Rethinking Slavery and Freedom in Islamic Law

Slavery, and what’s today called human trafficking or contemporary forms of slavery, has been or is commonplace in most countries. Islamic law, in addition to finding expression in the constitutional systems of most Muslim majority countries, informs the ethical and social values of about a quarter of the world’s population. Islamic law and ethics, or generally Islam can thus be expected to impact how Muslim communities make sense of social realities that are affected by historical and contemporary practices falling under the rubric of slavery. This panel will discuss varied historical and contemporary positions of Islamic law on slavery and how these positions interact with and influence broader Islamic conceptions on freedom.