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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| The Sudaan & "slavery" |
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| sofia |
| 03/06/02 at 15:30:47 |
| Assalaamu ‘alaikum wa rahmatullah This topic has been discussed somewhat before, but a recent CAIR email reminded me: Buried in a book-bag for over a year, I had scribbled notes at a Sudanese American Society (SAS) lecture regarding slavery in the Sudaan. The group (consisted of Muslim and Christians) had previously gone on a fact-finding mission in Sudaan and had been researching this issue for years. After returning, they wanted to publicize their findings, but were repeatedly denied access to any open hearings in D.C (ie, they were kicked out of press conferences and meetings with officials at events that specifically addressed slavery in the Sudaan). Not to justify my procrastination in finally sending out these notes, but SAS also now has a websitel (note: Sudaan and SAS are not meant to be confused with the statistic terms). http://www.sasociety.com/ (also see http://www.sufo.demon.co.uk/poli005.htm ) Be careful what you believe. It’s unfortunate that up until very recently, African-Americans in the west could easily relate to Muslims, but recent “organized slander” has somewhat managed to wedge a divide between us. But truth stands clear from error. Alhamdulillah, some individuals/orgs have finally come forth and spoken the truth about this “fake” agenda. Notes on lecture: “Sudaan & Slavery” by the Sudanese American Society (SAS), 2001 - [Note to self: Show up on time (missed 20 min). My comments are in brackets] - Sudaan is mainly made up of 70% Muslims, 5% Christians, and 25% indigenous religions. The south is made up of roughly 17% Christians, 16% Muslims and 67% pagans. - The Sudanese “slave trade” was not mentioned in recent years until the Islamic movement in Sudaan took place. Their (Islamic regime) aim was to get rid of nationalism, foreign rule and to restore the khilaafah [recipe for sanctions]. Also, oil has recently been discovered in Sudaan [recipe for proxy war financed by outside forces]. It would be easier to exploit it if the current Islamic govt were overthrown, hence the large amount of monetary and [up until recently] media support by the West for a southern rebellion against the north. - The term “slavery” was used to try to incite African-Americans against the Muslims. This term was re-coined by British Baroness Cox, a Christian Crusader, formerly a British Intelligence Agent who was kicked out of the UN. - Almost all non-gov’t agencies have roots in intelligencia; certain individuals are placed there to fulfill goals of western governments - Fact-finding group made up of Muslim and Christian groups found that southern Sudaan did not want Shariah enforced on them, but many also did not know anything about slavery being practiced there. IE, even non-Muslim groups who were anti-Islamic shariah did not complain of slavery - There WAS kidnapping due to tribal disputes; this was/is common as a settlement in return of prisoners, etc. These tribes (and their laws) are made up of a “committee” of elders. - The Sudanese government (currently Islamic) made one of its goals to end these kidnappings and prisoners - UNICEF has documented that southern Sudanese tribes have abducted over 15,000 children, enslaved them and forced them to fight against the north [ie, slavery?]. Some are even sent to Cuba to be indoctrinated with communist ideology. The Sudanese gov’t is still trying to get them back. No one mentions this, although Newsweek did 10 years ago, but blaming slavery on the north has become common. - The issue of water is an important one in Sudaan. The people are poor and can even enslave their own relatives for food/water. - SAS made the point that we can’t remain quiet about this, African-American churches and assemblymen are already taking up this “fake” cause. A former Harvard professor is heading an anti-slavery mission, getting a lot of $ for it, too. - The real issue is one of disparity in development (which the new government inherited as one of its problems to solve). One can blame the current govt for ignoring issues that continue to be around since before its time, but it does not condone, promote or even permit “slavery.” The south has legitimate concerns because the British [purposely] left it underdeveloped. - The southern army is mostly mercenary/paid (not by the gov’t). Most of the south does not support the rebellion against the north [again, this rebellion is financed mainly by the West] - The head of [some] coalition was a Christian who originally was anti-Sudaan/anti-Islam. After he learned about the issues and realized the govt’s efforts, he became a Muslim, subhan’Allah. - Organizations like Cox’s “anti-slavery” missions have proven to be insincere by not putting forth any sincere efforts to end “slavery” or promote peace and equality. Instead, their goal is to slander and divide. - [As Muslims, our job is to promote equality and justice, if only we’d take it and not rely on anti-Islam/anti-truth (kufaar) forces to expose themselves to their own falsehood. Which is what Allah already made them do.] |
| NS |
| SUDAN SLAVE REDEMPTION EXPOSED AS "HOAX" AND "SCAM |
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| sofia |
| 03/06/02 at 15:31:37 |
| SUDAN SLAVE REDEMPTION EXPOSED AS "HOAX" AND "SCAM" RIPPING OFF SLAVE 'REDEEMERS' By Karl Vick, The Washington Post, 2/26/2002 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1869-2002Feb25.html NAIROBI -- The highly publicized practice of buying the freedom of Sudanese slaves, fueled by millions of dollars donated by Westerners, is rife with corruption, according to aid workers, human rights monitors and leaders of a rebel movement whose members routinely regard slave redemption as a lucrative business... Insiders say that SPLA commanders and officials have pocketed money paid to buy captives' freedom and in some instances stage-manage the transactions, passing off free southerners as slaves...in some cases, according to witnesses and rebel officials, the slaves weren't slaves at all, but people gathered locally and instructed to pretend they were returning from bondage. An aid worker told of recognizing several children in such a group in the village of Turalei in late 1998. Two of them were still wearing plastic wrist bands that entitled them to meals from the local feeding center, the worker said. Impostors also have appeared in the role of the Arab middleman. A prominent former rebel commander has publicly complained that a light-skinned relative who is a captain in the rebel army "has been forced several times to pretend as an Arab" for cameras. "Many times it's a trick," said the Rev. Mario Riva, an Italian Catholic priest who spent decades in one area frequented by slave raiders and, in recent years, well-intentioned "redeemers." Riva, who is fluent in the local tribal language, said he once watched as an interpreter supplied by the rebel administration apparently duped a visiting American who had come to buy the freedom of slaves. "The white man wanted to know if the boy was really a slave," said Riva, recalling the scene near the village of Mariel Bei in the late 1990s. "The translator said something else: 'Did you suffer long ago?'"... Critics of the redemption process point out that no one knows how many people have been taken in raids. The more than 60,000 slaves that CSI [Christian Solidarity International] says it has paid for is four times the number of slaves compiled by name by one group of tribal chiefs -- and eight times the number of active cases estimated by the British branch of the group Save the Children. "Active" cases are defined by Save the Children as abductees taken recently enough that they would still be counted as children... In July 2000, former SPLA commander Aleu Ayieny Aleu circulated an open letter complaining that rebel captain Akec Tong Aleu, who was also a relative, had been coerced by rebel officials into posing as an Arab middleman. "It was a hoax," said Aleu, now head of OSIL, a land mine clearing agency here. "This thing has been going on for no less than six years..." SEE ALSO: THE GREAT SLAVE SCAM By Declan Walsh, The Irish Times, 2/23/2002 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/2002/0223/1014332609531.html From Weekend: In Sudan, the slave trade continues - and Western charities have collected millions of dollars to free women and children enslaved in the north. But the high-profile redemption of thousands of slaves is often a corrupt racket. In a major investigation, Declan Walsh talks to witnesses of the sale of fake slaves by fake slave-traders... According to aid workers, missionaries, and even the rebel movement that facilitates it, slave redemption in Sudan is often an elaborate scam. Some genuine slaves have been redeemed - nobody can say how many - but in other cases, the process is nothing more than a careful deceit, stage-managed by corrupt officials... |
| NS |
| Re: The Sudaan & "slavery" |
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| sofia |
| 03/07/02 at 15:00:01 |
| Scam in Sudan: An elaborate hoax involving fake African slaves and less-than-honest interpreters is duping concerned Westerners By Declan Walsh in Nairobi 24 February 2002 High-profile Western campaigners who spent millions of dollars buying the freedom of slaves in war-torn Sudan have been the victims of a scam, it is alleged. Anti-slavery organisations have "redeemed" more than 65,000 Sudanese slaves from their Arab masters over the past seven years, usually for $50 (£35) a head. The leading charities are the Swiss-based Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), founded by Baroness Caroline Cox, a deputy speaker of the Lords. But although slavery in the African country is a reality, The Independent on Sunday can reveal that "redemption" has often been a carefully orchestrated fraud on the charities. According to witnesses, local villagers are rounded up to pose as slaves when Christian groups arrive with briefcases full of money. The "slave traders" are sometimes disguised rebel soldiers from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). A retired Italian missionary told the IoS he saw his own parishioners posing as slaves. A European aid worker saw children she knew pretending they were in bondage. And a former rebel commander said a relative, also a soldier, had been forced to pose as a slave trader. The emotive issue of slavery in Sudan has had a particularly strong impact among black Americans and Christian groups in the US, where it has become the biggest African cause since apartheid. Politicians have chained themselves to railings in protest, pop stars have given free concerts. The CSI has raised millions of dollars with its promise to save a slave for $50, and raised the issue in public consciousness by inviting well-known figures such as the Rev Al Sharpton and Perry Farrell, lead singer of the rock group Jane's Addiction, to witness redemptions. Last May, a 12-year-old American schoolgirl, Laquisha Gerald, raised $44 for the cause. "I thought it was good to give up my lunch money to free slaves," she told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We're doing something good." Baroness Cox, who split from CSI to form CSW in 1997, has spent over £100,000 redeeming 2,281 slaves. She insists she was not cheated. "We double and triple-checked and did spot interviews with the people redeemed," she said. "Their stories rang true." The decision of her charity, CSW, to stop redeeming slaves a year ago had nothing to do with suspicions of corruption, she said. According to the organisation, her missions to Sudan simply became too dangerous. Some genuine slaves have been set free – nobody can say how many – but frequently redemption is a deceit, stage-managed by corrupt officials of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). "The racket comes right from the top," said Samson Kwaje, an SPLA official, last week. "The money comes from those American kids. But who gets the cheque?" The Khartoum government, which has been fighting southern SPLA rebels since 1983, is a notorious human rights abuser. The rebels have mainly traditional and Christian beliefs, while the government is dominated by Muslim extremists. Last week a government helicopter gunship fired five rockets into a southern village, killing 17 civilians in an attack which prompted the US to break off a peace initiative it is sponsoring. Nor is there any doubt that the government has deliberately rekindled the slave trade as a counter-insurgency measure. It has armed the Murahaleen, a murderous Arab militia that destabilises rebel-held villages by killing the men, stealing the cattle and taking women and children into bondage. In the north, the slaves endure a terrible life of harsh labour, physical abuse and sometimes forced Islamisation or female circumcision. Swiss-based CSI has sought to counter this terrible trade since 1995 by buying the freedom of more than 63,000 "slaves". In theory, it arranges for Arab middlemen to buy up the slaves and secretly walk them across the front line to the safety of the rebel-held south. Then the CSI representative flies in, pays the going rate – usually $50 per head but currently $35 – and the slaves walk free. Or so it seems. Father Mario Riva, an Italian missionary, witnessed a CSI redemption in the late 1990s. Unlike nearly all other Westerners who have been permitted to witness a redemption, he knew the Dinka people and their language. Fr Riva saw John Eibner, an American CSI official and the driving force behind slave redemption, standing under a tree with some slaves. The priest recognised them as his own parishioners. "The people told me they had been collected to get money," he said. "It was a kind of business." Interpretation was key to the deception, said Fr Riva. If Mr Eibner asked whether a slave had been taken into captivity, the interpreter would ask if they had suffered in the war. If the "slave" answered that they had, Mr Eibner would be told they had been captured and badly treated by Arabs, and were grateful to be home. A nurse with a European charity recalled seeing a slave redemption in late 1999 carried out by American Christians. "They brought the kids to be redeemed to a clearing under the trees. I knew two of them by name," she said. Her colleague recognised the "slave trader" as a rebel official, but warned her to keep quiet. "He said: 'There are guys here with guns. Let them give the money if they want,' " she recalled. The nurse requested anonymity, fearing retribution against colleagues. If the slaves are fake, the money is very real. After the CSI plane takes off, the profits – sometimes over $300,000 in one week – are divided up. A small cut goes to the slaves and the traders, but the lion's share goes to local commanders and SPLA figures. One is said to have earned enough to buy 40 wives, and others have allegedly built houses or financed businesses. Mr Eibner denies CSI has been duped. "The money involved is publicised, but we have mechanisms to ensure there is no fraud," he said. But the organisation recently announced that it had freed 14,500 slaves without paying a penny. Experts have long maintained that CSI's figures did not add up. At times when it was "redeeming" over 6,000 people, aid workers in the north saw no mass movements south. Colleagues in the south reported no surge in demand for food aid from the returned "slaves". In 2000, Fr Riva compiled a list of southerners who had returned to Nyamlell, the town where the CSI campaign started, over the preceding seven years. They were only 300. Redemption has caused upset within the SPLA, where accusations of profiteering have been made against senior figures. "It has divided us," said Mr Kwaje. Aleu Ayieny Aleu, a retired SPLA commander, alleged that a relative had been "forced several times to pretend [to be] an Arab and simulate the sale of free children" to CSI. And a storm of profiteering allegations prompted the SPLA leader, John Garang, to ban five people from entering Sudan on CSI redemptions. CSI estimates there are still 200,000 slaves in Sudan. Save the Children puts the figure at no more than 7,000. Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=139416 |
| NS |
| Re: The Sudaan & "slavery" |
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| jannah |
| 03/07/02 at 16:57:26 |
| [slm] awesome articles sofia, jazakiAllah khair... btw have you read that book...Servants of God?>> something like that.. someone had it in damascus.. about the african american slaves who were Muslim... |
| Re: The Sudaan & "slavery" |
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| sofia |
| 03/10/02 at 20:19:38 |
| Assalaamu 'alaikum wa rahmatullah! Not yet, just excerpts of it from "Forgotten Roots." Will have to get it online, iA (hear it's out of print, sold fast, mA). Weirdly (and somehow related to the book), I passed by a Moorish Science Temple yesterday...will have to read more about "Noble Drew Ali" (interesting how this sect influenced the Nation). Anyways, truth hits the media every once in a while, wal hamdulillah (in the past few months alone: Slavery hoax in Sudaan, Israeli spies documented, sufficient evidence to not indict Imam Jamil Al-Amin, etc), but yet, it seems too transient and people have been soooo brainwashed already. We need a counter-brainwashing system. :-[ Hit 'em with the truth! I mean, the civil rights movement was not all that long ago. Half the Imam Jamil jury was African-American, and they indicted him (still can't get over this)! Thirteen guilty counts! Subhan'Allah, the effects of social engineering/bias in the media are strong. But still, truth stands clear from error, la hawla wa la quwatta illa billah. |
| 03/11/02 at 11:15:17 |
| sofia |
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