Egyptian Muslims Create Human Shield To Protect Christians

[khagler]

Uhm... is that really the right term for it?

A lot of people conflate "conscript" (someone who is forced to enlist) and "slave" (someone who is property and forced to obey his owner). It's sloppy thinking at best, propaganda at worst.

As far as I know, there haven't been slave soldiers in the Middle East since the Janissaries were disbanded.

Oh, is that what he was asking? Yes, "conscription" is certainly a form of slavery. Some people like to lie to themselves that it isn't, generally because their own government practices it (or they're from the US, where the government used to practice it and most of the citizens suffer from an almost pathological inability to face up to all the awful things that Washington has done). It doesn't change the problems governments have using them against their own people.

Incidentally, the Janissaries were slaves, and they were mostly recruited by kidnapping children and then brainwashing them--sort of a forerunner to the 20th century Hitler Youth and Young Pioneers, although obviously the Janissaries were around a lot longer.