Muslims: explain the whole slave thing?

[Alkhal]

The term "ab'd" in Quran is a verb which refers to "worshiper" and it has a present and past tense "worshiping" and "worshiped" where the term "slave" which refers to slave workers is a noun

As to your question I will try not to church it up which I think is a cheap tactic used by many. Now to ur point, at the era of prophet Mohammed, slavery was widespread but the act of freeing slaves was a great deed. Mohammed has freed many slaves and (if im not mistaken) the first man to publicly perform the call for prayer was a freed slave named Abudllah.

A good way to be more familiar with Islam is to listen to the Quran in its original form while reading the subs, the recititation it self is exatly the same to the word but the translation slightly differs. Since ur from a christian background, this is a Surah named after the Virgin Mary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pMLGYMgaYE