America's Muslim Heritage

[jda]

An American's Response to Obama's Claim of Islam's Part in Our History

[jda]

I received this in an email, so I can't take credit for it, but it's too good to just go into my "Politics" folder.

Barack Obama, during his Cairo speech, said: "I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America's story."

AN AMERICAN CITIZEN'S RESPONSE:

Dear Mr. Obama,

Were those Muslims that were in America when the Pilgrims first landed? Funny, I thought they were Native American Indians.

Were those Muslims that celebrated the first Thanksgiving day? Sorry again. Those were Pilgrims and Native American Indians.

Can you show me one Muslim signature on the United States Constitution?

Declaration of Independence ?

Bill of Rights?

Didn't think so.

Did Muslims fight for this country's freedom from England? No.

Did Muslims fight during the Civil War to free the slaves in America? No, they did not.

In fact, Muslims to this day are still the largest traffickers in human slavery. Your own half brother, a devout Muslim, still advocates slavery himself, even though Muslims of Arabic descent refer to black Muslims as "pug nosed slaves." Says a lot of what the Muslim world really thinks of your family's "rich Islamic heritage," doesn't it, Mr. Obama?

Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present.

There are no pictures or media accounts of Muslims walking side by side with Martin Luther King, Jr. or helping to advance the cause of Civil Rights.

Where were Muslims during this country's Woman's Suffrage era? Again, not present.

In fact, devout Muslims demand that women are subservient to men in the Islamic culture. So much so, that often they are beaten for not wearing the 'hajib' or for talking to a man who is not a direct family member or their husband. Yep, the Muslims are all for women's rights, aren't they?

Where were Muslims during World War II? They were aligned with Adolf Hitler. The Muslim grand mufti himself met with Adolf Hitler, reviewed the troops and accepted support from the Nazis in killing Jews.

Finally, Mr. Obama, where were Muslims on Sept. 11th, 2001? If they weren't flying planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people on our own soil, they were rejoicing in the Middle East. No one can dispute the pictures shown from all parts of the Muslim world celebrating on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and other cable news networks that day. Strangely, the very "moderate" Muslims who's asses you bent over backwards to kiss in Cairo, Egypt on June 4th, 2010 were stone cold silent post 9-11. To many Americans, their silence has meant approval for the acts of that day.

And THAT, Mr. Obama, is the "rich heritage" Muslims have here in America.

Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates. They were Muslim.

And now we can add November 5, 2009 -- the slaughter of American soldiers at Fort Hood by a Muslim major who is a doctor and a psychiatrist and who was supposed to be counseling soldiers returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That, Mr. Obama is your "Muslim heritage" in America.

[icwhatudo]

"Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present."

Was with you on the rest, but this one is false.

[Diogenesis]

When the Founding Fathers Faced Islamists

"Back in 1784, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had to decide whether to appease or stand up to armed Middle Eastern pirates. Sound familiar?

.... The Middle East, a term coined by Alfred Thayer Mahan, one of McCain’s boyhood idols, is where both American warfare and American diplomacy began in the late 18th century, as our infant republic faced its first post-Revolutionary struggle against the evocatively named Barbary States of the Ottoman Empire.

The regencies of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers (future homes of Muammar Qaddafi, Yasser Arafat, and the Islamic Salvation Front, respectively) had been hosting and sponsoring Islamic piracy since the Middle Ages. Scimitar-wielding corsairs would regularly interrupt the flow of trade and traffic along the coasts of North Africa, seizing European vessels and taking their crews into bondage. Cervantes wrote his first play, in the 16th century, about the dread corsairs, and by the 18th, the American colonies had a minor seagoing presence in the Mediterranean protected by the redoubtable British Navy. But the Crown was reluctant to war against so petty an antagonist, preferring to pay “tribute” to the Barbary States instead, as a shopkeeper would protection money to the mafia. After the U.S. broke away from England and became its own nation, however, the geopolitical dynamics changed, as did the American equanimity with doing business with pirates.

In 1784, corsairs attacked the Betsy, a 300-ton brig that had sailed from Boston to Tenerife Island, about 100 miles off the North African coast, selling her new-made citizens as chattel on the markets of Morocco. The U.S. was not free of its own moral taint of slavery, of course, but it would be impossible to hasten the industrial development that would eventually render the agrarian-plantation economy obsolete if merchant ships could not be assured of safe conduct near the Turkish Porte. Other vessels, such as the Dauphin and Maria, were also seized, this time by Algiers, and the horrifying experiences of their captive passengers relayed back home were the cause for outrage. James Leander Cathcart described the dungeon in which he was being kept as “perfectly dark…where the slaves sleep four tiers deep…many nearly naked, and few with anything more than an old tattered blanket to cover them in the depth of winter.”

In response, Thomas Jefferson, then the Minister to France, suggested a multilateral approach of what we would now term “deterrence.” He asked that Spain, Portugal, Naples, Denmark, Sweden and France enter into a coalition with America to dissuade the regencies from their criminal assaults on life, liberty and the pursuit of international commerce. As Michael Oren, in his magisterial history Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to Present relates, “By deterring, rather than appeasing, Barbary, the United States would preserve its economy and send an unambiguous message to potentially hostile powers.” Jefferson thought it would impress Europe if America could do what Europe had failed to do for centuries and beat back the persistent thuggery of Islamists. “It will procure us respect,” said the author of the Declaration of Independence. “And respect is a safeguard to interest.”

This sober judgment fused the cold calculations of latter-day “realism” with the morality behind revolutionary interventionism: not only would America protect its citizens from plunder and foreign slaveholding; it would ensure that other countries under “Christendom” were similarly protected.

Though Jefferson found a stalwart Continental ally in a former one, the Marquis de Lafayette, France squelched the idea of a NATO made of buckshot and cannon. While waiting for funds that would never come from Congress for the construction of a 150-gun navy, the sage of Monticello resigned himself to further diplomacy with the enemy. In 1785, he dispatched John Lamb, a Connecticut businessman, to secure the release of hostages in Algiers, held by its dynastic sovereign Hassan Dey. Lamb failed ignominiously.

At the same time, John Adams, then minister to England, agreed to receive the pasha of Tripoli, ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Ajar, in his London quarters to discuss a possible peace deal. Adams described his interlocutor as a man who looked all “pestilence and war,” a suspicion that was soon confirmed by the pasha’s demand of 30,000 guineas for his statelet, plus a 3,000 guinea gratuity for himself. He also did Adams the favor of estimating what it would cost the U.S. to broker a similar deal with Tunis, Morocco and Algiers — the total price for blackmail would be about $1 million, or a tenth the annual budget of the United States.

Adams was incensed. “It would be more proper to write [of his meeting with ‘Abd al-Rahman] for the… New York Theatre,” he thundered. He agreed with Jefferson that a military response was increasingly likely, but Adams doubted his country’s economic ability to sustain it. For the short term, he thought it better to offer “one Gift of two hundred Thousand Pounds” rather than forfeit “a Million annually” in trade revenue, which the pirates were sure to disrupt. Not long thereafter, Jefferson joined him in London to prevent the “universal and horrible War” and reach an accord with the refractory envoy from Tripoli. Both gentlemen of the Enlightenment, and comrades in revolution, affirmed America’s desire for peace, its respect for all nations, and suggested a treaty of lasting friendship with the regency. ‘Abd al-Rahman listened well, but his reply was one that would shock modern ears less than it did those of the two Founding Fathers:

“It was… written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged [the Muslims’] authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon wheoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

Though a period of paying tribute and douceurs (or “softeners” — expensive trickets and toys) to Islamic pirates would continue, the words of ‘Abd al-Rahman Adams were chilling enough to leave Adams and Jefferson in no doubt as to the sanguinary and messianic nature of their adversary. “An angel sent on this business,” lamented Jefferson, “could have done nothing” to placate such men. He called them “sea dogs” and a “pettifogging nest of robbers.” The episode preceded further acts of piracy against American vessels and the imprisonment and sale of its crews and passengers, and was enough to get Jefferson to overlook his wariness of federalism and agree to a Constitution with a strong central government capable of building and keeping a powerful navy. Adams, as it turned out, was more worried that American opinion wouldn’t rally for war, or accept its dire consequences. But the Philadelphia convention that drafted our national covenant in 1787 was hastened, and its welter of opinions unified, by the Barbary question. As the historian Thomas Bailey wrote, “In an indirect sense, the brutal Dey of Algiers was a Founding Father of the Constitution.”

Barbary Pirates torture western prisoners

America still sued for peace. The Betsy’s release had been negotiated, albeit abjectly, and to the accompaniment of America’s first diplomatic accord, the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Ship-Signals, signed with Morocco in 1786. But no sooner was the ship let go and its captives freed than it was recaptured by Tunis and renamed the Mashuda. Also, Washington at one point found itself spending 20% of its annual revenue in paying blackmail to a loose confederation of terrorists on the high seas. Under Jefferson’s presidency, the first era of American military predominance was inaugurated, with men like William Bainbridge, William Eaton and the Byronic swashbuckler Stephen Decatur, becoming folk heroes.

....Santayana got it backwards, in fact: even those who remember history are still doomed to repeat it."

[Westbrook]

America’s Moslem Heritage:

1979 US Embassy taken hostage in Tehran
1983 Marine Barracks in Lebanon
1993 WTC Bombing
1998 US Embassy bombings, Kenya and Tanzania
2000 USS Cole
2001 9-11 attack on WTC leaves THOUSANDS dead

There are actually many, many, many more, dating all the way back to the 18th century, but you get the idea.

[sueuprising]

Where were Muslims during the Civil Rights era of this country? Not present.”
Was with you on the rest, but this one is false.
I hope you are not referring to the Black Muslims of the Malcolm X ilk. And if you are saying that individuals of the Moslem faith may have participated in civil rights activities, they were unknown to have dones so as a group. Or do you have another example?

[James C. Bennett]

"The North Wall Frieze shows lawgivers from the middle ages on and includes representations of Justinian, Muhammad, Charlemagne, John of England, Louis IX of France, Hugo Grotius, Sir William Blackstone, John Marshall, and Napoleon. The figure of Muhammad has caused controversy."

Muhammad on the North Wall of the US Supreme Court Building.

Discuss.

[icwhatudo]

Yes, I am talking about Malcom X and his ilk. Not saying I in any way support them.

[television is just wrong]

he is revisioning american history. just like the revisioning of the holocaust. can he be impeached yet?

[ZULU]

America’s “other” Muslim heritage is the African slave trade and any contributions made to it by Muslim slave dealers as Islam supports and advocates slavery for any non-Muslim.

Obama is a horse’s @$$!!

[icwhatudo]

"Where were Muslims during World War II?"

I don't think the US army officially recognized Muslim as a religion until 1952 so how would we know how many served for the US? IIRC, many North African Muslims fought for the Free French and many Indian Muslims fought for the British.

Yes, I know about the pictures of the grand mufta guy with the nazis and agree that the majority of Muslims were on the wrong side.

Please don't mistake my debate on these "absolute" points (There were NO muslims in...) as anything more than friendly debate to sharpen our conservative message. Too many times these emails that go around are easily dismissed because of a few errors.

[NorthStarStateConservative]

“Well, I’ve lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a Muslim that I’m sorry for now. I was a zombie then — like all Muslims — I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man’s entitled to make a fool of himself if he’s ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years. That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days — I’m glad to be free of them.”

-Malcolm X.

[Honorary Serb]

.....Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to mention the Barbary Pirates. They were Muslim....

The Barbary Pirate terrorists—and the anti-terroist war launched by Thomas Jefferson—constitute the sum total of America’s “muslim heritage”!!!!

These bandit terrorists staged their horrific attacks (including slave-raiding) and demands for tribute (jizya) as a jihad, in the name of islam. islam hasn’t changed a bit. It’s still our enemy.

Let’s be like Thomas Jefferson—NOT like Neville Chamberlain or Vidkun Quisling. Stomp on the muslims until they are totally defeated!!!!

[sueuprising]

“Yes, I am talking about Malcom X and his ilk. Not saying I in any way support them.”
Black Muslims are a group of African Americans who take their beliefs from what is known as the Nation of Islam, an organization not recognized or supported by orthodox Moslems. It was primarily a politically infused group of activist blacks most notably by Malcolm X in the ‘50’s and ‘60s. Its agenda is a hodge podge of pseudo Islamic beliefs and Black racist propaganda. For example, the leader of the Nation of ISlam is the notorious Louis Farrakhan whose anti semitic rhetoric has made him infamous.

[sueuprising]

I was under the impression that Malcolm X left the Black Muslims in favor of becoming a Sunni Moslem at the end of his lfe. But that does not change the fact that Moslems were not factors in the Civil Rights movement of the early ‘60s.

[ml/nj]

bump

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

*** as Islam supports and advocates slavery for any non-Muslim.***

Just an interesting side note, in the 1600s Moslems invaded and captured the entire town of Baltimore, Ireland. They took the entire population to Morroco and sold them into slavery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_corsairs

I had two better links but they have disappeared.

[opbuzz]

My guess would be that Mohammed is the guy with the scimitar and beard, not the one with the wings.

[icwhatudo]

Awesome info-Thanks!

Found this as part of the wiki link to another link:

In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli’s envoy in London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring “concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury”, the ambassador replied:

It was written in their Qu’ran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every Muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once. [13]

Jefferson reported the conversation to Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay, who submitted the Ambassador’s comments and offer to Congress Thanks for then info.