America’s 233-Year-Old Shock at Jihad
03/29/2019 by Raymond Ibrahim
American Thinker
Exactly 233 years ago today, on March 28, 1786, two of America’s founding fathers documented their first exposure to Islamic jihad in a letter to Congress; like many Americans today, they too were shocked at what they learned.
Context: in 1785, Muslim pirates from North Africa, or “Barbary,†had captured two American ships, the Maria and Dauphin, and enslaved their crews. In an effort to ransom the enslaved Americans and establish peaceful relations, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams—then ambassadors to France and England respectively—met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain, Abdul Rahman Adja. Following this diplomatic exchange, the Americans laid out the source of Barbary’s hitherto inexplicable animosity in a letter to Congress:
https://www.raymondibrahim.com/2019/03/29/americas-233-year-old-shock-at-jihad/
