BEHINDTHEBLACK
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. In the prologue of Kilmeade/Yaeger book the authors describe the first meeting of Jefferson and John Adams with Tripoli’s ambassador to Great Britain in London, Sidi Haji Abdrahaman. Both tried their best to convince the envoy that his government’s best policy would be to stop the piracy and instead allow open trade with America. Both were horrified however by his response:
Adams asked how the Barbary states could justify “[making] war upon nations who had done them no injury.” The response was nothing less than chilling.
According to his holy book, the Qur’an, Abdrahaman explained, “all nations which had not acknowledge the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave.”
…Abdrahaman refused to play the role of “benevolent and wise man.” Despite the Americans’ horror, he wasn’t apologizing in any way. He showed no remorse or regret. He believed the actions of his fellow Muslims fully justified. “Every mussulman,” he explained, “who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.”
To Abdrahaman, this was not complicated. In his culture, the takers of ships, the enslavers of men, the barbarians who extorted bribes for safe passage, were all justified by the teaching of the prophet Muhammad. “It was written in our Qur’an,” he said simply.
Sound familiar? It appears little has changed in the Muslim world after more than two centuries. This is the identical attitude of the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran today, based on their holy book and the warlike power-based approach to religion that Muhammad advocated. Just as in 1800s Muhammad’s words encouraged piracy and slavery, his words now drive an endless cycle of genocidal acts, against Jews and Christians worldwide, merely for being Jews and Christians.
At the end of this book there was another equally telling quote:
America had stood up to the pirates, something that most of the more established European nations hadn’t been willing to do. … In prevailing off the Barbary Coast, the United States proved that it would not only go to war for its own interests but would do what it could for oppressed citizens of other nations.
Once again, after two centuries, nothing has changed. For decades Europe was harassed by the Barbary pirates and did nothing but try to buy them off — with mixed and usually poor results. It took a new nation from the opposite side of the globe to finally clean up the situation. When America finally ended the war in 1815 the piracy was over as well, with every nation now free to enjoy safe travel in the Mediterranean for the next two centuries.
In the 21st century the Barbary Coast returned, this time in the guise of the Islamic Republic in Iran. And as in the 19th century, Europe sits with folded hands, letting the U.S. do the dirty work, despite the reality that Europe has far more to lose than we do if Iran remains emboldened and powerful. They are far more dependent on Middle East oil than we are.
What lesson can we derive from this? I think the lessons are obvious, for those with the intellectual honesty to see. Islam is fundamentally a dangerous ideology. Europe is unreliable and foolish. And America remains the hope and glory for the future, because at its base it was created to defend the right of every human to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
More:
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/americas-first-foreign-war-on-the-shores-of-tripoli-has-apparently-never-ended/
