Young America’s Fight with Islamism (debunks Obama's Cairo reference to 'Treaty of Tripoli')

In light of the reference to the 1796 "Treaty of Tripoli" in Obama's Cairo speech, we are re-publishing this January, 2007 article. It details the levels of tribute excated by the Moslems after the signing of the treaty and the two wars which resulted.

Obama in Cairo: "In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, 'The United States has in itself no character of enemity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.'" How did these fine words work out 215 years ago? How will similar fine words work out today? See the story at link.

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Ever wonder why one-term John has been lionized in recent years in books, made-for-tv documentaries, interviews on C-Span? Obama in Cairo: "In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, 'The United States has in itself no character of enemity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.'" How did these fine words work out 215 years ago? How will similar fine words work out today? See the story at link. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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There is a rebuttal to the reading of that section of the treaty....

Here comes that silly misrepresentation of the Treaty with Tripoli argument again

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Saturday, November 19, 2005

Every so often, I come across an ignorant burst of secularist thought about the Treaty with Tripoli. I'm usually amused by the lack of ability on the part of some to perform the critical thought processes necessary to derive meaning from text that contains complex punctuation. All hail those who don't understand semicolons yet consider themselves intellectually adept enough to divine "Original Intent!"

Alex at Marginal Revolution puts this "talent" on display quite nicely. He even links to avowedly secular humanist authors in his poor attempt to misuse the following:

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

The Barbary States (Think Barbary Pirates) were the equivalent of today's Islamists. They had captured and enslaved American seamen, as they had been doing to the seafarers of European Christian States for years. With no appreciable navy, America had to use diplomacy (and submit ransom) in attempts to free up navigation for its commerce in the region. This section was a reference intended to separate America from the lands that participated in the Crusades.

Alex tries to make a big deal of the fact that the there was no outcry when the ratified treaty was published in the newspapers. The citizens of the day who read newspapers were well aware of the issue and found no fault in the language because all it did was continue to differentiate America from Europe as not having an official state religion.

The argument that this section of the treaty is "proof of original intent" works the same way as "I did not have 'sex' with that woman." It's true only if you redefine what "sex" is. Folks, there's a reason why there were semicolons, not periods in the text. It is a real shame that today's vacuous minds, fed by insipid bastions of public education, do not know how to read it properly.

The treaty is a useful tool today only for those who insist on not only misreading its sentence structure, but also viewing it through their own contemporary lenses with no recognition that the contextual nuances were markedly different in 1797.

Technorati tags: Treaty with Tripoli, ignorance

“In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar (mohammed), the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent god; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE...Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant...While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon the earth, and good will towards men”

John Quincy Adams
Sixth President of The United States of America
1830

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