Obama is right: 'Islam has always been part of America'
As Congress is on the verge of giving President Obama his Iran Deal, including a payoff of $150 billion dollars to Irans terror regime, they might do well to contrast our founding fathers with the current occupant of the White House.
In the Ramadan speech in which he declared his support for the Ground Zero Mosque, Obama returned to a favorite theme of his:
Ramadan is a reminder that Islam has always been part of America. The first Muslim ambassador to the United States, from Tunisia, was hosted by President Jefferson, who arranged a sunset dinner for his guest because it was Ramadanmaking it the first known Iftar at the White House, more than 200 years ago.
You would think Obama would keep his mouth shut about this particular chapter in American history.
Yes, Mr. President, Islam was part of American history. The brutal, barbarous Islamic states of Tripoli (Tunisia), and Morocco terrorized the Mediterranean with their Barbary Pirates. They kidnapped, enslaved and tortured Western seaman. At one time 20,000 seamen were in captivity in Algiers. Those with money bought their freedom. Seaman without money were sold as slaves who were worked to death in mines and galleys.
According to historian Paul Johnson...The US Congress chose bribery. The US paid Algiers its ransom as much as $1 million each year for the next fifteen years to the year 1800. This was close to 20 percent of Washington's revenues.
In France, Jefferson asked Tripoli's ambassador what right Tripoli had to extort money and take slaves. According to Jefferson, the ambassador answered that such a right was founded on the Laws of the Prophet: that it was written in the Koran that all nations who did not recognize 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 Muslim slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.
Michel Oren writes in Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present
European women, prized for their fair complexion, were sold to harems.
American seamen were kept in dungeons awaiting ransom: perfectly darkmany nearly nakedthe slightest resistance was punishably by beatings on the feet, beheading, or impalement on iron spikes.
Mrs. Maria Martintold of being stripped, extensively inspected and chained in a lightless cell for two years, for refusing to serve as a concubine.
Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay warned that the alarming evil of Barbary not only endangered American trade but also signaled Americas weakness.Adams had heard enoughnegotiating with them only irritated the Appretite of those Barbarians and brought shame on the United States.Jefferson also persisted in asserting that peace with Barbary was attainable only through the medium of war.
George Washington felt the highest disgrace in seeing Americans become tributary to such banditti who might for half the sum that is paid them be exterminated from the earth.
Outside the legislature, many Americans had grown dismayed with their countrys policy of admonishing pirates verbally while simultaneously coddling them with bribes. mounting criticism especially reflected in The Algerian Captiveexcoriating persons who make degrading treaties with piractical powers and who furnish them with the weapons for extracting even more humiliating concessionsreminding Americans of necessity of uniting our federal strength to enforce a due respect among other nations and that our first object is union among ourselves.
Finally, after trying appeasement and seeing more American ships seized, the newly independent United States could not afford to pay the extortionate demands of the Sultans, so we had to fight. It was our first act on the world stage as a new nation.
Red box rules apply. Stay civil and stay on topic when posting here.
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Why did you purge all the comments and re-seed this?
Do you think that will save you? lol
Looks like XX can't take the heat....LOLOL, reseeding the article after getting comments that point out what a load of nonsense his articles are..
Sounds like something that a ''jack booted thug'' would do. Is that how your going to run the mythical state of Jefferson?
Ahhhh, poor baby can't take the heat.
Your red box rules need to be typed in red. That's why there called ''Red Box Rules''.
I believe your red box rules need to be in red type.
There are people here who disagree with every word you say who are too kind to you, and end up enabling you. Your extremist nonsense deserves to be ostracized.
Jack boot thug is juvenile. Something that you display on a regular basis.
"I don't do that to you despite my opinion as to the nature of what you put up around here. "
I don't give a damn what you do.
Speaking strictly as a member (no purple) I see no violation of the CoC in what Let's Get Lost" wrote as he said he feels you deserve to be ostracized. Not that he was going to do so himself, encourage others to do it or to start to harass you in any manner outside of the CoC.
Of course that's just my opinion and I could be wrong.
Fuck Obama and all his fellow Muslims.
He's not an American, they're not Americans, and why should we give two shits about a bunch of dirt merchants?
It's time to circle the wagons, and throw the garbage overboard.
Oh, and that includes everyone that supports the garbage, they're traitors.
LOLOL, same old Mike L.
He is almost instantly recognized when he comes back. He says some nasty shit, but I'm still glad to call him a friend and to have him on my friends list.
First Barbary War
The First Barbary War (18011805), also known as the Tripolitanian War and the Barbary Coast War , was the first of two Barbary Wars between the United States and the four North African states known collectively as the " Barbary States ". Three of these were nominal provinces of the Ottoman Empire , but in practice autonomous: Tripoli , Algiers , and Tunis . The fourth was the independent Sultanate of Morocco . [ 2 ] The cause of the war was pirates from the Barbary States seizing American merchant ships and holding the crews for ransom, demanding the U.S. pay tribute to the Barbary rulers. United States President Thomas Jefferson refused to pay this tribute. It was the first military action in foreign lands and seas authorized by the U.S. Congress.
Barbary corsairs and crews from the North African Ottoman provinces of Algiers , Tunis , Tripoli , and the independent Sultanate of Morocco under the Alaouite dynasty (the Barbary Coast ) were the scourge of the Mediterranean . [ 3 ] Capturing merchant ships and enslaving or ransoming their crews provided the Muslim rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power. The Roman Catholic Trinitarian Order , or order of "Mathurins", had operated from France for centuries with the special mission of collecting and disbursing funds for the relief and ransom of prisoners of Mediterranean pirates. According to Robert Davis, between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries. [ 4 ]
Barbary corsairs led attacks upon American merchant shipping in an attempt to extort ransom for the lives of captured sailors, and ultimately tribute from the United States to avoid further attacks, as they did with the various European states. [ 5 ] Before the Treaty of Paris , which formalized the United States' independence from Great Britain , U.S. shipping was protected by France during the revolutionary years under the Treaty of Alliance (177883). Although the treaty does not mention the Barbary States in name, it refers to common enemies between both the U.S. and France. As such, piracy against U.S. shipping only began to occur after the end of the American Revolution , when the U.S. government lost its protection under the Treaty of Alliance.
This lapse of protection by a European power led to the first American merchant ship being seized after the Treaty of Paris. On 11 October 1784, Moroccan pirates seized the brigantine Betsey . [ 6 ] The Spanish government negotiated the freedom of the captured ship and crew; however, Spain offered advice to the United States on how to deal with the Barbary States. The advice was to offer tribute to prevent further attacks against merchant ships. The U.S. Minister to France, Thomas Jefferson , decided to send envoys to Morocco and Algeria to try to purchase treaties and the freedom of the captured sailors held by Algeria. [ 7 ] Morocco was the first Barbary Coast State to sign a treaty with the U.S., on 23 June 1786. This treaty formally ended all Moroccan piracy against American shipping interests. Specifically, article six of the treaty states that if any Americans captured by Moroccans or other Barbary Coast States docked at a Moroccan city, they would be set free and come under the protection of the Moroccan State. [ 8 ]
American diplomatic action with Algeria, the other major Barbary Coast State, was much less productive than with Morocco. Algeria began piracy against the U.S. on 25 July 1785 with the capture of the schooner Maria , and Dauphin a week later. [ 9 ] All four Barbary Coast states demanded $660,000 each. However, the envoys were given only an allocated budget of $40,000 to achieve peace. [ 10 ] Diplomatic talks to reach a reasonable sum for tribute or for the ransom of the captured sailors struggled to make any headway. The crews of Maria and Dauphin remained in captivity for over a decade, and soon were joined by crews of other ships captured by the Barbary States. [ 11 ]
In 1795, Algeria came to an agreement that resulted in the release of 115 American sailors they held, at a cost of over $1million. This amount totaled about one-sixth of the entire U.S. budget, [ 12 ] and was demanded as tribute by the Barbary States to prevent further piracy. The continuing demand for tribute ultimately led to the formation of the United States Department of the Navy , founded in 1798 [ 13 ] to prevent further attacks upon American shipping and to end the demands for extremely large tributes from the Barbary States.
Various letters and testimonies by captured sailors describe their captivity as a form of slavery, even though Barbary Coast imprisonment was different from that practiced by the U.S. and European powers of the time. [ 14 ] Barbary Coast prisoners were able to obtain wealth and property, along with achieving status beyond that of a slave. One such example was James Leander Cathcart , who rose to the highest position a Christian slave could achieve in Algeria, becoming an adviser to the bey (governor). [ 15 ] Even so, most captives were pressed into hard labor in the service of the Barbary pirates, and struggled under extremely poor conditions that exposed them to vermin and disease. As word of their treatment reached the U.S., through freed captives' narratives and letters, Americans pushed for direct government action to stop the piracy against U.S. ships.
In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy, ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). When they enquired "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 Koran, 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 mussulman 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. [ 22 ]
Jefferson reported the conversation to Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay , who submitted the ambassador's comments and offer to Congress. Jefferson argued that paying tribute would encourage more attacks. Although John Adams agreed with Jefferson, he believed that circumstances forced the U.S. to pay tribute until an adequate navy could be built. The U.S. had just fought an exhausting war, which put the nation deep in debt. Federalist and Anti-Federalist forces argued over the needs of the country and the burden of taxation. Jefferson's own Democratic-Republicans and anti-navalists believed that the future of the country lay in westward expansion , with Atlantic trade threatening to siphon money and energy away from the new nation, to be spent on wars in the Old World . [ 23 ] The U.S. paid Algiers the ransom, and continued to pay up to $1million per year over the next 15 years for the safe passage of American ships and the return of American hostages. [ citation needed ] A $1million payment in ransom and tribute to the privateering states amounted to approximately 10% of the U.S. government's annual revenues in 1800. [ 24 ]
Jefferson continued to argue for cessation of the tribute, with rising support from George Washington and others. With the recommissioning of the American Navy in 1794 and the resulting increased firepower on the seas, it became increasingly possible for America to refuse paying tribute, although by now the long-standing habit was hard to overturn.
Declaration of war and naval blockade
Immediately prior to Jefferson's inauguration in 1801, Congress passed naval legislation that, among other things, provided for six frigates that 'shall be officered and manned as the President of the United States may direct.' ... In the event of a declaration of war on the United States by the Barbary powers, these ships were to 'protect our commerce and chastise their insolenceby sinking, burning or destroying their ships and vessels wherever you shall find them.'" [ 25 ] On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yusuf Karamanli , the Pasha (or Bashaw ) of Tripoli, demanded $225,000 from the new administration. (In 1800, federal revenues totaled a little over $10 million). Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, on 10 May 1801, the Pasha declared war on the U.S., not through any formal written documents but in the customary Barbary manner of cutting down the flagstaff in front of the U.S. Consulate . [ 26 ] Algiers and Tunis did not follow their ally in Tripoli.
Before learning that Tripoli had declared war on the United States, Jefferson sent a small squadron, consisting of three frigates and one schooner, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale with gifts and letters to attempt to maintain peace with the Barbary powers. [ 27 ] However, in the event that war had been declared, Dale was instructed "to protect American ships and citizens against potential aggression," but Jefferson "insisted that he was 'unauthorized by the constitution , without the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of defense.'" He told Congress : "I communicate [to you] all material information on this subject, that in the exercise of this important function confided by the constitution to the legislature ... their judgment may form itself on a knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of weight." [ 25 ] Although Congress never voted on a formal declaration of war, they did authorize the President to instruct the commanders of armed American vessels to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli "and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify." The American squadron joined a Swedish flotilla under Rudolf Cederstrm in blockading Tripoli, the Swedes having been at war with the Tripolitans since 1800. [ 28 ]
On 31 May 1801, Commodore Edward Preble traveled to Messina, Sicily, to the court of King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples. He sought help and found a good ally. The kingdom was at war with Napoleon, but Ferdinand supplied the Americans with manpower, craftsmen, supplies, gunboats, mortar boats, and the ports of Messina, Syracuse and Palermo to be used as a naval base to launch operations against Tripoli, a port walled fortress city protected by 150 pieces of heavy artillery manned by 25,000 soldiers, assisted by a fleet of 10 ten-gunned brigs , 2 eight-gun schooners , two large galleys , and 19 gunboats . [ 29 ]
The schooner Enterprise (commanded by Lieutenant Andrew Sterret) defeated the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair Tripoli after a one-sided battle on 1 August 1801.
In 1802, in response to Jefferson's request for authority to deal with the pirates, Congress passed "An act for the protection of commerce and seamen of the United States against the Tripolitan cruisers", authorizing the President to "employ such of the armed vessels of the United States as may be judged requisite for protecting effectually the commerce and seamen thereof on the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and adjoining seas." [ 30 ] "The statute authorized American ships to seize vessels belonging to the Bey of Tripoli , with the captured property distributed to those who brought the vessels into port." [ 25 ]
The U.S Navy went unchallenged on the sea, but still the question remained undecided. Jefferson pressed the issue the following year, with an increase in military force and deployment of many of the navy's best ships to the region throughout 1802. Argus , Chesapeake , Constellation , Constitution , Enterprise , Intrepid , Philadelphia and Syren all saw service during the war under the overall command of Preble. Throughout 1803, Preble set up and maintained a blockade of the Barbary ports and executed a campaign of raids and attacks against the cities' fleets.
Jefferson reported the conversation to Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay , who submitted the ambassador's comments and offer to Congress. Jefferson argued that paying tribute would encourage more attacks. Although John Adams agreed with Jefferson, he believed that circumstances forced the U.S. to pay tribute until an adequate navy could be built. The U.S. had just fought an exhausting war, which put the nation deep in debt. Federalist and Anti-Federalist forces argued over the needs of the country and the burden of taxation. Jefferson's own Democratic-Republicans and anti-navalists believed that the future of the country lay in westward expansion , with Atlantic trade threatening to siphon money and energy away from the new nation, to be spent on wars in the Old World . [ 23 ] The U.S. paid Algiers the ransom, and continued to pay up to $1million per year over the next 15 years for the safe passage of American ships and the return of American hostages. [ citation needed ] A $1million payment in ransom and tribute to the privateering states amounted to approximately 10% of the U.S. government's annual revenues in 1800. [ 24 ]
Continue Reading on Wikipedia
Now aren't you embarrassed that such a simple minded person has made fools of you?
I'll agree with the simple minded personpart. But how did information from Wiki make fools of anyone. No on disputed the Barbary Wars.
At first I didn't think this was Mike, and it is certainly possible if not inevitable that there are a lot of people who are not Mike but think like him and express like him. But on NT ? That seems unlikely. I think we have Mike back.
Criticizing for the sake of arguing without any worthwhile contribution is foolish.
Don't be offended. I've done it many times.
Completely off topic Jefferson and I will remove if you want me to do so, but here is something that will bring tears to your eyes that continues today. Please no discussion on this thread about it, but I just don't want to put an article up at this time. If someone else does I think it would be nice because there is much more than this one video or info concerning this and how it intertwines with many other adversities yesterday and today. I saw this once before and couldn't find it again until xxxJefferson put the article up about Hawaii. Kavika suggested he read the "Sugar Barons".
CBC Big Sugar 1 of 2 Documentary on the Political History of the Sugar Industry
Funny how one thing may lead to another and new information and knowledge is derived from it.
I never disputed the seed. I disputed your nonsense.
Yes I did call this seed and other nonsense..That is not a attack on you, nor is it a untrue, they are a pile of nonsense.
If you going to complain about off topic, I suggest that you review all the comments on this article. Did you call the comment by Joey, as vulgar as it is off topic, or do you agree with it.
BTW, the red box rules in red were put up long after this article was seeded.
I have no personal vendetta against you XX....That's in your mind.
Now calling me a ''slimy trial lawyer'' is a false attack. Not all trial lawyers are slimy, and arefar more educated than you are.
I will not take down my post.