Brother Dave Manneh,Joe Sambou & Ousman Gajigo, Thanks for your brilliant comments on the above.The purpose of sending the excerpt to the forum was to encourage brothers and sisters to read the book thereby pushing the frontiers of learning and understanding.I was not attempting to present a case for Islam's treatment of slaves.Professor Ali A.Mazrui did that way back in the 80s in his series the "Africans" together with his book "The Africans:A triple heritage".Since Gambia-L is a forum where we do share,it was in that spirit,I forwarded the excerpt. Brother Ousman in his contribution said "A slave in Buckingham Place and a slave in Mauritania are both equally slaves....." I am in total agreement with that statement. With the very best of good wishes, Musa Amadu Pembo Glasgow, Scotland UK. [log in to unmask] Da’wah is to convey the message with wisdom and with good words. We should give the noble and positive message of Islam. We should try to emphasize more commonalities and explain the difference without getting into theological arguments and without claiming the superiority of one position over the other. There is a great interest among the people to know about Islam and we should do our best to give the right message. May Allah,Subhana Wa Ta'Ala,guide us all to His Sirat Al-Mustaqim (Righteous Path).May He protect us from the evils of this life and the hereafter.May Allah,Subhana Wa Ta'Ala,grant us entrance to paradise . We ask Allaah the Most High, the All-Powerful, to teach us that which will benefit us, and to benefit us by that which we learn. May Allaah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala grant blessings and peace to our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions..Amen. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~