Woman Kuwaiti Politician: Legalize Sex Slaves

This almost needs no comment. It's Salwa Al-Mutairi, a former candidate for the Kuwaiti Parliament.

I asked (a Saudi mufti): What is the law with regard to slave girls?

The mufti told me that this law requires there to a Muslim country raiding a Christian country - sorry, a non-Muslim country - and taking PoWs. I asked him whether it was forbidden (to turn them into slaves), and he said that Islam does not prohibit having slave girls. On the contrary.

The law pertaining to slave girls is not the same as for free women. Free women must cover their bodies, except for their hands and faces. The slave girl must cover up from the bellybutton down. There is a big difference between slave girls and free women. With a free woman, the man must make a marriage contract, but with a slave girl - all he has to do is buy her. It's as if he married her. So there's a difference between slave girls and free women.

Here in Kuwait too, I asked religious scholars and experts about this, and they said that for the average, good religious man, the only way to avoid forbidden relations with women is to purchase slave girls.

I very much hope that such a law is legislated. Just like they allow servants, they should allow slave girls, and legislate a proper law in this regard. We don't want our children to fall into the abyss of fornication and similar filth, God forbid. Allah willing, things will work out.

There are countries like Chechnya, which are at war with another country. In such a case, there must be PoWs, so why not go and buy those prisoners? Is it better for them to be slaughtered over there? Go and buy them, and sell them to traders here in Kuwait.

One has to wonder: what goes on in this woman's house and in her mosque? What have the men in her life done to her? Does she really think that men are such animals that they need a stable of slave girls to keep them pacified? Does she think her own sons will grow up into animals who can't control themselves?

And how would she feel if her daughters were captured in a war and sold to Christian and Jewish men as sex slaves? I don't often compliment Christianity and Judaism, but I've never heard a modern Jew or Christian advocating turning Muslim girls into sex slaves, nor have I heard a Christian or Jewish woman suggesting that her husband should be pacified by buying him a sex slave.

I know this woman doesn't represent Islam as a whole. I suspect there are millions of Muslims who are going to be horrified and deeply offended when they see this video, just like all decent people of every other faith and no faith. But while mainstream Islam condemns this immoral view, it illustrates how religion can be used to justify just about anything.

On the other hand, this woman claims to have talked to muftis in two different countries who supported her view that sex slaves are permitted and encouraged by Islamic law. And if you do a little research, you'll discover that men are permitted to have sex with slaves! (Holy Qur'an, 23:1-6.)

So maybe she's right, and the moderate Muslims are the sinners. I'm certainly not qualified to sort out this mess.