Re: slavery, polygamy

salaam

> in the
> arab world (who -- whether folks agree or not -- "set" muslim rules),

I don't agree. firstly, I don't know about this notion of anyone 'setting' 
the rules for Islam. I'm not sure what that means. Secondly, if we look 
at the most influential Muslim fiqh scholars, a large number of them 
were not arab. Consider the initiators of the major madhahib and the 
compilers of ahadith, eg.

na'eem