To the Shores of Tripoli
I`ve often noted the similarity between the War on Terror and the Tripolitanian War, and yet few Americans are even aware that our first foreign war was (successfully) fought against Islam. Reader Melanie decided to correct this, and sent this piece by Ted Sampley to me, and I pass it along to you:
What Thomas Jefferson learned
> from the Muslim book of jihad
>
> By Ted Sampley
> U.S. Veteran Dispatch
> January 2007
>
> Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United
> States
> congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Quran, the
> Muslim
> book of jihad and pledged his allegiance to the United States during
> his
> ceremonial swearing-in.
>
> Capitol Hill staff said Ellison's swearing-in photo opportunity drew
> more
> media than they had ever seen in the history of the U.S. House.
> Ellison
> represents the 5Th Congressional District of Minnesota.
>
> The Quran Ellison used was no ordinary book. It once belonged to
> Thomas
> Jefferson, third president of the United States and one of America 's
> founding fathers. Ellison borrowed it from the Rare Book Section of
> the
> Library of Congress. It was one of the 6,500 Jefferson books archived
> in the
> library.
>
> Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam while in
> college,
> said he chose to use Jefferson's Quran because it showed that "a
> visionary
> like Jefferson " believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many
> sources.
>
> There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom
> could
> be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran. At the time Jefferson owned the
> book, he
> needed to know everything possible about Muslims because he was about
> to
> advocate war against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco , Algeria
> ,
> Tunisia and Tripoli .
>
> Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject
> once
> well-known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is
> mostly
> forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved
>
> millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and
> Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.
>
> Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the African
> and
> Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing slaves.
>
> The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal
> villages had
> a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill off as
> many
> of the "non-Muslim" older men and women as possible so the preferred
> "booty"
> of only young women and children could be collected.
>
> Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value as
> concubines in
> Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of
> Muslim men
> by allowing them to take as many as four wives at one time and to have
> as
> many concubines as their fortunes allow.
>
> Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to create
> eunuchs
> who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the Middle East
> .
> Muslim slave traders created "eunuch stations" along major African
> slave
> routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. It was estimated
> that
> only a small number of the boys subjected to the mutilation survived
> after
> the surgery.
>
> When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776,
> American
> merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no American Navy for
> protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews
> enslaved
> by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the "Dey of
> Algiers"--an
> Islamist warlord ruling Algeria .
>
> Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by
> the
> pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties
> with
> the four Barbary States . Congress appointed a special commission
> consisting
> of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the
>
> negotiations.
>
> Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the
> Mediterranean, the
> new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing
> to
> pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships and
> buy
> the freedom of enslaved sailors.
>
> Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get
> American
> commerce in the Mediterranean moving again. Jefferson was opposed. He
> believed there would be no end to the demands for tribute and wanted
> matters
> settled "through the medium of war." He proposed a league of trading
> nations
> to force an end to Muslim piracy.
>
> In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and Adams,
> then
> the American ambassador to Britain , met in London with Sidi Haji
> Abdul
> Rahman Adja, the "Dey of Algiers" ambassador to Britain .
>
> The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress'
> vote to
> appease.
>
> During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the Dey's ambassador why
> Muslims held so much hostility towards America , a nation with which
> they had
> no previous contacts.
>
> In a later meeting with the American Congress, the two future
> presidents
> reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that
> Islam
> "was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in
> their
> Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their
> authority
> were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them
> wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could
> take as
> Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in
> Battle
> was sure to go to Paradise."
>
> For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims
> millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the
> return of
> American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to 20
> percent
> of United States government annual revenues in 1800.
>
> Not long after Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, he
> dispatched
> a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean
> , and
> informed Congress.
>
> Declaring that America was going to spend "millions for defense but
> not one
> cent for tribute," Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying American
> Marines
> and many of America 's best warships to the Muslim Barbary Coast.
>
> The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS
> Chesapeake,
> USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
>
> In 1805, American Marines marched across the dessert from Egypt into
> Tripolitania, forcing the surrender of Tripoli and the freeing of all
> American slaves.
>
> During the Jefferson administration, the Muslim Barbary States,
> crumbling as
> a result of intense American naval bombardment and on shore raids by
> Marines, finally officially agreed to abandon slavery and piracy.
>
> Jefferson's victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine
> Hymn, with
> the line, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli , we
> will
> fight our country's battles on the land as on the sea."
>
> It wasn't until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total
> defeat
> of all the Muslim slave trading pirates.
>
> Jefferson had been right. The "medium of war" was the only way to put
> and
> end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson . He
> was a
> "visionary" wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their
> own
> Muslim book of jihad.
> Information is Power - Share it!!
What Thomas Jefferson learned
> from the Muslim book of jihad
>
> By Ted Sampley
> U.S. Veteran Dispatch
> January 2007
>
> Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United
> States
> congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Quran, the
> Muslim
> book of jihad and pledged his allegiance to the United States during
> his
> ceremonial swearing-in.
>
> Capitol Hill staff said Ellison's swearing-in photo opportunity drew
> more
> media than they had ever seen in the history of the U.S. House.
> Ellison
> represents the 5Th Congressional District of Minnesota.
>
> The Quran Ellison used was no ordinary book. It once belonged to
> Thomas
> Jefferson, third president of the United States and one of America 's
> founding fathers. Ellison borrowed it from the Rare Book Section of
> the
> Library of Congress. It was one of the 6,500 Jefferson books archived
> in the
> library.
>
> Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam while in
> college,
> said he chose to use Jefferson's Quran because it showed that "a
> visionary
> like Jefferson " believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many
> sources.
>
> There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom
> could
> be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran. At the time Jefferson owned the
> book, he
> needed to know everything possible about Muslims because he was about
> to
> advocate war against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco , Algeria
> ,
> Tunisia and Tripoli .
>
> Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject
> once
> well-known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is
> mostly
> forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved
>
> millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and
> Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.
>
> Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the African
> and
> Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing slaves.
>
> The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal
> villages had
> a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill off as
> many
> of the "non-Muslim" older men and women as possible so the preferred
> "booty"
> of only young women and children could be collected.
>
> Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value as
> concubines in
> Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of
> Muslim men
> by allowing them to take as many as four wives at one time and to have
> as
> many concubines as their fortunes allow.
>
> Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to create
> eunuchs
> who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the Middle East
> .
> Muslim slave traders created "eunuch stations" along major African
> slave
> routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. It was estimated
> that
> only a small number of the boys subjected to the mutilation survived
> after
> the surgery.
>
> When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776,
> American
> merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no American Navy for
> protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews
> enslaved
> by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the "Dey of
> Algiers"--an
> Islamist warlord ruling Algeria .
>
> Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by
> the
> pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties
> with
> the four Barbary States . Congress appointed a special commission
> consisting
> of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the
>
> negotiations.
>
> Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the
> Mediterranean, the
> new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing
> to
> pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships and
> buy
> the freedom of enslaved sailors.
>
> Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get
> American
> commerce in the Mediterranean moving again. Jefferson was opposed. He
> believed there would be no end to the demands for tribute and wanted
> matters
> settled "through the medium of war." He proposed a league of trading
> nations
> to force an end to Muslim piracy.
>
> In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and Adams,
> then
> the American ambassador to Britain , met in London with Sidi Haji
> Abdul
> Rahman Adja, the "Dey of Algiers" ambassador to Britain .
>
> The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress'
> vote to
> appease.
>
> During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the Dey's ambassador why
> Muslims held so much hostility towards America , a nation with which
> they had
> no previous contacts.
>
> In a later meeting with the American Congress, the two future
> presidents
> reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that
> Islam
> "was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in
> their
> Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their
> authority
> were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them
> wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could
> take as
> Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in
> Battle
> was sure to go to Paradise."
>
> For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims
> millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the
> return of
> American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to 20
> percent
> of United States government annual revenues in 1800.
>
> Not long after Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, he
> dispatched
> a group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean
> , and
> informed Congress.
>
> Declaring that America was going to spend "millions for defense but
> not one
> cent for tribute," Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying American
> Marines
> and many of America 's best warships to the Muslim Barbary Coast.
>
> The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS
> Chesapeake,
> USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
>
> In 1805, American Marines marched across the dessert from Egypt into
> Tripolitania, forcing the surrender of Tripoli and the freeing of all
> American slaves.
>
> During the Jefferson administration, the Muslim Barbary States,
> crumbling as
> a result of intense American naval bombardment and on shore raids by
> Marines, finally officially agreed to abandon slavery and piracy.
>
> Jefferson's victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine
> Hymn, with
> the line, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli , we
> will
> fight our country's battles on the land as on the sea."
>
> It wasn't until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total
> defeat
> of all the Muslim slave trading pirates.
>
> Jefferson had been right. The "medium of war" was the only way to put
> and
> end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson . He
> was a
> "visionary" wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their
> own
> Muslim book of jihad.
> Information is Power - Share it!!
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 5:10 AM
3 Comments:
Excellent. This is exactly what I teach my 8th graders. They are both shocked and interested in the fact that America's first war against Islamic terror ocurred 200 years ago.
Mr Austin: I have a couple hard questions about the education system and Islam. If you cannot reply I understand. My first question is the definition of Islam. I Myself dont see it as a religion, but as an ideology of Arab Imperialism. This was shown to me by Anwar Shaikh at Faith Freedom International and if you have time read his thoughts. Second question is could you teach your pupils this or would the Politically Correct watch dogs deny you and seek your head?
Dear Learner: Islam is one of the world’s three great monotheisms---that is the 'official' answer. The reality is that it is a Jewish heresy. I can certainly see it as an ideology of Arab imperialism, but then the Persians and Moors are not Arab. I have several Moslem students in my classes and I teach the history of Islam as it impacted America. (My classes concern US history from 1756-1877.) I pull no punches but keep the criticism of Islam to a minimum. This is done so as not to insult. It would be quite uncharitable of me to criticize the theology of Islam in front of a bunch of captive 8th graders.
My blog is read by students and parents, and it is there that I speak more freely---openly, if you will---about that mess called Islam.
I have the great fortune---a blessing, really---to work at a charter school. Thus, much of the goofy stuff one sees at public schools is not there. My colleagues are by and large conservative and pro-military. The superintendent is a Southern Baptist and a fine lady---and a Bush supporter. We begin each day with the Pledge and a prayer. I pray in class and keep a Bible on my desk.
My views on things are by and large shared by the community here, both parents and students. I have not held back teaching what I hold to be self evident Truths because a student is black or Latin American---or Moslem. Whatever I do it seems to work well here. Of course, I would be fired the first day at a public school in New York.
I teach in Oklahoma City, which of course helps---it is the ‘buckle of the Bible Belt.’
I will read the Anwar Shaik piece.
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