Posted on 02/19/2015 9:04:47 AM PST by COUNTrecount
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."
In his speech on Wednesday, Obama was making the point that Western nations must show that they "welcome people of all faiths," at a time when "extremists" are saying that Western nations are "hostile to Muslims."
"Here in America, Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding. Generations -- (applause) -- 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.
"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." (It was established in 1929).
Both of those milestones happened well after America's founding, however. In fact, the new nation's first dealings with Islam were tense and unpleasant.
According to a Heritage Foundation paper, shortly after America's founding, 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," who looted American ships and captured American sailors, holding them for ransom or selling them as slaves.
The paper notes that America's struggle with Muslim pirates from the Barbary States (modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) began soon after the 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776 and continued for roughly four decades.
In his remarks on Wednesday, President Obama said Muslim Americans now serve as police officers, firefighters, soldiers, "and in our intelligence communities and in homeland security."
He said Muslim American heroes are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, "having given their lives in defense of all of us."
"And, of course, that's the story extremists and terrorists don't want the world to know -- Muslims succeeding and thriving in America. Because when that truth is known, it exposes their propaganda as the lie that it is.
"It's also a story that every American must never forget, because it reminds us all that hatred and bigotry and prejudice have no place in our country. It is not just counterproductive. It doesn't just aid terrorists. It's wrong. It's contrary to who we are."
So-called hate crimes against Muslims escalated in this country after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 -- attacks perpetrated by Islamic radicals -- but they have never reached the level of hate crimes against Jews, according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Reporting statistics.
In 2013, for example, 62.4 percent of hate crime victims were attacked because of anti-Jewish bias, while 11.6 percent were victims of anti-Islamic bias.
Compare that with the year before the 2001 terror attacks: In 2000, of the 1,699 victims of anti-religious hate crime, 74.6 percent were victims of an offender's anti-Jewish bias; and only 2.1 percent were victims of an offender's anti-Islamic bias.
President Obama on Wednesday stressed that U.S. is not at war with Islam:"We are at war with people who have perverted Islam," he said.
He also said the West and Islam are not in conflict; and that Islam is not incompatible with modern life, although in the same speech he urged other countries to invest in the education of both males and females -- "because countries will not be truly successful if half their populations, if their girls and their women, are denied opportunity."
In a speech to the same summit on Thursday, Obama noted that many Americans don't personally know a single Muslim, and they form a distorted impression about Islam by what they hear on the news.
The only ones speaking truth to power!
“I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said during the dinner at the 21 Club, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy in midtown Manhattan. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
-Rudy Giuliani -
Sen. Ted Cruz says President Barack Obama is “an apologist for radical Islamic terrorists,” blasting the administration’s rhetoric and approach to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
-Ted Cruz-
This ahole just keeps doubling down on doubling down...
He’s not ignorant, naive or any other similar adjective...
He’s an EVIL, complicit with the likes of daesh (ISIS), POS.
He’s intentionally inciting Americans by these lies...trying to elicit some kind of reaction.
He is right. The US Marines and the US Navy’s first commission (after the Revolution) was fighting Barbary pirates. The muslims showed our country that Jefferson was correct, don’t pay them tribute, kill them.
This is completely correct. Thomas Jefferson was commander-in-chief when America fought the first Barbary War. James Madison was commander-in-chief when America fought the second Barbary War. Jefferson and Madison are considered Founding Fathers. The Barbary pirates were Islamic - as in Muslim.
Obama is clueless when it comes to history.
Muslims had a huge influence on the founding of our country. Muslims ran the slave markets in Africa during the founding of this nation and were responsible for over 90% of the slave trade. In point of fact, they are still responsible for modern trafficking— the new PC term for slavery.
Like with the Marine Corps
“From the Hall's Of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli ....”
Not much has changed in the region for the last 200 years.
Could it be because he is ONE of them?
We have a Muslim President running interference for his Muslim brothers.
There’s certainly a reason that the United States Marine Corps officers’ sword is patterned after the “Mameluke Saber” ...
Founding of the United States Navy?
Have you seen this one?
Jeh Johnson: The Administration Must “Give Voice To The Plight Of Muslims”
THAT is the question.
Jefferson ended up paying anyway.
It’s amazing that this has gone unnoticed by the entire country for 200+ years.
This guy is having a great time. He says anything he wants, regardless of how outrageous it sounds, and people swallow it. The jihadists must be laughing their heads off, so proud of their taqiyya leader of the west.
Just when you think you’ve heard it all; odumbo says something as insidious as this. I think he said something similar early on and was equally derided for it.
I do so wish he and his cabinet would just fade into nothingness. It would be the single best thing they could do for America.
BULL$HIT!!!!!
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