01-19-2007, 06:01 PM
Good read. Don't know enough history to validate it.
What Thomas Jefferson learned from the Muslim book of jihad
U.S. Veteran Dispatch January 2007
Ted Sampley Posted on 01/08/2007 11:11:11 AM PST
by Dick Bachert
Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United States congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Quran,
the Muslim book of jihad and pledged his allegiance to the United States
during his ceremonial swearing-in. Capitol Hill staff said Ellison's
swearing-in photo opportunity drew more media than they had ever
seen in the history of the U.S. House. Ellison represents the 5th
Congressional District of Minnesota.
The Quran Ellison used was no ordinary book. It once belonged to
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and one of
America's founding fathers. Ellison borrowed it from the Rare Book
Section of the Library of Congress. It was one of the 6,500 Jefferson
books archived in the library. Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam while in college, said he chose to use Jefferson's Quran because it showed that "a visionary like Jefferson" believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources. There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom could be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran.
At the time Jefferson owned the book, he needed to know
everything possible about Muslims because he was about to advocate war
against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli. Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject once well- known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is mostly forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.
Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the
African and Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing
slaves. The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal
villages had a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill off
as many of the "non-Muslim" older men and women as possible so the preferred "booty" of only young women and children could be collected. Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value as concubines in Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of Muslim men by allowing them to take as many as four wives at one time and to have as many concubines as their fortunes allow.
Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to
create eunuchs who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the
Middle East. Muslim slave traders created "eunuch stations" along major
Africanslave routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. It was
estimated that only a small number of the boys subjected to the mutilation survived after the surgery.
When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776,
American merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no
American Navy for protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews enslaved by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the "Dey of Algiers"--an Islamist warlord ruling Algeria. Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States.
Congress appointed a special commission consisting of John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations.
Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the Mediterranean, the
new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing to pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships
and buy the freedom of enslaved sailors. Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get American commerce in the Mediterranean moving again.
Jefferson was opposed. He believed there would be no end to the
demands for tribute and wanted matters settled "through the medium of war." He proposed a league of trading nations to force an end to Muslim piracy. In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and
Adams, then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi
Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the "Dey of Algiers'" ambassador to Britain.
The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress'
vote to appease. During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the
Dey's ambassador why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a
nation with which they had no previous contacts. In a later meeting
with the American Congress, the two future presidents reported
that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that 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 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."
For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims
millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return
of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted
to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800. Not
long after Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, he dispatched a
group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and
informed Congress.
Declaring that America was going to spend "millions for defense
but not one cent for tribute," Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying
American Marines and many of America's best warships to the Muslim
Barbary Coast. The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS Chesapeake, USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
In 1805, American Marines marched across the desert 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." It wasn't until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total defeat of all the Muslim slave trading pirates. Jefferson had been right. The "medium of war"was the only way to put and end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson. He was a "visionary" wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their own Muslim book of jihad.
Remember: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
What Thomas Jefferson learned from the Muslim book of jihad
U.S. Veteran Dispatch January 2007
Ted Sampley Posted on 01/08/2007 11:11:11 AM PST
by Dick Bachert
Democrat Keith Ellison is now officially the first Muslim United States congressman. True to his pledge, he placed his hand on the Quran,
the Muslim book of jihad and pledged his allegiance to the United States
during his ceremonial swearing-in. Capitol Hill staff said Ellison's
swearing-in photo opportunity drew more media than they had ever
seen in the history of the U.S. House. Ellison represents the 5th
Congressional District of Minnesota.
The Quran Ellison used was no ordinary book. It once belonged to
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and one of
America's founding fathers. Ellison borrowed it from the Rare Book
Section of the Library of Congress. It was one of the 6,500 Jefferson
books archived in the library. Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam while in college, said he chose to use Jefferson's Quran because it showed that "a visionary like Jefferson" believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources. There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom could be "gleaned" from the Muslim Quran.
At the time Jefferson owned the book, he needed to know
everything possible about Muslims because he was about to advocate war
against the Islamic "Barbary" states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli. Ellison's use of Jefferson's Quran as a prop illuminates a subject once well- known in the history of the United States, but, which today, is mostly forgotten - the Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved millions of Africans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans in the Islamic "Barbary" states.
Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the
African and Mediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing
slaves. The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal
villages had a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill off
as many of the "non-Muslim" older men and women as possible so the preferred "booty" of only young women and children could be collected. Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value as concubines in Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexual interests of Muslim men by allowing them to take as many as four wives at one time and to have as many concubines as their fortunes allow.
Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to
create eunuchs who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of the
Middle East. Muslim slave traders created "eunuch stations" along major
Africanslave routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. It was
estimated that only a small number of the boys subjected to the mutilation survived after the surgery.
When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776,
American merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no
American Navy for protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews enslaved by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the "Dey of Algiers"--an Islamist warlord ruling Algeria. Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States.
Congress appointed a special commission consisting of John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations.
Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the Mediterranean, the
new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing to pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships
and buy the freedom of enslaved sailors. Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to get American commerce in the Mediterranean moving again.
Jefferson was opposed. He believed there would be no end to the
demands for tribute and wanted matters settled "through the medium of war." He proposed a league of trading nations to force an end to Muslim piracy. In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and
Adams, then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi
Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the "Dey of Algiers'" ambassador to Britain.
The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress'
vote to appease. During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the
Dey's ambassador why Muslims held so much hostility towards America, a
nation with which they had no previous contacts. In a later meeting
with the American Congress, the two future presidents reported
that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja had answered that 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 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."
For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslims
millions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or the return
of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tribute amounted
to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in 1800. Not
long after Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, he dispatched a
group of frigates to defend American interests in the Mediterranean, and
informed Congress.
Declaring that America was going to spend "millions for defense
but not one cent for tribute," Jefferson pressed the issue by deploying
American Marines and many of America's best warships to the Muslim
Barbary Coast. The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS Chesapeake, USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
In 1805, American Marines marched across the desert 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." It wasn't until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total defeat of all the Muslim slave trading pirates. Jefferson had been right. The "medium of war"was the only way to put and end to the Muslim problem. Mr. Ellison was right about Jefferson. He was a "visionary" wise enough to read and learn about the enemy from their own Muslim book of jihad.
Remember: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
![[Image: ET%202.jpg]](http://www-scf.usc.edu/~chingyiw/GroupProject/NewPics/ET%202.jpg)