Did you know that ‘Islam Has Been Woven Into the Fabric of Our Country Since Its Founding’?

Flopping Aces ^ | 02-20-15 | DrJohn

[Starman417]

The latest fantasy from the fanciful imagination of Barack Obama:

We hear a lot about the United States' Judeo-Christian heritage, but according to President Obama, "Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding."

That's what the president told a White House conference on "countering violent extremism" on Wednesday.

Obama has said similar things in the past:

"I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story,” Obama said in a June 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. "Islam has always been part of America," he said in a 2010 statement marking the start of Ramadan. And in a 2014 statement marking Eid, Obama said the holiday "also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy."

What the hell is he talking about? Then again, maybe he has a point. Islam did touch the United States of America early on in its history- in the form of piracy.

Over two centuries ago, the United States was dragged into the affairs of the Islamic world by an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim pirates, the terrorists of the era. These pirates preyed on unsuspecting trade ships. The hulk­ing merchant vessels of the period were no match for the Muslim pirate ships, which were built for speed and lightning strikes. It was simply a fact of life that- over the centuries-took its toll on countless mer­chant ships and their crews.

Contemporary scholars estimate that over 1 million white Christians from France and Italy to Spain, Hol­land, Great Britain, the Americas, and even Iceland were captured between 1500 and 1800. The blood­curdling tales of brutality and horror that awaited Christians unlucky enough to fall victim to the Bar­bary Pirates were widely known, although sometimes wildly exaggerated.

Muslims were pioneers in the slave trade:

The reality was often much more prosaic, although no less cruel. After seizing the cargo and scuttling the vessel, the pirates would strip the crew of anything deemed remotely valuable. The shaken, naked, terri­fied crewmen would then be dragged back to North Africa. There, they would be imprisoned and enslaved or, if they were lucky, ransomed back to their sover­eign or their family or the company they worked for.

Often enough, however, the victims of these mari­time hijackings would languish in fetid prisons, unsure of when, or even if, they would ever be redeemed. Many perished or simply disappeared in the White Slave trade. The only other escape was conversion. Embracing Islam-"turning Turk"-instantly changed one's status and prospects. Indeed, from time to time, some of these victims would prove rather able-bodied adventurers and mercenaries, considering their national identity, their religion, and their foreskins a small price to pay as compared with life as a Muslim pirate in North Africa.

Please do read the while thing.

Then Obama fired off another salvo:

"Generations of Muslim immigrants came here and went to work as farmers and merchants and factory workers, helped to lay railroads and to build up America."

Because you know how important railroads were during the Revolutionary War. He wasn't done yet:

"The first Islamic center in New York City was founded in the 1890s. America's first mosque, this was an interesting fact, was in North Dakota."

Uh, no. It was 1929.

Let's review the Obama version of the birth of our nation with some images. You remember the writing of the Declaration of Independence:

[mjp]

>i>"Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding."

mohammedanism, which is utterly irrational, is the opposite of and is incompatible with the founding principles based on reason of our country

[fortheDeclaration]

Yes, we have been fighting it since we began as a nation.

[x]

He may have been thinking about slaves brought over here, and they didn't leave behind many traces. Omar Ibn Said was an educated Muslim African who was captured in war, enslaved and transported here. He later wrote his autobiography after he converted to Christianity and was freed. There's been some speculation about whether his conversion was real or motivated by a desire for freedom.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, also known as Job ben Solomon, was another educated Muslim who was briefly a slave in colonial America and wrote an account of his life. Abdu-l-Rahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori is said to have been an African prince who was freed after the Sultan of Morocco intervened with John Quincy Adams, asking for his emancipation.

Anthony Janszoon van Salee, a Dutchman who'd been a pirate in Morocco, was said to be the first Muslim to live in what became the United States, and his Koran was passed down in his family, but he's an even more obscure figure. He's believed to have been an ancestor of Warren Harding and the Vanderbilts.

This is all little known and somewhat murky historically. None of these figures was very prominent in American history, and we don't know how much of their stories are true, but they did exist, whoever they really were.

In a way this is "dog whistle" politics that most Americans won't know about or know what to do with, but some African-Americans do know about or believe in them. Essentially, Obama's audience was first the Muslims he was addressing, secondly African-Americans who did know about Muslim slaves, third his younger white supporters who believe what he tells them, rather than you or me.

[Inyo-Mono]

Bookmarking this one.

[john mirse]

I agree with Obama.

Didn't you know that the American Indians were descendants of Muslims who crossed the Atlantic from Spain?

These indian-Muslims had one frustration : There were no Christians or Jews before Columbus arrived who they could torture and cut off their heads.

In the meantime, they developed Sandals Resorts in the Caribbean and waited for the Christians and Jews to arrive so that they can follow the teachings of Mohammad by burning them alive and cutting off their heads.

In fact, if I am not mistaken, I think Brian Williams has bragged that he was in the Columbus group who met the Muslim-Indians for the first time. I tend to believe him, because if you can't believe Williams----Obama's good and close friend---who can you believe?

[piasa]

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