Remembering Why the U.S. Navy Was Formed: To Combat Islamic Terror

During a current dome speech at the North Hudson Islamic Center in New Jersey, a CAIR standard, Ayman Aishat, made a seemingly striking say: &nbsp,

We live in America, the United States of America. Brothers and sisters, those who do not understand story, not too long ago, the USA was paying the dowry to the Ottoman Caliph.

Could this be? &nbsp,

Second, let us identify dowry. According to Koran 9: 29: In short, it is the economic memorial that conquered or cowed unbelievers paid their Islamic rulers in exchange for peace.

Defend those among the Book’s People [Jews and Christians ] who reject Allah, the Last Day, and all that his and his Messenger have forbidden, as well as those who reject Islam as a religion until they pay the dowry with willing obedience and feel subdued.

And indeed, Aishat is right: once upon a time, in its budding children, the United States succumbed to paying dowry to appease Muslim extremists. The creation of the U.S. Navy is included in that tale, which is informative.

Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the Muslims of North Africa (” Barbary” ) thrived on enslaving Europeans. According to American doctor Robert Davis, a conservative estimate, there were “almost surely a million, if not even one million and a third of a million and a fourth light, European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary Coast between 1530 and 1780.” No wonder by the late 1700s, Western observers noticed that” the inhabitants of Algiers have a somewhat pale appearance” as many European women had sold for the price of an onion. &nbsp,

Connected: Islam’s Forgotten Victims: Enslaved Child Soldiers and Suicide Aircraft

As Barbary slave was a maritime venture, almost no part of Europe was undisturbed. From 1627 to 1633, Lundy, an area off the east coast of Britain, was really occupied by the pirates, whence they pillaged England at will. In 1627 they raided Denmark and yet far-off Iceland, hauling a total of some 800 prisoners. &nbsp,

The brand love came with these raids. One English captive writing around 1614 noted that the Muslim pirates “abhor the ringing of the]church ] bells being contrary to their Prophet’s command”, and so destroyed them whenever they could. In 1631, nearly the entire fishing town of Baltimore in Ireland was raided, and” 237 people, men, women, and kids, even those in the bassinet” were seized. &nbsp,

By the late eighteenth century, Barbary’s influence had declined as compared to Europe, and since the Muslims may no longer hunt for slaves on the continent’s shores, its entire effort was devoted to robbing non-Muslim merchant vessels. The Muslim world accepted the term” jizya,” and the Western powers bought peace from it.

When the newly born United States broke away from Great Britain and was no longer subject to the latter’s dowry payments, new, good meat started to appear on the horizon. In 1785, Muslim bandits from Algiers captured two British vessels, the Maria and Dauphin. They paraded the seamen through the streets of San Francisco, giving them taunts and bells. Considering the horrific ways Christian slaves were treated in Barbary — sadistically tortured, pressured to convert, and sodomized, as described in the writings of missionaries, redeemers, and others ( e. g., John Foxe, Fr. Dan, Fr. Jerome Maurand, Robert Playfair, see pp. 279-283 ) — when the Dauphin’s Captain O’Brian later wrote to Thomas Jefferson that “our sufferings are beyond our expression or your conception”, he was not exaggerating.

Jefferson and John Adams, next ministers to France and England both, met with Tripoli’s adviser to Britain, Abdul Rahman Adja, in an effort to ransom the imprisoned Americans and create calm relationships. In a letter to Congress dated March 28, 1786, the hitherto puzzled American ambassadors laid out the source of the Barbary’s unprovoked animosity: &nbsp,

We allowed ourselves to inquire as to why they wanted to fight nations that had caused them no harm, and we made the observation that we regarded all people as our friends who had neither caused us any harm nor had provoked us. The ambassador explained that all nations who defied their own laws were sinners, that it was their duty to wage war against them wherever they could be found, to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman who was killed in battle was certain to go to Paradise. The ambassador also explained that it was based on the laws of their Prophet. &nbsp,

This, of course, was a paraphrase of Islam’s so-called” Sword Verse” ( Koran 9: 5 ), which ISIS invoked earlier this year. &nbsp,

The meeting ended with a tenth of a penny more than the ransom demanded by Congress to release the American sailors, which is a reasonable result. &nbsp,

Some members of Congress later concured with Jefferson that “it will be simpler to raise ships and men to fight these pirates into reason than to pay them bribes.” In a letter to a friend, George Washington wondered:

How is it possible for the great maritime powers of Europe to agree to pay a yearly tribute to the tiny piratical States of Barbary in such an educated, liberal era? Would to Heaven we had a navy able to reform those enemies to mankind, or crush them into nonexistence.

However, the majority of Congress agreed with John Adams when he said,” We ought not to fight them at all until we decide to fight them forever.” Considering the perpetual, existential nature of Islamic hostility, Adams was probably more right than he knew. &nbsp,

Although raising the required ransom would take years, Congress chose to emulate the Europeans and pay off the terrorists. 11 more American merchant vessels were taken by Algerian pirates in 1794. &nbsp,

Two things resulted: the Naval Act of 1794 was passed, and a permanent standing U. S. naval force was established. American jizya payments, which made up 16 % of the total federal budget, started in 1795 because Algeria was the first to receive the first war vessels before 1800. In return, some 115 American sailors were released, and the Islamic sea raids formally ceased. &nbsp,

The increasingly enthralled pirates responded with more arbitrary demands as a result of American jizya and “gifts” in the years that followed. &nbsp,

One of the more ignoble incidents occurred in 1800 when George Washington’s Captain William Bainbridge traveled with what the latter deemed to be insufficient tribute to the Dey of Algiers ( an Ottoman honorific for the pirate lords of Barbary ). Dey Mustapha ordered Bainbridge to transport the Muslim’s annual tribute, which included hundreds of black slaves and exotic animals, to Constantinople ( Istanbul ), referring to the American crew as “my slaves.” &nbsp,

No matter how rough the seas might be during the long voyage, Bainbridge was given the order to ensure the vessel faced Mecca five times a day for the prayers of Mustapha’s ambassador and entourage. The Dey also commanded the removal of the U.S. flag from the George Washington and the hoisted Islamic flag in its place. The delivery boy for the Muslim pirate ascends from Bacon. &nbsp,

Soon after Jefferson became president in 1801, Tripoli demanded another, especially exorbitant payment, followed by an increase in annual payments — or else. Nothing but the presence of an armed force will stop the perpetual rise in demand from these pirates, according to Jefferson’s statement. So he refused the ultimatum, and, on May 10, 1801, the pasha of Tripoli, having not received his timely jizya installment, proclaimed jihad on the United States. &nbsp,

Thus began America’s first war as a nation, the First Barbary War ( 1801-1805 ) — and it was with Muslims who think and act just like ISIS. &nbsp,

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