He who controls the past controls the future, and so there is a concerted effort to rewrite and reshape the past, with the Left busy demonizing all its designated enemies of today, and exonerating its contemporary allies.
“Because he proved that there were also white slaves: University of Erlangen cancels reading by ancient historian Egon Flaig,” translated from “Weil er nachwies, dass es auch weiße Sklaven gab: Uni Erlangen cancelt Lesung von Althistoriker Egon Flaig,” Journalisten Watch, August 1, 2023 (thanks to Medforth):
The cancel culture, vehemently denied by those who practice it, is showing its totalitarian grimace more and more openly in Germany, too. Its latest victim is the well-known ancient historian Egon Flaig. He was invited by the archaeologist Andreas Grüner of the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen in the middle of the month to give an evening lecture on the topic “Individual freedom versus political freedom. The Polis in European Republicanism.” A week earlier, however, Grüner withdrew the invitation because, as he sheepishly admitted, his own dean had “asked” him to do so. However, behind this “request” was a tangible threat: Flaig is considered “controversial” in left-woke circles – because, among other things, he refers to the historical fact that the slave trade was not an exclusive domain of whites, but also black slave traders existed, and that Islam in particular also traded slaves for centuries.
Being “controversial” was once considered a desirable attribute in the academic discourse space, but like the also denigrated “lateral thinking,” it is already considered a kind of scientific death sentence. This is a thorn in the side of the pseudoscience of “anti-colonialism,” since in this delusion, only whites can be racist or behave immorally. Flaig had also spoken out against mass migration. Therefore, of course, he is considered “right.” For these reasons, Flaig was denied an appearance at the University of Osnabrück two years ago.
“Risk of Reprisals”
As Flaig found out in a telephone conversation with Grüner, the invitation to Erlangen followed the question of the dean and sociology professor Rainer Trinczek, whether one really wanted to offer “someone like Flaig” a platform? The faculty then clearly spoke out against it, probably also under the influence of Trinczek’s authority. Reasons were not given. The rest is normal program in a model democratic, free Germany: Contrite and probably also ashamed, Grüner apologized to Flaig many times and referred to the danger of “reprisals” that would threaten the scientific staff if he stuck to the invitation.All this is happening, mind you, not in North Korea – but in “the best Germany of all time”: Academic freedom is dying a slow and little-discussed death in this country, because left-wing ideologues have enforced and destroyed all structures here as well. The cowardice of the professors is an apparently eternal constant in Germany. Anyone who points out indisputable facts or otherwise violates the countless left-wing bans on speaking and thinking is ostracized. Flaig’s unloading is one of many nails in the coffin that the woke monster is driving into the coffin of those achievements that once made the West great. (DM)
ChrisFromCincinnati says
The Woke Left MUST control the narrative, instead of the TRUTH. Shameful. And NOT what you expect from what’s reputed to be an Institute of Higher Education. Apparently NOT. I wonder when the school will start condemning women for not covering themselves?
Shameful
FYI says
Muslims had slaves..as did the African Nations that happily sold their own people into slavery…as did Indians in South/Central/North America:but it just doesn’t fit the Leftist History narrative that Whitey alone is to blame for it all.
Keith O says
Can’t let those damn pesky facts get in the way of a convoluted fantasy, can we now?
Dr Samuel Goldman says
You are correct, We are moving backward in time, soon there will be no history, only fsntasy
Genieré says
Indians were enslaved, they did not have have slaves. Blacks have borne the worst of the slave trade even if some blacks were involved, let’s not forget that gore injustice was done. Whites and Arabs were the main players in the slave trade, let’s not try to dilute that especially the Arab bit.
gravenimage says
Yes, many Indian (Native American) tribes did indeed take slaves. Sacagawea, Lewis and Clark’s guide, was enslaved by a neighboring tribe. This is well known.
You are certainly right about the Araba involvement in the slave trade, though, which both proceeded and long outlived the Atlantic slave trade, and which still exists to this day.
Michael George says
You need to see the history of the Barberi Coast of the estimated 500000+ white slaves taken how many were ever freed released/ escaped few most were worked to death or throats were slit and the same tribe called Berber enslaved natives of Portugal and Spain when working for Alexander the Great Then under Hannibal Barka and the Roman Centurian Skippo his Grand Son and again as the Moors until the reconquesta in 1492!
Hoi Polloi says
“In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more than 300,000 white people were shipped to America as slaves.“
Many common long-term practices such as impressment, “colloquially “the press” or the “press gang,” the taking of men into a military or naval force by compulsion, with or without notice” i.e. by kidnapping and forcing them into onboard slavery are the same practice by another name, and there was indentured servitude in the US of whites, which was often so brutal it ended in death. Australia’s origin was as a prison colony for whites and the US Navy cut its teeth fighting off muslims who were kidnapping and enslaving whites.
Further, the local American Indian tribe historically owned black slaves. History is factual and ignoring truth destroys credibility.
tgusa says
Germany has a history of singling out and blaming specific groups for all the bad that goes on. This time around they have turned their attention towards White westerners. One would think they would have learned. But dont worry, that is not controversial. The western left are goosestepping their way towards bad times once again. Every day we see more and more signs of that. It proves that the old and tired leftist meme that murderous totalitarians are right wing is a lie. As I have stated before, when push comes to shove the left with find themselves in the middle and despised by both sides. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving group.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Not only did muslims own slaves, but as far as the African slave trade went, the muslims are the ones who probably started it. Mansa Musa, the ruler of Mali, who was famous for a haj in which he flooded his route w/ gold, was the world’s richest man in the day b’cos of his trade in gold, ivory, salt and…. 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁 slaves!
There is a reason that to this day, Mauritania has slavery, and until a few years ago, so did Sudan. In fact, all those expat workers in Gulf countries who worked on projects like Qatar’s soccer stadiums – all of them were everything short of slaves. While they were paid some, their passports had to be surrendered to their employers before they could start working, thereby making it impossible for them to even return to their countries if things turned sour
Rich Martin says
Yes, the African Muslim Slave Trade is older than the European/American Atlantic Slave Trade.
And don’t forget that even the prophet Mohammed himself had a slave girl who was given him after the sacking of Medina, Arabia.
gravenimage says
True, Rich. And the vicious “Prophet” Mohammed also enslaved his victims.
gravenimage says
Infidel, even today slavery is rife in Mauritania. An estimated 17% of the population of Mauritania is enslaved. Shicking.
James Lincoln says
The truth destroys the narratives of both Leftists – and muslim “scholars”.
Can’t have that.
Emilie Green says
The Muslim Slave Trade started 00s of years earlier than the Atlantic Slave Trade, lasted longer and involved millions more. Additionally it was exceptionally cruel particularity to males many/most of whom were first castrated, brutally as is the wont of Muslims, and then forced to walk from the interior of Africa to either a coastal port or to the point of his ultimate slavery.
Bob says
Not only did Muslims own slaves, but they started the Modern day slave trade in Africa, and grew it by selling slaves to non-Muslims from Europe and America. Remember the Barbary Pirates? Now think about the Marine corps hymn “from the halls of Montezuma to the SHORES OF TRIPOLI, yes American Marines had to fight Muslim Barbary Pirates, Slave traders, and Slave Owners on what is now Libya.
gravenimage says
+1
Wellington says
One important work to consult is “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters” by Robert C. Davis, Professor of History at The Ohio State University. Published in 2003, Davis in this book details how as many as one million white Europeans were taken as slaves by North African and other Muslims between 1500 to 1800 and that Muslim raiding parties for European slaves extended as far north as England and even Iceland.
But I suppose Davis would be disinvited from lecturing at many universities in the West and not just in Germany because the “narrative” runs counter to Leftthink which regularly treats facts as optional.
gravenimage says
Thanks for that reference, Wellington. I need to read this book.
Giles Milton’s “White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and Islam’s One Million White Slaves” is also supposed to be very good.
Andy Cap says
Whether or not mohamedans traded in slaves, or blacks did is relevant, of course, but not too much, in view of the fact that everybody did. What is really relevant, however, is who ended slavery, a question that is not posed all that often, because the answer is WE did. Cf.https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-slavery-idUSL1561464920070322. And that fact needs to be emphasized over and over again. As a matter of fact, this fact merits nothing less than gratitude, instead of anger. As in: they should be grateful to us for abolishing slavery.
Michael Copeland says
White Christian males did it.
Cannot mention that.
Andy Cap says
@Michael Copeland:
That’s what I said: ‘WE’. And we MUST mention that.
gravenimage says
Very true, Andy and Michael.
bill says
But for the Arabs founding the slave trade the slave trade of the colonial era would not have existed. The white slavers did not go and capture the people themselves, they bought them from the Arabs and also from the Africans themselves who regularly took captives from other African tribes and were quite happy to exchange them for the whiteman’ money and goods. (in the Pacific the situation was different) One might call the Arabs the wholesalers and the white men the retailers or middle men.
It is shameful that Western universities are becoming woke and denying historical facts.
Andy Cap says
@bill says:
I understand that that is not quite correct. I was told that Western slave ships went to some harbor in Ghana, where there was a slave market run by strictly by blacks (i.e.: no white vendors allowed). They may have been mohamedan, but they were African blacks. I’m quite sure, moreover, that the white slavers did not do business with mohamedans directly, for fear of being enslaved themselves. Remember: the Barbary Coast piracy/ slavery was only ended somewhere in the 19th century A.D. (by the American navy, if I remember correctly). Before that there were many Europeans who were enslaved (mostly) in the Mediterranean. That was big business in and of itself for the mohamedans. I read somewhere that more whites have been enslaved than blacks, but I can’t back that up.
Michael Copeland says
https://gatesofvienna.net/2021/03/jihadis-taking-british-and-american-kafirs-for-profit/
John Forbes says
The OTTOMAN EMPIRE ran and controlled slavery for centuries and took both black and white slaves. Slavery was only ended in the Middle East in1966. Slavery with open slave markets still exists in LIBYA!
Rich Martin says
You are correct.
ALL INFORMATION BELOW FROM
TITLED Top 5 African Countries Where Slavery Is Still Rampant
BY Fredrick Ngugi
DATED May 05, 2017
(1) In MAURITIANA, slaves and their descendants are considered the full property of their masters. Although this practice was banned in Mauritania in 1981, it is still rampant in some parts of the country.
(2) Slavery in SUDAN dates back to medieval times. It has recently had a resurgence during the second Sudanese Civil War that lasted between 1983 and 2005. During the war, human rights campaigners reported a rise in contemporary forms of slavery and accused the Sudanese government of supporting and arming various slave-taking militias in the country.
In response to these claims, the Sudanese government argued that slavery was a product of inter-tribal warfare over which it had no control.
The majority of those enslaved in Sudan belong to the Dinka, Nuer, and Nuba tribes, which are predominantly Black in appearance.
(3) Libya – You mentioned this country.
Black Africans from neighboring countries seeking to cross over to Europe through the Libyan coast are usually captured by Libyan rebels and sold off as slaves to local masters.
The practice is so widespread that human rights organizations are now calling for the immediate intervention of the international community.
What’s worse, the majority of these slaves are unaccompanied children fleeing war and persecution in their home countries.
(4)EGYPT
According to the U.S. State Department, Egypt is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.
In 2014, the world was shocked by tales of widespread slavery and torture in Sinai Peninsula, where tens of thousands of slaves from neighboring African countries were reportedly held for trafficking.
These slaves are alleged to have been chained up and kept in water tankers for up to six months. Among them were women held as sex slaves.
The Sinai Peninsula is now said to be a haven for Al-Qaeda operatives and Bedouin smugglers and extortionists who have a free hand in the modern-day slave trade. It is estimated that there are more than 50 human trafficking gangs currently operating in the Sinai region.
(5)SOUTH AFRICA
The Global Slavery Index estimated that close to 250,000 modern slaves exist in South Africa today.
About 103,461 victims of this practice were identified to have been subjected to commercial sexual exploitation. It has also been widely alleged that the majority of wine production companies in South Africa still practice slavery.
Among the most common forms of slavery in SA include forced labor, human trafficking, debt bondage, child exploitation, and forced marriage.
truthseeker says
— We are living in an Orwellian nightmare. Arrogant elites re-write history any way they please just to serve their own momentary desires or newly-created “values.”
— Just last week, I was surprised to read a modern article that was somewhat honest about Ottoman Empire’s massive enslavement of Eastern Europeans and Caucasian West Asians. . But here’s the trick – the article never once mentioned the Turks, the Ottoman Empire, or the supremacist faith that motivated the centuries of slave-taking! Can you believe it?
— No, no, no. Not these purely politicized “history writers.” The article blamed the centuries-long Muslim white slave trade on only group – the Tatars, And then, by highlighting the fact that the Tatars were descended from the Mongol invasion of Europe, they slyly implied that the Tatars were motivated solely by racism.
— Now it’s true that the Tatar-majority Crimean Khanate was the center of the Ottoman Empire’s white slave trade. (but almost irrelevant to the Ottoman Empire’s black slave trade.) But it’s also true that those Tatars had converted to Islam and were motivated by the example of their prophet. After each spring thaw, the Khanate executed its annual slave-raiding “harvest of the steppes.” But the Khanate was part of the Ottoman Empire, under Ottoman control, and it sold those slaves exclusively into the Ottoman slave markets. And the Ottoman Sultan levied a 20% tax on that slave trade, explicitly citing the example of his prophet who had demanded to be given 20% of all slaves and booty captured from the Infidels.
— Oh, and then the cherry on top of all the other lies – the article ended with an irrelevant observation about how Europe badly needs to increase its population with (presumably Muslim) migrants to avoid being ovewhelmed and invaded by evil old Russia. Can you believe it? Russia’s population is small to begin with and it’s collapsing, not expanding. China and the Islamic world are the threats to Western civilization.
gravenimage says
+1
Jim says
The Germans are probably deceived by American mainstream media and academic leftism. They do not hear or read the other side of the issue. I spent time at a German university, and they mainly knew the same versions of history that our leftist dominated mainstream media and universities are promoting. If America had a real truth-seeking media, it might influence the German universities to seek the truth wherever it leads. If one speaks out for conservative politics in Germany, the universities will mainly accuse one of being a fascist. My advisor told me in an exam that “It is just like in the Third Reich, they are all out there and they all want the same thing.?” But of course we have thinkers and politicians who are more conservative than the political class Republicans, and they are defending the Constitution and are not just like the Nazis. But it is not the fault of the German universities alone, it is also a matter of the leftist domination of American media and politics. And perhaps conformism has become a powerful social force on the public.
gravenimage says
There is a *lot* of dhimmitude in the West. I would hardly blame the US for all of it–in fact, things are generally somewhat less bad here than in most of Europe.
Rich Martin says
Any reader of history knows that many if not all peoples practiced slavery. Muslims practiced a very horrible form of slavery in Africa which was done to have slaves for sexual gratification and house servants. However the Muslims did not want healthy adult men to be brought to Muslim populated areas due to the “threat” they posed to Muslim women, so only young boys were captured and then castrated so they could never pose such a threat. Women and girls were of course captured. When a village was attacked by Muslims, the adult black men were killed and only the women and male youths were taken. Often the village was destroyed and any wells or drinking water were poisoned. A practice copied in the genocide of Darfur by the Khartoum Government who employed a trained militia called the Janjaweed when between 2003-2005 over 200,000 people were murdered, and approximately 2.5 million were displaced.
The journey back with their slaves from Southern Africa or Black Africa to Northern Africa or Muslim Africa was a barbaric and brutal forced march during which a very high number of captured Africans died. So much for the Muslim boast that they treated their slaves with more compassion that did the white Atlantic slave traders.
Rich Martin says
The WOKE pursuit of attempting to erase the past when it doesn’t please them is the essence of totalitarianism. The WOKE concept of “Cancel Culture” is a synonym for Nazism.
It should be remembered that Hitler began his control of Germany according to Nazi ideas as well as the destruction of the Jewish people by targeting German Universities and firing Jewish professors. If one gets rid of those who know what History really was then you have effectively erased that history and you can substitute your own. In today’s WOKE world, barring speakers you do not like you is copying the philosophy of Hitler. I am sure that if it were possible, the same person who barred this historian Egon Flaig, would burn the scholarly books which showed he speaks the truth.
Rich Martin says
This book is a must read, “Sufferings in Africa: The Incredible True Story of a Shipwreck, Enslavement, and Survival on the Sahara
by James Riley”
An American sea captain whose ship floundered at sea and he and his crew shipwrecked on the North Africa coast. Listed by Abraham Lincoln, alongside the Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress , as one of the books that most influenced his life, few true tales of adventure and survival are as astonishing as this one. This book was widely read in early 18th Century America. First published in 1817, this dramatic saga soon became a national bestseller with over a million copies sold. Even today, it is rare to find a narrative that illuminates the degradations of slave existence with such brutal honesty.
I repeat A MUST READ. You will not be able to put it down. I know why it was never made into a movie. This story is simply too much for Hollywood. It is the antithesis to “America Now.”
gravenimage says
Rich, thank you for your excellent posts on this thread. And if you are new to Jihad Watch, welcome!
Gary Fouse says
I was stationed in Erlangen with the US Army 1966-1968. I became so attached to the town, I later wrote a book on the history of Erlangen. The university was a center of Lutheran theology and had many famous theologians and philosophers in its faculty. To this day, I have several friends in the city including members of the university faculty.
Now this. It makes me very sad.
gravenimage says
Yes, Gary, things have definitely gotten steadily worse over the past several decades.
Walter Mitty says
Well, let’s face it, if universities are so corrupt as to accomodate intellectually unfit students in exchange for a donation of $ x million, and if those millions are donated by mohamedans, ‘people listen’, as in they do as they’re told. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
tim gallagher says
History is meant to bae all about telling the unvarnished truth about how things were. This bullshit version of history, this disinformation and lying these days by some propagandising “historians” makes a mockery of genuine historical studies. In Australia, there has been a complete bullshit artist named Bruce Pascoe who wrote a book about how the original inhabitants of the country were sophisticated farmers, etc, when they were hunters and gatherers. Fantasy land nonsense, but the left wingers loved it and promoted his bullshit. It was history as they would like it to have been, not as it was. Dangerous stuff.
gravenimage says
And Tim, while *any* falsification of history is terribly destructive, whitewashing ones’ own history is at least somewhat more understandable. But falsifying history to make your culture look *far worse* than it ever was is suicidally perverse.
tim gallagher says
gravenimage, that seems to be what this con artist, lying phony “historian” Bruce Pascoe is all about. His book claimed that the Aborigines in Australia were civilised, sophisticated people who had towns and advanced agriculture, etc, as opposed to being hunter gatherers, and therefore it was a terrible thing when the English arrived in and settled Australia in 1788. Many commentators and historians have said that Pascoe’s version of history is complete garbage, but the ABC, the left wing broadcasting group, and other left wingers have embraced this propaganda because it suits their version of how they want Australia’s history to be. I had a left wing friend who read it and probably believed it. I couldn’t be bothered trying to tell him it was all nonsense according to many people. I have such contempt for lying scum like this con artist Pascoe making up such complete garbage as opposed to telling the truth as much as is possible which history should always be about..
gravenimage says
Germany: University withdraws invitation to historian because he noted that Muslims, not just whites, held slaves
……………………………………
Can’t have any truth in academia these days…
Just appalling.