So, I've been getting into it with a Muslim apologist on a YouTube comment thread.  I thought it would be interesting, so here's the blow-by-blow.  If you think you can add something to the conversation, please feel free to comment here!

Crossfire2009: 

Islam has various hadiths commanding the freeing of slaves I will post them if you like. Can you give me one verse of Bible that commands slaves to be freed or better yet can you give me one qoute by a founding father of America that recommends freeing slaves?

Me:

Another tu quoque argument. It is disingenuous and easily discredited. But since you're keen on bringing up past sins, let's roll with it. What about the Barbary Corsairs, who kidnapped and sold into slavery millions of white Europeans? The suffered horribly under the Islamic rulers who purchased them.

Sura (33:50) - "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee"

Sura (23:5-6) - "..who abstain from sex, except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess..." This verse allows the slave-owner to have sex with his slaves. See also Sura (70:29-30).

Sura (4:24) - "And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess." Even sex with married slaves is permissible.

A tiny verse in one of the earliest Suras (90:13) does say that freeing a slave is good, however, this was at a time when the Muslim community was miniscule and several of their new and potential recruits were either actual slaves or newly freed slaves. Many of these same people, and Muhammad himself, later went on to become owners and traders of slaves, both male and female, as they acquired the power to do so.

However, thanks to the doctrine of abrogation (later verses of the Qu'ran supercede those that were written earlier), slavery became an entrenched part of the Muslim world for hundreds of years; far longer than the Western world.

And it isn't just the Qu'ran that justifies slavery. Read the Hadith as well: Bukhari is filled with instructions on the handling of slavery, as is Abu Dawud and Ibn Ishaq.

Crossfire2009:

Narrated Ibn 'Umar: "The manumitted should manumit the slave completely... "
Bukhari(Book 46, Hadith 702)

The above hadith orders freed slaves to free others from slavery thus setting up a countinual chain of abolition. Can you show me a constitutinal verse set up by Americas founders or the writters of the Bible that Equals this?

The Prophet Muhammad said that Bilal (a slave the Prophet Muhamad personally freed) would enter heaven before Muhammad himself. Bilal was also the first person to call the adhan which every Muslim every day hears 5 times a day. What former slave in Biblical history or American history is so honered?

(note he has totally ignored the reference to the Barbary Corsairs and the terrible depredations of the Islamic rulers who employed them to enslave white Europeans)

Me:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

As for the elevating of former slaves in American history, how about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, and many others, who were all recognized for their contributions? And while we're at it, how about the 54th regiment of Massachutsets in the Civil War, an all black regiment of former slaves who distinguished themselves in combat over and over again?

But really, why are we talking about history, when the pratcices of slavery, gender apartheid, bigotry, anti-semetism, racism and fascism that have been the meat and potatoes of Islamic countries for hundreds of years, are _still happening today_? That's the weakness whenever a Muslim uses tu quoque to justify his position; the West uniformly condemns the issues listed, and treats occurrences of such as horrible abberations at best, crimes at worst. The Middle East enshrines several of the aforementioned as cultural values, often using the non-Muslim as scapegoats for all of the problems that they inflict upon themselves.

Bear in mind, I'm not stating that all Muslims feel that way about all those horrible things I mentioned. I do find it odd, however, that those of the Middle East who speak out against such deplorable practices today all have to write under pseudonyms, or live in hiding, or have 24 hour constant bodyguarding, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

 

See the actual comment thread here.  Comments welcome; please help me to continue exposing his shoddy debate for what it really is; an attempt to obfuscate and confuse what orthodox Islam really teaches its disciples.