Posted on 08/13/2010 10:40:50 AM PDT by Justaham
In his annual Ramadan statement released yesterday Barack Obama claimed that,
“Islam has always been a a part of America.”
From the White House website:
On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I want to extend our best wishes to Muslims in America and around the world. Ramadan Kareem.
Ramadan is a time when Muslims around the world reflect upon the wisdom and guidance that comes with faith, and the responsibility that human beings have to one another, and to God. This is a time when families gather, friends host iftars, and meals are shared. But Ramadan is also a time of intense devotion and reflection – a time when Muslims fast during the day and pray during the night; when Muslims provide support to others to advance opportunity and prosperity for people everywhere. For all of us must remember that the world we want to build – and the changes that we want to make – must begin in our own hearts, and our own communities.
These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings. Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality. And here in the United States, Ramadan is a reminder that Islam has always been part of America and that American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country. And today, I want to extend my best wishes to the 1.5 billion Muslims around the world – and your families and friends – as you welcome the beginning of Ramadan.
I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.
(Excerpt) Read more at gatewaypundit.firstthings.com ...
The stoninig of the woman above was because she had unmarried sex with a man. Also, women who are raped are also treated to violent deaths, yet, Obama thinks this is a good thing for American women.
Actually, it is probable few were.
During this period the west African coastlands were controlled by powerful black pagan kingdoms. They acted as middlemen between the actual slave takers inland and the (white) slave buyers at the depots. For obvious reasons they jealously guarded access to their ports.
Muslims controlled the grasslands and deserts north of the forest belt and raided into it for slaves, but the vast majority of their captives were sold to the Middle East and India via the trans-Sahara and Indian Ocean/Red Sea routes.
While it's likely some of the originally Muslim-enslaved blacks were sold the other direction and eventually passed on to the coast and white traders, there couldn't have been very many of them.
BTW, the horrors of the trans-Sahara slave trade vastly exceeded those of the trans-Atlantic trade, awful as that was.
And Muslims engaged in the African slave trade for many centuries before Europeans got into it, and continued it long after Europeans stopped. In fact, they kept it going right up until they were forced (by the evil Europeans) to stop.
Oddly enough, there is a genuine Muslim contribution along these lines to America. The Turkish practice of innoculating for smallpox was used by Washington to immunize his army. The Brits did not do so and the differential death and sickness ratio that resulted played a significant role in assisting the American victory.
In particular, a large number of American slaves defected to the British during the southern campaign, on the promise of freedom. Most of them died of smallpox before they could be used to fight the Americans.
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