Other times, other people

The first Muslim congressman, Keith Ellison, swore his allegiance on a copy of the Koran that had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson. History as synthesis, or ironic twist of fate? Jefferson had the book for a very specific reason: he was doing essential research before calling for war on the Barbary states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli. American imperialism ante litteram? Well, no.

For 10 centuries, the barbary pirates had conducted a lucrative slave trade, mainly preying on Africans from the West coast, but also on tens of thousands of Europeans and even Americans. They were under the protection of the Islamic states, one of whose ambassadors, when asked why they enslaved Americans, a people they barely knew, gave the following answer:

[Islam] was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, 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 to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Jefferson proposed war to protect American trade in the Meditteranean, where it was being decimated. The Congress decided to appease and pay tribute instead. This they did for 15 years.

The payments in ransom and tribute amounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800.

Until Jefferson was elected president and sent in the marines.

In 1805, American Marines marched across the dessert from Egypt into Tripolitania, forcing the surrender of Tripoli and the freeing of all American slaves.

During the Jefferson administration, the Muslim Barbary States, crumbling as a result of intense American naval bombardment and on shore raids by Marines, finally officially agreed to abandon slavery and piracy.

Jefferson's victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine Hymn, with the line, "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, we will fight our country's battles on the land as on the sea."

The full article is here.

(via Augean Stables)