Saudi slavery: Guest Worker May Lose Digits, Toes After Being Tied Up in Bathroom for a Month

This kind of thing is hardly unknown. Every six months or so, in the middle of London, in Cadogan Gardens or somewhere equally posh, a servant of resident or visiting Arabs (Saudis, Kuwaits, and so on) manages to escape, to run away from her masters (it happens, too, in the United States -- like that maid thrown down the stairs in Florida by her mistress, a "Saudi princess"). The newspapers carry the stories: the girl who was forced to clean the toilet bowl with her tongue, the beatings and whippings, and so on. And then the case is forgotten. And it is on to the next item: the Love-Nest of a Labour Minister, the Test Match, the Love-Nest of a Shadow (Conservative) Minister, Trooping the Color, or the Light-Horse of L.S.E.

But we should not forget that what goes on behind closed doors even in the middle of London or New York is as nothing compared to what goes on behind those palace walls in Jiddah and Riyadh and Kuwait City and Abu Dhabi.

I met a Filipino woman, married to an American, with a son serving in Iraq, recently. In her work she meets many Filipino nurses. Some of them have served, or had relatives or friends who had served, in Saudi Arabia. The stories she was told were hair-raising. Yet not one of those stories has appeared in the American press.

Surely, the biggest untold story of deliberately-inflicted misery is that of these millions of non-Western workers are treated in a place like Saudi Arabia. Use your imagination -- you know exactly how they are treated, if even Americans and English and Canadians can be arrested, and tortured, on trumped-up charges, what do you think happens to Thai and Filipino and Indian women working for Saudi families?

And the biggest untold story in world history is not unrelated: how, exactly, did Islam spread so rapidly, and what were the consequences for the vast, formerly Christian lands of the MIddle East and North Africa, of Jewish Judea, of Zoroastrian (Sassanian) Persia, of Greco-Buddhist Central Asia, of Hindu and Buddhist Hindustan? Bat Ye'or has brought together the scholarship of others, and done her own pioneering research. But surely this is the most important subject, still largely untilled, that remains. What happened to Edessa, from which St. Efrem came? What happened in North Africa, from which Tertullian and St. Augustine came? What happened to the civilization, to the people, to the fertile lands that the Arabs, with their inhospitability to agriculture (see Xavier de Planhol), helped to bring to wrack and agricultural ruin, not least in the Biblical land of milk-and-honey?

Surely this is the story that, just as soon as they lock in tenure, professors of Byzantine studies, of Middle East studies (those who are even now engaged in silent intellectual revolt, though they have said nothing, to the "Palestinian" panjandrums and fellow-travellers, and Esposito-like apologists for Islam, who have brought MESA low, and made it the laughing-stock, the MESA Nostra, that it now is). The revolt is coming, college by college. The unsullied and genuine scholars have until now sought refuge in such subjects as medieval Islamic law, or byways of Muslim history, in the same spirit as those writers who in Soviet Russia, in order to deal with the censorship, turned to translation from the Georgian and the Azerbaijan.

But those students of Islam, and Islamic history, or those who have now managed to find tenure, will ultimately behave as did those who left the MLA to form the Association of Literary Critics and Scholars. The time is soon approaching when the Esposito-Beilin-Khalidi-Cole reign will end, even if MESA Nostra continues. Intelligent people can stand only so much.

Hugh:

Nice post. Regarding your question: "What happened to Edessa, from which St. Efrem came? What happened in North Africa, from which Tertullian and St. Augustine came?"

The Catholic church seems to be waking up to and addressing this fact. The article (linked below) titled "Christians in Islamic Countries"
deals with such issues. The article was printed in "La Civiltà Cattolica,". The introduction states that this publication is "edited by a group of Jesuits in Rome, is a very special magazine. Every one of its articles is reviewed by the Vatican secretary of state before publication. So the magazine reflects his thought faithfully."

"In its October 18 edition, "La Civiltà Cattolica" published a strikingly severe article on the condition of Christians in Muslim countries. The central thesis of the article is that "in all of its history, Islam has shown a warlike and conquering face"; that "for almost a thousand years, Europe lived under its constant threat"; and that what remains of the Christian population in Islamic countries is still subjected to "perpetual discrimination," with episodes of bloody persecution."

See: http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=6985&eng=y

There are several additional articles of interest with respect to Islam icluding "Twenty-first Century African Slaves - In the Land of Islam"

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"ROMA -ÊSudan´s first saint, Iosephina Bakhita, was canonized by John Paul II in the year 2000. From an early age she was made a slave, sold and resold at the El Obeid and Khartoum markets. She was fortunate to have ended up in Italy. It was in 1890 that she was finally freed and baptized.

Yet today, more than a century later, there are still slaves found between the Sahara and the Nile. What´s more, it is slavery having its basis in Islam, inheritor of the trade which for centuries has forcibly sent 11-14 million Africans from the sub-Sahara region to Arab and Muslim countries."

Link: http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=7007&eng=y

See also: Enemy Islam. An Interview with the Bishop of Rumbek, Sudan

"Muslim persecution described by an eyewitness. Two million dead in twenty years. "And this is just the beginning. The challenge of Islamism is much worse than communism. Something the next pope will have to fully face"

Link: http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=7044&eng=y

See also: Islamist Terrorism: What the Vatican Really Thinks

"What the pope and the authorities of the Holy See do not say, " La Civiltà Cattolica" writes – with authorization. A startling editorial on three years of war against the West and the "crusaders," in the name of Islam".

An excerpt:

"The most serious change that has taken place in terrorism is the loss of even the most minimal sense of humanity. "

"Terrorism has seen fit to demonstrate in this way that it will not stop even at the most horrendously ferocious acts in order to reach its objectives. This is all the more true as the question is one of striking the enemies of Allah and of the "believers," who are not only "infidels" and "corrupt," but blaspheme against the Prophet, deny that he was sent by Allah, deny the unicity of Allah, associating other deities with him, reject the Revelation contained in the "glorious Koran," and who above all seek to infiltrate the faith of the believers with their rationalism and secularism, and to corrupt its traditions with their atheistic and materialistic civilization. "

Link: http://www.chiesa.espressonline.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=8551&eng=y

Your comments and articles are much appreciated.

I forgot to note in my post above that this woman (from Indonesia) is most likely Muslim. I guess some Muslims are more equal than others in the Umma.

Sandro Magister is always clear-headed; I was glad to have the link to his articles provided by johnb in his posting above. Others might also find what he writes worth reading -- just a click away.

johnb:

You certainly got it right about the equality of Muslims.

Irshad Manji, in her book, The Trouble with Islam, rights about having her opinions dismissed at some speaking engagement by some Arab Muslims who were present for the purpose of intimidating her, on the grounds that she was female and of Pakistani descent.

And then, of course, there's Darfur, where the roving Arab Janjaweed herdsmen are engaged in ethnically cleansing the Black Muslim farmers.

About 15 years ago, my family assisted a Muslim Filipia woman escape from an abusive Saudi husband and wife who were university students and had brought her with them when they came to the US to study. They made her sleep on the floor, kept her indoors with threats that American police would arrest her and beat her and made her work 15/16 hours today. The local authorities were very helpful. The Saudi embassy was outraged and the Filipino officials were fearful. The Philipino/American newspapers were very supportive as they knew the story many times over from relatives back home. The rich Gulf Coast Arabs do actually pay their modern day slaves a small wage, part of which goes back to the worker's country of origin, something like the Mexicans in the US sending back money which helps the Mexican economy. So, the governments sending over their poor to work in the Arab countries don't get very outraged, even when their countrymen occasionally come back home in boxes with their heads detached from their bodies...Saudi-style justice. Yes, this abuse goes on all over America where rich Arabs are allowed to bring in their Asian maids, no questions asked by our INS. These women are abused, their right to freedom of speech, movement and religion are denied, here in the US. The State Dept. does know about this, but I guess it is more important to make nice with the oil-rich guests than to make them answer for making slaves of women on our soil. The Townhall columnist, Joel Mowbray, wrote on this subject several years ago and did an excellent job researching several specific cases but to no avail. I guess this form of slavery will continue in America until we don't need Middle Eastern oil anymore.

Yes, this abuse goes on all over America where rich Arabs are allowed to bring in their Asian maids, no questions asked by our INS.

Google Images Bandar Bush, or google Caryle Group Bush Saudis, or read Paul Unger's House of Bush House of Saud, or (gasp} view Farenheit 9-11 (which covers much the same territory) the midnite flight of the bin Laden Saudis in protective cover from the US in the three days after 9-11 (when all flights save military and JPATS flights were grounded).

With friends like Bush and Karl Rove (Almoudi's assistant, has special access to Rove), the Saudis (and Muslims) can get away with murder (Coptic maybe, even?). They can certainly import with impunity subversive literature into the US.

Imagine then if Germany was sitting on the worlds largest oil reserve, and Adolph had a family business relationship with Prescott Bush.

Giaour, you forgot to add that only patriotic Conservative Christians are consuming oil. Gee, if only we could be more like those discerning progressives who have it all figured out.