Real History Lesson - The Barbary Wars - Shores of Tripoli - First war with Islam

Submitted by genesal (United States), Jul 11, 2007 at 19:19

Beware! They are patient. Remember the Marine's Hymn? .... From the Halls of Montezuma to the SHORES OF TRIPOLI.

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then the ambassador to France, and John Adams, then the ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the ambassador to Britain from Tripoli. The Americans asked Adja why his government was hostile to American ships, even though there had been no provocation. The ambassador's response was reported to the Continental Congress:

That it 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.^[

According to Robert Davis between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 17th century. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and from more distant places like France or England, the Netherlands, Ireland and even Iceland and North America.

The President even paid for protection and ransome - this finally led to war. I've been to one war but this one will be more enjoyable, believe me. Don't take me for some naive person I was married to a woman with a Palestinan father and a Lebanese mother and I know ALL of the arguments.

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