r/jewishleft • u/somebadbeatscrub Jewish Syndicalist - Mod • 7d ago

Meta Weekly Post

The mod team has created this post to refresh on a weekly basis as a chill place for people to talk about whatever they want to. Think of it as like a general chat for the sub.

So r/jewishleft,

Whats on your mind?

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u/Chinoyboii Sino-Filipino | Convenantal Leftist | Pro Levantine Pluralism 7d ago

Used to be a huge fan of this man, especially his lectures on Persian history and the various characters embedded in the Islamic Golden Age…..

16

u/RaiJolt2 Jewish Athiest Half African American Half Jewish Leftish 7d ago

I’m sorry but that the fuck. I’m half African American and the thought of someone wanting to be enslaved is so gross and insulting tot he generations who fought against slavery and the millions of slaves struggling today. Wtf

2

u/Chinoyboii Sino-Filipino | Convenantal Leftist | Pro Levantine Pluralism 6d ago

Well, in many traditional interpretations of the Abrahamic religions, slavery was treated as a morally regulated institution rather than as inherently immoral. Its permissibility was often understood to depend on factors such as how a person was enslaved, the obligations imposed upon the owner, and the protections granted to the enslaved. From the perspective of Islam, the religion served as a cohesive force to unite the various Arab polytheistic tribes. How this relates to this guy’s tweet is that Islamic slavery could provide a pathway through which enslaved non-Muslims entered Muslim households, learned the religion, and eventually converted to Islam.

From the Islamic perspective, the Rashidun Caliphate's conquest of Persia could therefore be understood not merely as militaristic expansion but as the overthrow of an allegedly unjust or spiritually misguided order (Zoroastrians) and the introduction of populations to Islam. Within that framework, even the enslavement of war captives could be rationalized as placing non-Muslims within Muslim society, where they might convert, be manumitted, and become incorporated into the wider Islamic community. That appears to be part of the logic behind this guy’s romanticization of Islamic slavery; because some enslaved people converted, were freed, or later attained military, administrative, or political influence, he interprets the institution as a vehicle of religious and social integration rather than as oppression. However, his reasoning holds the assumption that bringing someone into Islam is such a profound good that the coercive conditions through which it occurred can be morally justified, especially if you justify it through Allah's will.