thedrifter
01-10-07, 11:03 PM
The Shores Of Tripoli
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 1/10/2007
Precedent: Our first Muslim congressman says Thomas Jefferson used insight from the Quran in founding our country. Perhaps he was using it to gain insights on our Islamic enemy in our first war on terror.
Freshman Congressman Keith Ellison, who created a stir when he decided to take his oath of office on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Quran, said in a recent interview with the Detroit Free Press that he used the Islamic holy book during his oath because it helped the founding fathers of America.
The Quran "is definitely an important historical document in our national history and demonstrates that Jefferson was a broad visionary thinker who not only possessed a Quran but read it," Ellison said. "It would have been something that contributed to his own thinking."
Jefferson no doubt read his copy of the Quran, one of 6,500 books in his library, and no doubt gained insights from it. But it was not because he had writer's block when crafting the Declaration of Independence. It was more likely to gain insights on the thinking of the Barbary pirates, America's first Islamic enemy in our first war on terror.
When the colonies declared their independence from the British Empire, American merchant ships lost the protection of the British Navy. Our ships were attacked and their crews imprisoned by Muslim pirates operating under the control of an Islamist warlord ruling what is now Algeria.
Before American schools stopped teaching American history, everybody knew about the Barbary pirates, Islamic seafaring raiders who, when not engaging in a lucrative slave trade, spent their off-hours raiding American and British commerce.
Those who think nothing much happened between the West and the Muslim world between the Crusades and 9/11 are wrong. The Barbary pirates declared war on the fledgling U.S. in 1785 when they seized two American vessels off Portugal, imprisoning 21 people. They also provoked us into military action again in 1801 and 1815.
In 1786, Jefferson, then our ambassador to France, joined John Adams, our ambassador to Britain, in London to meet with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Dey of Algiers' ambassador, to negotiate a treaty. During that meeting, the two asked the ambassador the reason for the piracy.
Jefferson and Adams reported that the ambassador said 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 that every Muslim slain in these battles "was sure to go to Paradise."
Sound familiar? That's probably why Jefferson had a copy of the Quran, to gain a greater understanding of what motivated those who were making war upon his country.
It was during the Jefferson administration that the Muslim Barbary States agreed to cease and desist after Jefferson's unilateral deployment of naval forces and the U.S. Marines in a series of military actions that became part of the Marine Hymn.
It was Jefferson who coined the phrase "millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," something our current crop of politicians should keep in mind in dealing with thugs in Iran and North Korea.
Jefferson deployed U.S. warships and U.S. Marines in a military reaction to the Barbary States. In 1805, U.S. Marines engaged in a different kind of diplomacy, marching from Egypt to the Barbary state of Tripolitania, forcing its surrender and the freeing of all American captives.
Apparently, Jefferson learned all he needed to know from his copy of the Quran.
Ellie
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 1/10/2007
Precedent: Our first Muslim congressman says Thomas Jefferson used insight from the Quran in founding our country. Perhaps he was using it to gain insights on our Islamic enemy in our first war on terror.
Freshman Congressman Keith Ellison, who created a stir when he decided to take his oath of office on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Quran, said in a recent interview with the Detroit Free Press that he used the Islamic holy book during his oath because it helped the founding fathers of America.
The Quran "is definitely an important historical document in our national history and demonstrates that Jefferson was a broad visionary thinker who not only possessed a Quran but read it," Ellison said. "It would have been something that contributed to his own thinking."
Jefferson no doubt read his copy of the Quran, one of 6,500 books in his library, and no doubt gained insights from it. But it was not because he had writer's block when crafting the Declaration of Independence. It was more likely to gain insights on the thinking of the Barbary pirates, America's first Islamic enemy in our first war on terror.
When the colonies declared their independence from the British Empire, American merchant ships lost the protection of the British Navy. Our ships were attacked and their crews imprisoned by Muslim pirates operating under the control of an Islamist warlord ruling what is now Algeria.
Before American schools stopped teaching American history, everybody knew about the Barbary pirates, Islamic seafaring raiders who, when not engaging in a lucrative slave trade, spent their off-hours raiding American and British commerce.
Those who think nothing much happened between the West and the Muslim world between the Crusades and 9/11 are wrong. The Barbary pirates declared war on the fledgling U.S. in 1785 when they seized two American vessels off Portugal, imprisoning 21 people. They also provoked us into military action again in 1801 and 1815.
In 1786, Jefferson, then our ambassador to France, joined John Adams, our ambassador to Britain, in London to meet with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Dey of Algiers' ambassador, to negotiate a treaty. During that meeting, the two asked the ambassador the reason for the piracy.
Jefferson and Adams reported that the ambassador said 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 that every Muslim slain in these battles "was sure to go to Paradise."
Sound familiar? That's probably why Jefferson had a copy of the Quran, to gain a greater understanding of what motivated those who were making war upon his country.
It was during the Jefferson administration that the Muslim Barbary States agreed to cease and desist after Jefferson's unilateral deployment of naval forces and the U.S. Marines in a series of military actions that became part of the Marine Hymn.
It was Jefferson who coined the phrase "millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," something our current crop of politicians should keep in mind in dealing with thugs in Iran and North Korea.
Jefferson deployed U.S. warships and U.S. Marines in a military reaction to the Barbary States. In 1805, U.S. Marines engaged in a different kind of diplomacy, marching from Egypt to the Barbary state of Tripolitania, forcing its surrender and the freeing of all American captives.
Apparently, Jefferson learned all he needed to know from his copy of the Quran.
Ellie