Between 1500 & 1700 up to 1.25 million people from the coastal areas of Europe were kidnapped by Muslim....?

Question

....pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_pirates

According to the historian Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates and sold as slaves during the 16th and 17th century. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and from more distant places like France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland and North America.

On 20 June 1631 the entire village of Baltimore, County Cork, Ireland was kidnapped by Barbary Cosairs and sold into slavery in Algiers. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Baltimore

Should we in Britain demand an apology and restitution for these crimes against human rights from the King of Morroco and the Presidents of Algeria and Tunisia? Or should we seek it from Muslims in general?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Unsurprisingly not a lot of people know this. 
It is amazing how such things can ‘slip through the net’ and not even be common knowledge.

It makes a very good counter argument to the opinion that it was only white people (particular the British) that profited from slavery. White people suffered equally at the hands of  those who claimed to be oppressed by them. 

Obviously your apology demand is for comic value inspired by several black communities demanding apologies from Britain earlier this year.

Tit for Tat could go on forever. 

Yet the issue of the event, and events like it, need to be brought to the forefront, not to raise religious, ethnic tensions, but develop the education on slavery.

Vaughn · Answer

If anyone wants to OFFER an apology, that's fairly charming. If anyone DEMANDS an apology, it comes across as fairly childish. The important thing is that everyone recognizes how wrong slavery was.

BUST TO UTOPIA · Answer

if we were to get an apology for every war crime and inhuman act done by some one from a country we were not on friendly terms with we would get nothing done again.  if Britain for example was to apologies for every crime done in its name they would be talking for months. we would get so sick of it. from Bloody Sunday the Irish famine and all the way back on Ireland alone Britain would be paralyzed with apologetic statements.

joecool123_us · Answer

Everyone has been enslaved or oppressed at one point in time or another. The point should be to learn from the past and not keep doing the same things.

Scouse · Answer

No more than we should aplogise for the slave trade. We are were we are and have to learn to live together without reopening old wounds

Anonymous · Answer

Typical Brit asking for restitution for your self's You did the same after WW1 and ww2 From Japan who cares about the Chinese we want ours and in Thailand 6 million tons of rice Please never< I mean never- Talk to me about American history

john m · Answer

If you have to ask for an apology then the apology is not worth having.

Anonymous · Answer

Seriously?
Are you going to try and demand pay back for what the catholic church did as well? How far back in history does one go to demand pay back?

Anonymous · Answer

since UK is fast becoming a muslim nation, no need for that...you're all slaves in a sense to them now...

srracvuee · Answer

dont start all this up again i thought it had gone to bed

Between 1500 & 1700 up to 1.25 million people from the coastal areas of Europe were kidnapped by Muslim....?

11 Answers