Shores of Tripoli

The New Media Journal ^ | May 13, 2008 | Tony Rubolotta

[NewMediaJournal]

The Marine Hymn should remind us that America has a problem with Islam that dates back to the founding of our nation. Before that, Britain, as our “Mother Country”, dealt with the problem of Islamic state sponsored piracy. Either you paid tribute to the Barbary States or they raided and seized your ships and sailors. You could consider the tribute that was paid the maritime version of the jizya, the tax infidels pay to not be molested by Muslims.

The Tripolitan ambassador to London made it clear in a conversation with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams that as Muslims, they had a right and duty to plunder and enslave infidels. That was the only reason they needed to make war. This was in 1786.

The reason to stop making war didn’t arrive until the Barbary States were defeated by the American Navy and Marines in 1805. After the First Barbary War, the United States enjoyed a brief period of safe passage for commercial shipping in the Mediterranean. That changed during the War of 1812 when the Barbary States saw an opportunity to exploit the absence of American naval power in the Mediterranean.

Raids on American shipping resumed until the Second Barbary War. Even then, after agreeing to a peace treaty, the Pasha of Tripoli reneged once the American fleet departed for Tunis. A Muslim’s word to an infidel is merely an expedient dependent upon present circumstances. It took another year and a combined Dutch and English fleet to bombard the Pasha into submission. It took the colonial occupation of North Africa by European states to end Islamic piracy in the Mediterranean, at least until recently.

[Incorrigible]

Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.
— Thomas Jefferson

[tueffelhunden]

Good historical find. It’s amazing how densely ignorant of Islamic History most of the Western World is.

[liberty_lvr]

It’s amazing how densely ignorant of Islamic History most of the Western World is.

What's most distressing is the fact that the ignorance is willful, and practiced most commonly by those supposed purveyors of truth and higher learning: the major media and academia.

[Vigilanteman]

A interesting actual historical case of Muslim ROPers enslaving European merchant seamen in 1620. However, they picked the wrong Brit to mess with as it didn't turn out so well for them in the end.

[sneakers]

bookmark

[TexasRepublic]

It took the colonial occupation of North Africa by European states to end Islamic piracy in the Mediterranean

I would love to see us re-colonize those savages.

[oh8eleven]

Lt. Presley Neville O'Bannon
Semper Fi ...

[agere_contra]

The Barbary Pirates were a threat until 1830, when the French finally occupied Algiers. But it was Admiral Pellew of the Royal Navy who turned the scales against the pirates. His ships bombarded the cr*p out of the massive Algerian fortifications twice between 1815 and 1830, IIRC.

The only thing that kept the Barbary pirates going for so long was the fact that the Europeans were locked in a death struggle for and against Napoleon. After that ended, the Barbary threat was broken by the British, in defiance of a do-nothing political coalition of Prussia, Russia and Austria. Which may sound familiar to modern ears.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]