The tradition against castration is not in the Koran, but instead it is a hadith.
Sunnah means established practice for Muslims. In the 3rd Islamic century after Mohammad the famous Islamic jurist al-Sharffii insisted that the Sunnah of Mohammad was normative for Muslims.
The Sunnah of Mohammad consisted of the Prophet's oral traditions, sayings, actions and customs which were to be strictly followed by adherents to Islam. The Sunnah comes primarily from oral tradition known as hadith. Basically it said (paraphrased) that he who castrates a slave shall himself be castrated.
Most of the black slaves were castrated by the slave traders who were not Muslims or at least they did not adhere to the teachings of the Prophet if they were. See the following site...
Slaves of Islam (http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2001/04/05/segal/)
Of course, we know that the black slaves were usually nullified but the white slaves of Islam usually had lost only their testicles. Therefore, the Harem was attended by only Black slaves because it was known (or at least rumored) that after loss of the testicles some can still perform sexually, albeit at a less enthusiastic rate.
But, I suppose that Islam like the early Christians did not castrate the unlucky few themselves because of their "piousness". They only "caused" it to happen similar to Pontius Pilot washing his hands and allowing the Sanhedron (Sp?) to influence the Roman military to cruicify Christ.
Lots and lots of treachery in organized religion, but God will deal with that someday. Funny how things never change, isn't it? Now we protect child-molesting Priests. Man is indeed far short of the glory of Heaven, no matter which religion that you adhere to.
As far as the consideration of women in Islam, you might want to visit this web site for information. As far as fundamentlist Islam goes, well, we all know about the Taliban of Afghanistan.
Women and Islam (http://www.light-of-life.com/eng/reveal/r5405et3.htm)
Of course, not everybody agrees on the benevolence of Islam, as is expressed at this site.
Cruel rules of Islam (http://www.islamexposed.com/Library/THE ... pter17.htm)
Well, lots of reading here.
In my opinion Islam may be a benevolent faith if practiced in a certain manner, but from what I have seen of it lately I would much rather join a Church of serpent handlers in rual Kentucky and take my chances dancing while shaking a rattlesnake or perhaps a cotton-mouth-water-moccasin....
And, for the most part, I ain't crazy about doing that, either.
I am also grateful that I never had to deal with a child-molesting priest or a horny fundamentalist preacher for that matter, not to mention being castrated by an Islamic slaver or a lackey of a Pope who was partial to the voices of castrated boys and men.
The world sure is and has always been fucked-up, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Maybe all those "RAPTURE" stories by those two money-grubbing fundamentalists ain't so bad of a reality after all. Pretty soon that "rapture" book series is going to have more volumes than the Encyclopedia Britannica.
LET US PRAY.
A-1