Islam?
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The questioner : In this age, some Orientalists say that the enslavement of women and children, and so on, is a barbarity of Islam.
The Shaykh : Now, which is more merciful: that we take them as captives and they become slaves, knowing that Islam cares for the slave and has a mandate regarding his manumission, to the extent that it established four means of manumission; or that they be killed?
The former, without a doubt. And they now—the disbelievers—do this in meaning, if not in word. So when they occupy Islamic lands, they kill the children, or take them as servants with them, and likewise the women, they rape them. Yes.
The Shaykh : Now, which is more merciful: that we take them as captives and they become slaves, knowing that Islam cares for the slave and has a mandate regarding his manumission, to the extent that it established four means of manumission; or that they be killed?
The former, without a doubt. And they now—the disbelievers—do this in meaning, if not in word. So when they occupy Islamic lands, they kill the children, or take them as servants with them, and likewise the women, they rape them. Yes.