Georgetown Professor Jonathan Brown Responds

Jonathan Brown has struck back at his critics and issued a lengthy release addressing many of the complaints people have levied against his purported positions on slavery and rape.

Professor Jonathan Brown

He begins by admitting to his tone-deafness on the issue and how he perhaps needed to have more understanding of a broad audience when speaking in a scholarly manner.  He then puts out a claim that he has received many death and rape threats on him as well as his family, although he doesn’t substantiate the claim in any way, shape or form.

He then continues to spin interesting stories about what he means and that the context was completely misrepresented.  He continues to explain how Muslims were actually some of the greatest abolitionists in the history of mankind and that a lot of the latter slavery in the Muslim world was misunderstood, especially much of that from the Ottoman Empire.

Read it for yourself, but I personally have a hard time taking someone seriously that says rape can actually be punished under Sharia as assault with only two witnesses as opposed to the four necessary to prove the charge of Hudud (fornication/adultery).  It diminishes the rule of law in a civil society and still essentially makes women second-class citizens.

Enjoy the read and share your thoughts on the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and the Director of the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding.

Hat tip to The Fusionist

Comments

177 responses to “Georgetown Professor Jonathan Brown Responds”

  1. Negroni Please

    death threats, rape threats, AND you spell his name wrong? Rough week for this guy

    1. Scruffy Nerfherder

      I see Red Tony is on the rag again today. Jesus, he’s tiresome.

      1. Scruffy Nerfherder

        I can’t even post correctly here. That wasn’t supposed to be a response.

      2. Negroni Please

        I’m not John. I’m a totally different breed of tiresome asshole.

        1. Swiss Servator

          Scruffy was referring to The Other Site, I think.

          1. Negroni Please

            ahhhhhh. still no goddamn edit button I see.

          2. DOOMco

            Never! our errors are forever!!

          3. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            At least allow us to fix formatting errors. That and give users the preference of whether the site is responsive or not. I hate that my browser seems to thinking I’m view this site on a mobile device, nesting levels so deep I’ve got to span a whole monitor and a half.

      3. square circle

        Yeah – I was just over there, saw some John flame war, closed the browser and came back here. It’s only trolls, Fist, and Gilmore.

        1. Suthenboy

          Gilmore needs to get his ass over here. I wouldn’t mind John either. He has some good insights now and then despite the ease with which he gets under so many people’s skin.

    2. Swiss Servator

      I’ll fix the name thing – nothing I can do about the others….

      1. Swiss Servator

        Or…I won’t be able to. I am sure Sloopy will fix.

  2. RBS

    “he perhaps needed to one more understanding of a broad audience when speaking in a scholarly manner.”

    I see, we are too dumb to get what he was trying to say.

    1. John Titor

      “I need to walk this back, but in a way that makes it seem like I was just misunderstood.”

      1. Suthenboy

        ^This^

        Brown is a mental defect, a personality disorder of some sort. I forget the word for it but it was mentioned on the other site some time ago – a person who is attracted to other cultures not because they like those cultures but because they hate their own. If someone remembers please remind me.

        1. Old Man With Candy

          “Progressive.”

  3. robc

    You all have a 4 day head start on me, so I might be late, but this seems an appropriate story for an initial (mine if not the site’s):

    FUCK OFF SLAVERS.

    1. Cliche Bandit

      Rob…the rules of engagement have changed. You must use super secret html over here.

  4. Max Coins

    But his soul is marching on.

  5. DOOMco

    Unrelated, our old family thinks people left over robby?

    1. trshmnstr

      Judging by the quote I saw in the other thread, some do. I admit that Robby was in the list of reasons for me leaving. Probably 3rd or 4th on the list.

      1. DOOMco

        It just seemed like a very broad take on it. ignores a lot of real things, says we hate robbo. I don’t think he’s the issue.

      2. Suthenboy

        The increasing progginess is what had me visiting less and less. The TDS was strong, especially Chapman, Suderman, Dalmia and the occasional blurb by others. I dont mean they disliked Trump, I mean they were completely unhinged. The straw that broke my back was the bullshit justification for the way they treated Sloopy. I got the very distinct feeling of contempt for the commentariat from the staff. I figured that right-thinking people like that shouldn’t have to put up with my bullshit.

        1. Suthenboy

          Oh, and Robby was a little annoying but didn’t make the list of reasons I left.

        2. WTF

          The straw that broke my back was the bullshit justification for the way they treated Sloopy. I got the very distinct feeling of contempt for the commentariat from the staff.

          Yeah, that really sat wrong with me as well, especially their bullshit justification of “It’s too local” while they cover a traffic ticket in Canada.

    2. SugarFree

      People left for many reasons. The writers, the other commenters, and an ornery pioneer spirit have all been cited.

      1. DOOMco

        I was looking for a more diverse set of articles. There are lots of things to talk about in this world.

        1. SugarFree

          Honestly, there’s room for both and to comment on both. But so many people have given up on H&R that the anima of the place is getting weak. There’s four or five people trying to make jokes and a bunch of angry people angry about hanging around a place that makes them so angry.

          Reason should nuke comments at this point, let the remaining normally abnormal people come over here and let the rest fuck off to Stormfront. They can open comments back up in a couple of months and let the cycle renew.

          1. DOOMco

            I had this as my response to a facebook comment that basically said libertarians want no regulation at all(I shared the homeless haircut guy story):
            cut it all, and let’s see what grows back.

          2. Chipwooder

            And what remains at HnR is getting more and more yokel…..and I say that as someone who would definitely tilt more toward the yokel axis than the cosmo. Shit’s getting dull.

          3. Not from what I saw. Basically what I saw was John v. The Commentariat, for the most part. John is a prolific commenter, but he’s outnumbered 3 to 1, though I certainly could be wrong or mistaken.

          4. JW

            First came the Grylodus, now the Glibening!

            How many max exoduses (exodi?) does this make for H&R? 2? 3?

      2. robc

        I was ready to leave when Cavanaugh left.

        1. RBS

          “I was ready to leave when Cavanaugh left.”

          I’m friends with him on facebook. He posts some interesting stuff. Once he accused Nick of being a sex predator.

          1. Cliche Bandit

            I left VERY CLEARLY due to the response to Sloop.
            The other stuff is whatevs…but of all folks on that site, Sloop has demonstrated a commitment to good discourse and participation. All he was asking for was a few phone calls and a blog post.

        2. Chipwooder

          Cavanaugh and Moynihan were awesome. Losing both was a big hit, particularly given who was brought in to take up the slack.

          1. Cliche Bandit

            2 Chilli, Cavanaugh, Balko, Lucy, Doherty (boy he has to feel lonely these days)…those were some fun writers. Baily, Sullum, Welch, were some good serious writers. Nick is good too.

          2. trshmnstr

            The last 2 or 3 Gillespie articles I read were stinkers. Not enough to destroy his reputation, but enough to tarnish it a little bit. He’s much better in person than in writing, IMO.

          3. Volren

            Which is ironic since he always looks and sounds to me like he’s about to fall asleep.

            His piece on the “deep state” was good though I agree the previous ones I can remember were meh.

        3. Old Man With Candy

          Cavanaugh banned me. So I had to return as a child molester.

      3. square circle

        I didn’t so much leave there as come here, since this is where most of the interesting commenters came to. I still go there, but it’s pretty dull anymore. Red and Blue Trolls poking at each other. Few libertarians.

        1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

          I just came here fore the *narrowed gaze*

          1. Swiss Servator

            That has to be earned

          2. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            Perhaps I was unclear. The Reason comments section didn’t seem right without gazes being narrowed upon the commentariat. I think really it is a feature missing in many fora, hence I have gravitated to a place where I can find it.

          3. Swiss Servator

            Oh, aye. I pretty much only dwell in commentland here.

        2. DOOMco

          I go to both. but this weeks comments are sad.

          1. square circle

            It’s definitely headed into a steeper nosedive this week – largely because people are coming here instead, I think.

          2. Swiss Servator

            Crusty made me sad this morning. I wish I could explain there are so very many reasons (drink!) that people left – SugarFree summed it up nicely.

          3. Cliche Bandit

            – SugarFree summed it up nicely.

            These are words no man should ever utter.

          4. DOOMco

            I enjoy his story time.

          5. DOOMco

            Mocking people as they leave isn’t gonna get anyone back.

      4. Ted S.

        I still comment over there, but the screwed up posting system is really driving me away. I can’t get it to work in Chrome on my phone, and H&R in Firefox on my phone is crashing repeatedly.

        1. RBS

          Oh good. Ted can complain about his browser here too.

    3. RBS

      I left, to the extent that I have, because the content of the blog is not as interesting as it used to be. I will generally read Sullum’s morning post and anything Doherty (my all time favorite reason contributor) writes. Then there is the way KMW handled sloopy’s story. And the TDS.

      1. trshmnstr

        because the content of the blog is not as interesting as it used to be

        This is pretty much why I left. More and more of the articles were being written by authors I didn’t care to read, and more and more of the comments were focused on the perceived reduction in quality of the articles. It was the way they treated Rand v. how they treated GJ that pushed me near the edge. It was just a matter of time after that.

      2. Suthenboy

        “And the TDS”

        libertarians are outliers. Non-conformists. Not joiners. Not establishment. Trump is not a libertarian warrior by any measure but he is attempting to bring down the worst parts of the establishment and he did promise a lot of things libertarians want. He has made good on some of those things.

        If the staff over there really was interested in the opportunities this guy is offering for loosening the government ratchet on liberty they wouldn’t be foaming at the mouth over him. This told me all I needed to know about their principles. You want to criticize the guy, please, have at it. There is plenty to criticize, but he deserves a lot of credit too. Claims of impending death camps, cannibal rape gangs, puppy murder, Hitler, Taliban and other assorted way over the top bullshit is telling. The staff over there was part of the vanguard of the establishment panic. Libertarians, my ass.

    4. Playa Manhattan

      Free speech is absolute. Period.

      Robby shits on it. Repeatedly.

      And fuck Dalmia. She re-tweeted a fucking stalker who has been harassing people on Reason for years.

      Part of me wants to call American Express and get a chargeback on my donation. But I’m honest, and I won’t do that.

      1. DOOMco

        maybe next donation period they will realize what’s happened.

      2. Cliche Bandit

        Can a brutha get a link to the Shika thing?

          1. Zero Sum Game

            Living in a camp? For real? Fuck, she is off her damn rocker.

          2. Cliche Bandit

            LOL that is some Alex Jones level derp right there

          3. Heroic Mulatto

            We have come to the attention of Kalzone Kraphole.

          4. DOOMco

            Is that CJ?

          5. Zero Sum Game

            Jesus, I have already have more followers than she does, and I only started a Twitter account to parody SJWs a little over a week ago.

            It is the weirdest fucking thing in the world to get likes/RTs from actual SJWs while also getting them from their adversaries. Also get some hilariously angry Republicans who really do think I’m the real deal. I talk like they do, while tapping the side of my nose somewhat overtly for those in on the gag.

          6. Cliche Bandit

            wow

    5. R C Dean

      For me in no particular order:

      (1) The ordinariness of Reason as just one of millions of outlets for hackneyed Journolist hot takes.
      (2) The lunging after “millenials” by adopting cultural issues as the main thing, and hiring mediocrities like Robby with no libertarian instincts or knowledge to write about them.
      (3) The refusal to stop publishing Shikha Dalmia after she passed along fake news items more than once and published crap article after crap article TDSing and immigration nonsense.
      (4) An overall sense that the publication had no direction or purpose any more, but was more of an incoherent grab bag of poorly researched and thought out articles about whatever the current fad was.

      1. square circle

        I’m willing to chalk a lot of that up to the current turbulent environment in journalism generally, but continuing to publish Shikha definitely gets under my skin. If anyone simply doesn’t belong there, it’s her.

        1. trshmnstr

          I’m willing to chalk a lot of that up to the current turbulent environment in journalism generally

          Libertarians have been highly critical of the MSM for many years. However, when push came to shove, TSWSNBN chose defense of the MSM over libertarianism. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.

          1. square circle

            To me it seems like they’re experimenting with rebranding libertarianism to give it more Beltway appeal. It’s misguided, but I understand why they are doing it. They want to be “Taken Seriously” and stop being treated as fringe lunatics. They are turning from actual libertarians into Bill Maher-style “libertarians,” and I think they think they are doing so as part of an incrementalist strategy.

          2. trshmnstr

            They want to be “Taken Seriously” and stop being treated as fringe lunatics.

            The question of the day is: By whom? The cynic in me says by the other journalistic entities in DC because they’re the only hope for these folks to be promoted. tl;dr: cocktail parties.

            They’re certainly not being taken more seriously by their base readership. They’re not being taken more seriously by the Trumpkins. All that leaves are apolitical moderates and Progs (including the MSM).

          3. Chipwooder

            This is all in the name of attracting Millenials, which is why they’ve slanted so many pieces in the past year towards what 20somethings think/want/believe. They’re emphasizing the things the kids think are cool – the pot/Mexicans/ass sex cliché – and de-emphasizing free speech, property rights, free association, etc. And, of course, now everything devolves to Trump because all the cool kids hate him. Please do not take this as an endorsement of Trump. I just don’t think he’s the Antichrist.

            This leads them to publishing a whole lot of trite, fluffy nonsense rather than sober, substantive sociopolitical criticism.

          4. trshmnstr

            Please do not take this as an endorsement of Trump. I just don’t think he’s the Antichrist.

            You don’t have to equivocate here, you’re in a safe space. ;-p

            Seriously though, I think we all know each other well enough here that we’re not mistaking anybody for a gung-ho Trump supporter.

          5. square circle

            This is all in the name of attracting Millenials, which is why they’ve slanted so many pieces in the past year towards what 20somethings think/want/believe. They’re emphasizing the things the kids think are cool – the pot/Mexicans/ass sex cliché – and de-emphasizing free speech, property rights, free association, etc. And, of course, now everything devolves to Trump because all the cool kids hate him.

            ^ Exactly this. It’s pretty much the same as GJ election strategy – stick to the things that Millenials like the sound of. “Hey, we’re pro-gay, anti-war, and we’re against racism, too! We like your weird food fetishes, and we use hip slang and make jokes, not like those stick-up-the-butt Republicans, amirite?!”

            But when the conversation turns to eliminating the EPA and FDA, getting rid of minimum wage and the like, it’s all guilty smiles, sidelong glances, and hemming and hawing about “priorities.”

          6. square circle

            The question of the day is: By whom? The cynic in me says by the other journalistic entities in DC because they’re the only hope for these folks to be promoted.

            That may be the meat of it, right there.

          7. GSL in E

            Which seems … short-sighted. Why would they want to latch onto a segment of the media world (ie, traditional MSM) that’s hemorrhaging money and readership? (Probable answer: journalists are sometimes really dumb, and usually not very forward-thinking.)

          8. Volren

            This is what I think too, as there is no purpose at all to publishing Dalmia and giving Chapman blog space except to appeal to the left.

            I can’t remember the last time I’ve read either being even vaguely libertarian. Even when they are correct they don’t start from principle.

      2. R C Dean

        Oh, and their brushoff of the story about sloopy’s mother as “Not our thing, dahling”. Really pissed me off.

        1. Suthenboy

          They had important stories about some dude in Roosterpoot, BC getting a traffic ticket. Dude, have you no heart?

          1. trshmnstr

            some dude in Roosterpoot

            SIV is here??

            /don’t really get the joke, but I’ll use it anyway

          2. Suthenboy

            Roosterpoot – A town in the middle of nowhere so small and insignificant that it resembles where a chicken shit on the side of the road. It is right down the highway South from Podunk or north from Twiddlefuck.

            The site that won’t be named ran a story about a guy that got an expensive ticket somewhere in Canada for a trivial reason not long after they refused to run a story about Sloopy’s mom getting body slammed and jailed by a cop for wanting a HS basketball game stopped after a child developed a life threatening health crisis because her story was “too local”. It was spite, pure and simple.

      3. Zero Sum Game

        The number one thing for me is the kowtowing to the left in the vain hope of attracting them into the fold using sophistry and rhetoric only an SJW could love.

        1. Chipwooder

          Liberaltarianism 2.0, because that little experiment worked so well the first time.

    6. John Titor

      I’m still on there a bit, but the culture’s changed, and the goddamn trolls are starting to overwhelm everything. A fifty comment article will have twenty comments by dajjal just screaming for attention.

      I think there were already consistent problems with Dalmia previously, but the Twitter thing just totally devalues her as a writer on a libertarian publication. If Reason had any standards she would be terminated. I rip on Robby, but he’s less of a problem than Dalmia, his major issue is that he just utterly fails at providing any kind of libertarian argumentation to support his poorly-thought out conclusions.

      The major problem for me is that the magazine’s quality as a whole has been dropping over the last year, and now blatantly odd, anti-libertarian statements are just common practice. Take Fisher’s article on Israel today, where he says: “For Trump to shrug off the gulf between the status quo and what it would take for the U.S. to help faciliate a lasting peace.”

      When the hell did it become a libertarian argument to say that the U.S. should actively play peacemaker in other people’s conflicts?

      1. Broswater

        These trolls are pretty much what convinced me to click on that big X yesterday. Sounded like an echo chamber, couldn’t handle it anymore.

        Dalmia lost it, obviously. I’m pro immigration, I’ve worked in the US. A 500$ visa and a security clearance is not too much too ask. Mostly if I intend to live there for the rest of my life and raise a family. What was that news that got out earlier this week ? ”I’ve lived here for 20 years in Arizona., had 2 kids, but never bothered to apply for citizenship”… ???

        Robby isn’t that bad, but it gets annoying that he always have to put out that cosmo disclaimer. But hey, I get the guy, he’s young, his career is in journalism. He doesn’t want to blow it all away on some weirdo political opinions. He still need to get in that journolist if he doesn’t want to end up as a lonely blogger.

        The fact that Bailey still haven’t got that all that AGW is just a big government scam makes you wonder about the intellectual capacities of the guy.

        Nick and Matt aren’t too bad. And we all miss Balko

        …. can we all agree that the best thing that came out of that website was that Drew Carey Saves Cleaveland special?

        1. Chipwooder

          I think Robby’s political beliefs are at least mostly libertarian, but I think it truly troubles him that all of his media buddies think he’s a Neanderthal. He has a basic sense of right and wrong in terms of liberty, but since what’s right is often unpopular within his peer group, he feels the need to qualify everything by couching it in apologetics.

        2. R C Dean

          What was that news that got out earlier this week ? ”I’ve lived here for 20 years in Arizona., had 2 kids, but never bothered to apply for citizenship”… ???

          I think you left out “and committed multiple crimes”.

    7. R C Dean

      This really is shaping up as an excellent commentariat, IMO. Offhand, the commenter I’d still like to see join us here is GILMORE. There’s probably a few others, but he definitely comes to mind.

      1. Zero Sum Game

        WTB Agile Cyborg to sprinkle in the prose. Did we pick up Hamster of Doom?

        I’m certain there are others who I am forgetting. ❤️️to others I have missed!

        1. DOOMco

          HoD would be nice. AC could run the late night links.

          1. DOOMco

            oh. Hello! I was not aware. I did always feel bad about our names being close. you had seniority.

          2. Nah, that never bothered me. My handle was just meant as a Napoleon Complex joke.

          3. DOOMco

            Glad to hear it.

          4. Suthenboy

            Hamster of Doom? That was one of my favorite handles.

          5. Cliche Bandit

            Kristen needs to stop by and Maybe we can convince Nicole to join and berate our poor grammar.

            Also, I always likes Somalian Road Corp, just for the name alone.

      2. Volren

        I would like to see him and Ken Shultz. I don’t agree with either on everything but they are thoughtful.

        1. Suthenboy

          I keep popping in over there and asking for emails from various commenters and inviting them over via email. It seems too crass even for me to openly poach commenters in the comments. I just asked Gilmore and straffinrun for an email.

          Yes, Ken and P Brooks are on the list of targets.

          1. I emailed Fluffy as well.

          2. Cliche Bandit

            WOW what the hell happened to fluffy? And Epi?

          3. Epi reputedly got a data management job for a political outfit and is precluded from commenting on political sites, as it was explained to me (though I haven’t confirmed it with him).

            Fluffy appeared to drift away, perhaps from content, or perhaps IRL got in the way (which does happen). Last time I saw Fluffy comment on TheSiteThatShaltNotBeNamed(tm) he was ripping Robby Horses a new asshole for his trademark equivocation and general dishonesty, with Fluffy firing a full round of his trademarked comment takedown jujitsu.

            When you lose Fluffy…..

      3. Offhand, the commenter I’d still like to see join us here is GILMORE. There’s probably a few others, but he definitely comes to mind.

        Agreed. You can lure GILMORE(tm).

        My first pick is P Brooks. I would really like to see him here, posting his sardonic wit, wisdom, his Krugabes, and his overall orneriness. I don;’t have a way to reach him though; I may have to wander over to That Other Forum and appeal to his sense of curmudgeonly awesomeness.

        If not him….. there is another who should be here…..

        Th

        1. Cliche Bandit

          He won’t thread you know…he is strong in the ways of the left justification.

          1. I don’t give a fuck. He is on the Groovy Top Ten List of Commentariat Excellence. Furthremore, thanks to industrious commenters like trshmnstr, new comments are highlighted and flagged in the “Recent Comments” field. Finding his comment won’t be difficult.

            I’ll eschew threading to stand in solidarity with him if it gets his ass here; hell, I’ll stand on my head and yodel whilst fondling Playa’s dick if it’ll do the trick.

            I have an extremely high opinion of Brooksie (if I were an othopaedic or neurosurgeon in MT, I would have treated him at no cost to him, for realsies), and would really like to see him here.

          2. Cliche Bandit

            No disagreement here…I was the second to last hold out on the threading…He and I would have sit-ins, eat amores, leave piles of trash on public lands…ahh the good old days.

          3. trshmnstr

            thanks to industrious commenters like trshmnstr

            All credit goes to SP. I just suggested something I could do, and SP had it integrated before I even started.

            The only thing I’ve done is a script to get rid of the sidebar in the articles, and I’m working on a script to get the timestamps adjusted to local time zones.

      4. Chipwooder

        Bring back Irish from wherever the hell he went

        1. Cliche Bandit

          How about the real old crew…Anyone hear from Art POG?

      5. Bring me MJGreen. He’s one of the good ones, for sure.

    8. GSL in E

      He’s part of it, but for me it was the nonstop TDS. The election season really wore on my patience, but after it ended, I really expected them to shift gears into critical but even-handed pieces re Trump. And I feel like the shrill, paranoid nonsense one reads about DT all over the Internet actually makes it harder to understand and appraise what he’s doing.

    9. DesigNate

      I haven’t fully left yet, if for no other reason than the naive optimism that things will get better. And to use Tony as a punching bag, because I don’t feel like getting into arguments with my friends and family on Facederp.

      Not that I add much to the conversation most of the time.

      1. DOOMco

        I still hope.

  6. R C Dean

    This is pretty much how he justifies Islam as being more enlightened on slavery:

    By 1900, many leading Muslim scholars had agreed that slavery should be prohibited. As Muslim states signed treaties banning slavery in the early twentieth century,

    Seriously. After a couple Muslim rulers outlawed it for their satrapies earlier (with no indication of whether that ban on slavery was enforced or even honored by their successors), we have Muslim countries that continued to allow it into the twentieth century. And he wants us to believe that Islam is better on slavery than the West.

    He recites the supposedly enlightened regulations of slavery in various Muslim religious texts, again with no indication whatsoever of whether those regulations were enforced or not, and zero recognition of the fact that the continuing allowance of enslaving war captives meant every non-Muslim (from the House of War, remember) was a legitimate target for slavery.

    What a tool.

    1. John Titor

      Outsider accounts in the Middle East and Muslim Africa (not to mention similar accounts in Spanish colonies, the United States, etc.) tend to mysteriously depict slavery practices as more barbaric than the locals and their accounts say it is. I wonder why.

    2. square circle

      And it’s a little disingenuous to claim that slavery-as-practiced-in-Islamic-countries was never race-based. Just because all the slaves weren’t the *same* race, the fact that they were all from *another* race than the slaveholders shouldn’t escape notice.

      And I can’t help but think it’s a little racist to say that slavery isn’t race based when Nigerians capture Congolese and sell them to Spaniards. Did Nigerians sell Nigerians? No. Are Congolese the same race as Nigerians because their skin-color is also non-white? No.

      1. R C Dean

        My rough understanding is that slavery as practiced in Islam was mostly religion-based. Why that is supposed to be obviously better than race-based slavery is a mystery to me.

        1. square circle

          Depends on whom you’re looking at and when, Islam being very broad and having been around a long time. Slavery as practiced in sub-Saharan African areas was a very different beast from slavery as practiced in the Mughal Empire, for example. Mughal slavery was more Romanesque – i.e. it was little more than an employment category, and “slaves” could actually be quite a bit more wealthy and powerful than “free people.”

          Sub-Saharan slavery was a much more simplistic affair, without so much rationalization and stratification. It was just “we conquered you’re ass, so we own you now,” and they didn’t see seem to see it as a religious question at all. Or even a question – just part of how you deal with your enemies.

          1. R C Dean

            It was just “we conquered you’re ass, so we own you now,”

            My rough impression is that this was the starting point for an assload of Muslim slavery during their expansion period – the trick with aggressive Islamism is that they really do see themselves as permanently at war with non-Muslims. You can’t disentangle religion from politics from war from anything in fundamentalish/expansionist Islam.

          2. You may find this of interest, Counselor.

            While most slaves who went to the Americas could marry and have families, most of the male slaves destined for the Middle East were castrated, and most of the children born to the women were killed at birth. It is estimated that possibly as many as 11 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic (95% of which went to South and Central America, mainly to Portuguese, Spanish and French possessions. Only 5% of the slaves went to the United States).

            While Christian Reformers spearheaded the antislavery abolitionist movements in Europe and North America, and Great Britain mobilized her Navy, throughout most of the 19th Century, to intercept slave ships and set the captives free, there was no comparable opposition to slavery within the Muslim world.

            Even after Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and Europe abolished the slave trade in 1815, Muslim slave traders enslaved a further 2 million Africans. This despite vigorous British Naval activity and military intervention to limit the Muslim slave trade.

            By some calculations the number of victims of the 14 centuries of Muslim slave trade could exceed 180 million. Nearly 100 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in America, and 130 years after all slaves within the British Empire were set free by parliamentary decree, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, in 1962, and Mauritania in 1980, begrudgingly removed legalized slavery from their statute books.

            And this only after international pressure was brought to bear. Today numerous international organizations document that slavery still continues in some Muslim countries.

        2. square circle

          But as I reflect on it more, it occurs to me that there’s an interesting political tension going on here in which this obviously left-wing professor has no trouble seeing the difference between race-based persecution and belief-based persecution in *this* context – how do you suppose he feels about a “Muslim travel ban?”

          1. Private Chipperbot

            I’ll take what party is in the White House for $200.

    3. Suthenboy

      I think it is a mistake to characterize slavery as an artifact of Islam. They still practice slavery in the ME, NA, and parts of Asia because it is an artifact of the cultures there and has been since the dawn of time. Dressing it up in Islam, Christianity, Paganism etc is just that…dressing. It takes a cultural change to get rid of it. Slavery is still practiced openly in Mauritania, a country that outlawed slavery in the early 1970’s. Russia still has slaves they captured in WWII (In lots of asian cultures POW’s are made into slaves and kept for life). It has been part of those cultures long before Islam or Christianity.

      *I knew a Kraut who was captured by the Russians and sold as a slave to a farm in Poland. He had some interesting stories, thats for sure. Sadly he recently died.

  7. Tacit Rainbow

    Wow, he sure patted himself on the back for being so totally misunderstood because he’s such a scholar. Does he realize that the lecture was recorded, and that people can listen to what he actually said? In context?

    1. DOOMco

      never.

    2. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

      Are you an electronic steal program or an AI electronic surveillance system?

  8. Lafe Long

    It’s easy for me to say this looking back on slavery in American history, because our American slavery was a manifestation of the absolute domination of one human being by another that is, in my opinion, a universal wrong across time and space.

    Why the need to single out “our American slavery”?

    1. trshmnstr

      American slavery is bad because it enslaved black people. Other slavery isn’t bad because he doesn’t know whether or not black people were involved.

    2. RBS

      White Guilt.

      1. Negroni Please

        White Guilt would be a great name for a new cocktail. Like a White Russian but you replace the vodka with Goldschlager

        1. Negroni Please

          or maybe that would be a White Gilt…

          1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            That’d work as a holiday drink I think. Get some crossover with the peppermint latte crowd.

        2. DOOMco

          black american is a white russian with ovaltine.

          1. Negroni Please

            why would anyone do that? I think a black american should be like cognac and grape soda or some other offensive stereotype

          2. Heroic Mulatto

            So, basically, just a can of Colt 45?

          3. DOOMco

            Hello, yes I’d like one ticket to hangover city please.

          4. DOOMco

            haha that might be work. I’m not too sure, my friend handed me the drink a few years ago and I can’t get the name out of my head.

        3. Ted S.

          Goldschlager, it’s the drink
          The drink with the Midas touch

          1. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            For the life of me I can’t figure out why Fireball replaced Goldschlager as the ‘party’ drink.

            I mean, I’ve got some good theories but I like none of them.

          2. Negroni Please

            I’m guessing because neckbearded hipster douchebags started buying up all the good bourbon. Fireball lets the LBTQWTFBBQ hipsters “get in” on the Whiskey craze. At least that’s my knee jerk zero analysis bullshit logic answer

          3. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            That is more or less the solution I’ve initially settled upon, and sadly you’ve offered me external validation. It also a model which fits my gut dislike of the Fireball gestalt and the way Fireball is marketed as it is.

          4. DOOMco

            It’s cheap and now comes in a box. Who wouldn’t want a bag of cinnawhiskey?

          5. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            People who like whiskey? This is one of the dilemmas I’ve been trying to work though. Is a flavored vodka still vodka, and is a flavored whiskey still whiskey? Maybe my problem is that Fireball is marketed as whiskey and not a flavored whiskey. The flavor of whiskey is whiskey, and comprises essentially whatever has leached out of the barrel – not cinnamon.

          6. DOOMco

            I don’t think of it as a real whiskey, but am ok with it falling under the category. Flavored____ might be the better category. I don’t buy the stuff, but if I’m offered…

          7. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            No argument there, free booze is free booze.

            Just saying, since I’ve finally got enough money to be selective, my hand doesn’t instinctively reach for the 30 rack of natty ice. I’m not sure that I place fireball precisely in natural ice territory, but it is a related product in my mind. That and all the flavoring adulterants in combination with my metabolism make for an awful hangover.

          8. DOOMco

            No argument there. I’m young and kinda poor, so I usually go for middle shelf liquor. I like good beer more, but every now and then the cheap stuff comes home with me.

          9. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            What’s your take on Canadian Club? I’ve actually made it my well whiskey, far as I’m concerned its all the taste of crown for < 80% of the cost. Blends an acceptable Manhattan.

          10. DOOMco

            For a well, that or hunter. I have a bottle of bushmills black that i keep in stock. If I’m mixing, it doesn’t really matter. I can’t take shots of either hunter or club anymore.

          11. Pendleton is my well-whiskey. Decent Canadian-blended option, IMO. Doesn’t taste like charcoal like that garbage Crown Royal.

          12. {|}===[|}:;:;:;:;:;:;:>

            I’ll have to pick up some Hunter and Pendelton to sample. FWIW I don’t generally do crown neat, I blend it. I highly recommend it shaken, in equal parts with butterscotch schnapps (Bols or DeKuyper as you may find). Assuming, of course, that you like butterscotch. I call it the Werther’s Original.

          13. Swiss Servator

            Price….?

          14. Negroni Please

            Google tells me $40 for a 3.5L box. Jesus that is a lot of bad decision juice.

          15. DOOMco

            at my LC it stays on sale, and you can get the box in the walk in. They also sell buckets with 100 or so beers on em for cheap. you get some of those, throw em in your truck and it’s party time.

  9. Heroic Mulatto

    the Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and the Director of the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding.

    Dr. Jonathan Brown: How many layers of irony are you on right now?
    Me: Like, maybe 5 or 6, right now, my dude!
    Dr. Jonathan Brown: You are like a little baby. Watch this:

    The majority of Alwaleed bin Talal’s philanthropy has been focused on improving the status of women throughout the Islamic world, and in particular, Saudi Arabia. In part, his motivation to do so may come from the fact that he is a grandson of the first Saudi monarch, Ibn Saud, who, at 45, received his grandmother, an Armenian Christian who fled the Ottoman genocide to end up as a sex slave in Arabia who was gifted to Ibn Saud at the tender age of 12.

    1. Swiss Servator

      *faints from irony overexposure*

  10. Negroni Please

    DOOMco you’re a Colorado guy right? I thought Colorado was supposed to be turning into California…not Florida.

    1. DOOMco

      I am. It’s moving to be the new Cali, but I live near CU boulder. My perception is not accurate of the state.

      1. Max Coins

        DOOM, I was visiting family near Ft. Collins recently, and happened upon the New Belgium tour – have you taken this? Free tour, seemingly as much beer as you want on tap during the tour (even their fancy stuff, like the 18 dollar sours), just have to book in advance. Insane value.

        1. DOOMco

          I haven’t! will check it out. Theres a tour that travels the greater boulder area, driving you to all the breweries. Very fun.
          I haven’t tried any of the guys up near Ft Collins yet.

          1. GSL in E

            Highly recommend the O’Dells tour there, and the Grimm Bros taproom in Loveland, as well.

      2. Zero Sum Game

        Thoughts and prayers (to the FSM, marinara be upon his noodliness) to you.

        Boulder = San Francisco 2.0. All the same fart-sniffing, Starbucks-drinking, bicycling, Prius-driving, SJW hipster fucks out to ruin so it’s just like the one they left.

        1. DOOMco

          I’ll live.

          1. Zero Sum Game

            If they let you. How do you know they aren’t planning a purge?

            Keep it low-key, brotha. You’ve got some stones to live in Boulder. 😀

          2. DOOMco

            and my car has a porcupine sticker on it. THE BALLS.

          3. Zero Sum Game

            Buy some Trump bumper stickers and start a little mischief by sticking them over Hillary/Bernie stickers. Ain’t your fault if they’re so vicious that they vandalize each other’s cars because they have no morals or impulse control.

    2. Cliche Bandit

      There is the Front Range and then there is Colorado.

      Boulder, Ft. Collins, and Denver are the leftist of the left usually (Outlier being Telluride, it is basically lost to hollywood). The rest of the state well, here goes:
      In the Denver Metro you have Littleton/Highlands Ranch/Parker/Castle Rock…All middle-upper middle class white folk rather conservative and a little libertarian.
      Aurora, Broomfield, Northglen, Comerce City, all lower to middle class white folk (exception all of colfax ave.) Mostly democrats and liberals.
      Englewood – and the rest of Jefferson County…corrupt democrats aspiring to be as corrupt as Denver.
      The eastern Plains…Farmers…to busy not to vote for the guy with the R by his name.
      The mountains…Uhh, we don’t bother those folk, they are VERY WELL ARMED (likely libertarians but no one has the balls to open the gate and ask)
      The Western Slope, suffers from inferiority complex, mostly in Grand Junction. Lots of itty bitty liberals but still mostly conservatives. Many libertarians interspersed.
      Pueblo, a lot of hispanic and almost ALL democrat population.
      Colorado Spring, home to Focus on the family, the Air Force Academy, three military bases, a shit ton of car dealers, and one very cool regional airport. All really conservative.
      This is my crappy over broad opinion…the only civilized place is Littleton.

      1. DOOMco

        I have a soft spot for the mountains. It feels right.

  11. He continues to explain how Muslims were actually some of the greatest abolitionists in the history of mankind and that a lot of the latter slavery in the Muslim world was misunderstood, especially much of that from the Ottoman Empire.

    Eastern Europe, especially Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Romania, vehemently disagree.

    1. Swiss Servator

      +1 جزيه

      +1 يڭيچرى‎

    2. Heroic Mulatto

      +1 Zanzibar.

  12. The Fusionist

    I probably shouldn’t mention this, but the Georgetown University Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation “invite[s] your comments, questions and engagement.”

    “The Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation was appointed and charged by Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia in September to study and make recommendations to help guide the University’s ongoing work related to slavery and its legacies.”

    1. Suthenboy

      So, they have an apologist for slavery openly walking around on campus and giving lectures on the rightness of rape and slavery but if Milo or Gavin show up, if conservative students hold a free speech rally the antifa or BLM or Blackbloc or whatever people riot and burn the place down.

      I wonder what this means?