The UN passed a resolution describing the transatlantic trade in African slaves, rather than the slave trade in general, as the “gravest crime against humanity.”
The United States and Israel correctly voted against UN Resolution A/80/L.48 because it took cheap shots against America while failing to correctly condemn the broader spread of African slavery localized in the Muslim world.
Slavery was an ancient practice and it was rooted in
A. The actions of local African kingdoms, like the Kingdom of Dahomey, long beloved by black nationalists and the subject of a recent movie, The Woman King, which built their entire economies around slavery
B. Trafficking by middlemen in the Muslim world who bought slaves and sold them, initially to other Muslim kingdoms. That’s why Basra in Iraq was the center of the world’s largest slave rebellion and still has a large black population today. It’s why Turkey and Gaza have black populations and why Egypt, an epicenter in trafficking, has one.
C. Export to Europeans was a tertiary market that developed fairly late and was quickly put a stop to in the United States which worked hard to crack down on it almost as soon as it gained its independence. See the Anti-Slavery Patrols.
It was the British in turn that fought to end the traffic in slaves through Egypt over the protests of its Arab Muslim ruling class.
And it was the United States that pressured the Saudis and other Arab Muslim kingdoms to end slavery in the 1950s and 1960s.
The UN should have praised America and the United Kingdom for fighting to end the odious Muslim practice of slavery which continues today still in some Muslim countries like Mali. The only recent cases of slavery in America were imported by Muslims. Including Muslims from Egypt.
The UN should be working to stamp out modern Muslim slavery instead of smearing America.
