At War With the Nation of Islam

What you are about to read, should you elect to proceed, may not be new to you. I will admit to being somewhat ashamed that it was new to me. And the more I researched a lot of history, including excerpts from the diary of our third president, Thomas Jefferson, the more I realized it's not only us that fundamentalist Muslims hate, it's ALL non-believers of the Muslim faith.

I am but one of what I suspect is a majority of Americans who are/were unaware that America declared war on Islam, not in 2001...but over two hundred years ago. 

At the height of the eighteenth century, Muslim pirates were the terror of the Mediterranean, not to mention a significant portion of the north Atlantic as well. The pirates represented the Islamic nations of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco and Algiers. Combined, these four nations were collectively known as "The Barbary Coast." And combined they represented a very real, very dangerous and unprovoked threat to the new American republic.

During the time prior to the Revolutionary War, U.S merchant ships fell under the protection of England. Then, when the U.S. declared independence and entered into war, U.S. ships were protected by France. Once the war was won, America had to step up to the plate and protect it's own fleets. 

In 1784, some seventeen years before Thomas Jefferson would become president, he departed for Paris, to become America's Minister to France. That very same year, the U.S. Congress, in an effort to "appease" it's Muslim adversaries, began following in the footsteps, if you will, of European nations who paid bribes to the Barbary States, as opposed to engaging them in an all-out war.

Barely a year later, in 1785, Algerian pirates captured two American ships (does this sound like what is happening in Somalia to you?) and promptly demanded a ransom of nearly $60,000. Remember, this was in 1785. Can you imagine what $60,000 at that time would translate into now?

Regardless, it was extortion, plain and simple. Thomas Jefferson, now the Minister to France for the U.S., was 100% opposed to making any further payments. Instead, he offered a plan to Congress. Jefferson's plan called for the formation of a coalition of allied nations, who, acting together, could force the Barbary States into perpetual peace.

Unfortunately, Congress didn't even consider Jefferson's proposal and elected instead to pay the ransom.

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams met with Tripoli's ambassador to Great Britain and asked him by what right his nation attacked U.S. flagged ships and enslaved American citizens. 

Get a load of this.....

Tripoli's ambassador claimed, unequivocally, that the right was founded on the laws of their prophet and that it was written in the Koran that ALL nations who did not acknowledge their authority were sinners. Furthermore, it was not only their right and duty to make war upon these sinners wherever they could be found, but to make slaves of all they could capture as prisoners. And, as a result, every Muslim slain in battle was guaranteed a place in Paradise.

Now, despite this well documented admission of premeditated violence on non-Muslim countries, as well as the objections of several notable Americans, the latter including George Washington, the U.S. Congress decided to continue to pay off the Barbary Muslims with bribes and ransom money.

Indeed, over the course of the next fifteen years, they paid Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers and Morocco, one million dollars a year! By 1800, one million dollars translated to 20% of the U.S. government's annual revenues.

Thomas Jefferson (according to excerpts from his diary), was disgusted.

To add insult to injury, the pasha of Tripoli sent Jefferson a note, after the latter was sworn in as president in 1801, demanding an immediate payment of $225,000 plus $25,000 a year for every year thereafter. 

And that was when everything changed.

Thomas Jefferson sent word back, effectively telling the pasha what he could do with his demands. The pasha responded by chopping down the flagpole in front of the U.S. Consulate and immediately declared war on the U.S. Tunis, Morocco and Algiers of course, followed suit with Tripoli.

Jefferson, who had initially been opposed to developing a naval force for anything other than coastal protection, decided it was time to meet force with force.

He dispatched a squadron of frigates to the Mediterranean. Congress authorized Jefferson to empower their navy to seize all vessels and goods of the pasha of Tripoli and also to "cause to be done all other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war would justify."

When Algiers and Tunis, both of whom by this time were accustomed to American cowardice, saw that the new America was both willing and able to strike back, they abandoned all allegiance to Tripoli.

Nevertheless, the war with Tripoli went on for four more years and actually flared up once more in 1815. The absolute bravery of the U.S. Marine Corps led to the line "to the shores of Tripoli" in the Marine hymn and they would forever after be known as "leathernecks" for the leather collars of their uniforms which prevented their heads from being chopped off by Muslim swords, during the boarding of ships.

Islam and what it's followers were doing in the name of their prophet, greatly disturbed Jefferson. Jefferson, who incidentally, had coauthored the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, said later "Islam is like no other religion the world has ever seen." A religion based completely upon supremacy whose holy book, the Koran, not only condoned but mandated violence against unbelievers. This was unacceptable to Jefferson.

One of Thomas Jefferson's greatest fears was that this brand of Islam would someday return and pose an even greater threat to the United States.

Man oh man, did he ever call that one.

I have said before that I will personally believe there is a difference between "peaceful Muslims" and "radical Muslims" when the former begin calling out the latter on their deeds of terrorism, After researching this piece, I am even more led to believe that no such line exists.

God Bless America.