On Slavery, again...!

In following up to a previous post here, The Role of Islam in African Slavery, and an ongoing discussion on Sudaneseonline Board, I wanted us to re-visit the issue of Slavery and its impacxt on our family in Sudan.

I believe we need first to admit that we, as a community especially in Northern Sudan were gotten involved in Slavery in one way or the other. all thise called themselves 'Ashraf' are actually got mixed up via marriage or outside marriage with their own enslaved population.

I believe we need an apology from all those committed the crime of slavery and other crimes of invasion to Sudan in the name of Islam.An apology from the successors of the Islamic State of Medina, i.e. the Saudi people for the crimes of Abdulahi Ibn Abi Sarh against our Nubian people in 742. The Baqt Agreement that our ancestors had had to sign on included one article that forced the Nubians to send 360 individuals every year from their own people to be enslaved by the Islamic State .

Our current identity crisis and ethnic conflicts in Sudan go back to that time, when each family naturally had tried to avoid enslavement. For fear of the invaders, the leaders of Nubia had had to go and look for slaves outside their direct relatives. The hunt went down further and further, south and west, steb by step..

Apology, and redress is highly required from representatives of those who committed the crime:
1. The Islamic State, whether it was in Median, Mecca, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo or Istanbul.
2. Countries that was involved in the slavery trade in the past 3 centuries: US, UK, Portugal, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Turkey, Iraq, Arabian Pennisula, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, etc
3. Sudanese Kingdoms which had actively engaged in the business of slavery.
4. The Mahdia State under Khalifa Abdulahi rule (1885-1898) for their active role in enslaving people of other tribes (including my Great aunt)
5. All other groups and tribes who were actively engaged in the slavery trade under different names...

Some may say "I wasn't there to be blamed for this crime" and the answer is simple: You are responsible if you continued to hold the values of these institutions. If current Sudanese Muslims do not condemn the invader Abdulahi Ibn Abi Sarh the same way they condemn Ottoman and British invaders; they should be responsible.

If contemporay Muslims do not feel ashamed and look critically to the history of Islamic State in regard to Slavery; they should expect to be hold responsible.

Here are few important related links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade on Arab Slave Trade.

http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw25slavery.htm
The Arab slave trade to the east was said to involve about 14 million blacks from the time of Muslim conquest.

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news_s.php?articleid=1143950727 The Arab trade lasted 1,300 years, and the European one only 320. If only 6,000 African slaves from the whole continent a year were taken by Arabs (a very conservative estimate), that would add up to 7.8 million. Yet in 1838 it was estimated that the Cairo slave market alone traded in 12,000 Africans annually.
The Sultan of Morocco had an entire army of 250,000 African slaves.
Most scholars place the minimum number of African-Arab slave trade at between 30 and 50m and the Atlantic slave trade at a lesser ten million Africans.

http://www.malaysia.net/lists/sangkancil/2000-03/msg00055.html (President Wahid: Slavery Widespread in Saudi Arabia, Indonesian News, Indonesian Observer, March 2, 2000)

http://hrw.org/mideast/saudi/labor/
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35518 )Saudi sheik: 'Slavery is a part of Islam' )
African Holocaust (Maafa)

http://www.africanholocaust.net/news_ah/arabslavetrade.htm (very important site)