🏴 Return of the Caliphate: How ISIS and Boko Haram Revived Slavery in the Name of Islam

🟥 Part I: Yes, It Happened — And It Was Deliberate

🔹 ISIS: Institutionalized Sex Slavery

After capturing large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) openly enslaved Yazidi women and girls, publicly sold them in slave markets, and issued formal fatwas (legal opinions) authorizing rape.

• October 2014: Dabiq, the official ISIS magazine, declared:

  “Enslaving the families of the kuffar and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the sharia that if anyone were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur’an and the narrations of the Prophet.”

• The group released a 27-page pamphlet titled Questions and Answers on Taking Captives and Slaves (December 2014), citing:

  • Qur’an 4:24 – “...those whom your right hands possess...”

  • Qur’an 33:50 – “O Prophet, We have made lawful to you... those your right hand possesses.”

  • Sahih Muslim, Sunan Abu Dawood, and Ibn Taymiyyah’s rulings.

• The pamphlet included rulings such as:

  • It is permissible to have sex with a prepubescent slave girl.

  • A captive woman becomes a man's property after distribution.

  • It is not permissible to sell Muslim captives to infidels — but non-Muslim captives may be exchanged or sold.

These were not fringe opinions. They systematically revived medieval Islamic jurisprudence based on classical Sunni texts — especially the Hanbali and Shafi’i schools.

🔹 Boko Haram: Parallel Practices in Nigeria

Boko Haram similarly captured Christian girls, especially during the infamous Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping (2014), where over 270 girls were abducted.

• Many were forcibly converted to Islam and “married” (raped) by fighters.

• Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau publicly stated:

  “Slavery is allowed in my religion, and I shall capture people and make them slaves.”

This was not a misinterpretation. He was referencing Islamic law, not modern ethics.

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📜 Part II: These Weren’t Aberrations — They Were Doctrinal Revivals

🔸 Classical Jurisprudence: Slavery Was Always Lawful

Four Sunni schools of Islamic law (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali) all legalized concubinage under the following conditions:

• Women had to be non-Muslim captives taken in jihad.

• The master could have sex with them without marriage.

• Children born of concubines became free but remained tied to the father.

• Manumission was commendable but never required.

These rulings were based on:

• Qur’an 4:24 – "...except those whom your right hands possess..."

• Sahih Muslim 1438a – Companions had sex with captive women in front of the Prophet.

• Al-Muwatta, Al-Kasani, Ibn Qudamah, and others who codified these rulings.

ISIS and Boko Haram simply followed the letter of the law — and cited centuries of precedent to justify it.

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🤐 Part III: Modern Muslim Scholars — Silent or Stuck?

Most modern Muslim scholars reject slavery in practice — but not on theological grounds.

Why? Because if they:

• Deny Qur’an 4:24 and 33:50,

• Condemn the Prophet’s reported actions (e.g., Safiyyah bint Huyayy, Mariyah the Copt),

• Or label the Companions’ practices as immoral,

They risk being branded apostates or innovators (mubtadi‘).

Hence, many resort to evasive tactics:

• “That was in a different context.”

• “Islam gradually abolished slavery.”

• “The Prophet treated captives humanely.”

These excuses avoid the fact that slavery is never abolished in the Qur’an or hadith. Instead:

• It is regulated.

• It is normalized.

• It is framed as a divinely ordained system of war spoils.

ISIS and Boko Haram exploited this doctrinal loophole.

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🔍 ISIS Legal Texts and Sources

Here’s a partial list of texts and scholars ISIS cited:

Source	Purpose
Qur’an 4:24	Justification for sex with slave women
Qur’an 33:50	Legalization of concubines for the Prophet
Sahih Muslim 1438a	Companions had sex with captives
Ibn Taymiyyah	Authority on revival of slavery
Ibn Qudamah (Hanbali)	Slave law manuals
Dabiq magazine, Issue 4	Public defense of slavery

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🔚 Conclusion: Islam’s Open Wound

ISIS and Boko Haram didn’t “twist” Islam. They exposed the fragile moral gap between sharia and modern values. The return of slavery wasn’t a distortion — it was a literal implementation of centuries-old Islamic jurisprudence.

Modern Islamic scholars are stuck:

• If they condemn slavery outright, they contradict scripture and tradition.

• If they defend it, they lose all moral credibility in the modern world.

So they do neither — and say nothing.

But ISIS spoke loudly. And they spoke from the books.