Islam and America: From Barbary Pirates to the Ground zero Mosque

Numerous “Liberal” opinion pieces/editorials in the American press defending the decision by President Obama to support the “right” to build a mosque at ground-zero casts call opponents of the mosque in Manhattan at Ground Zero Republicans and or bigots. Apparently they wrote this before the statement of Democratic Senate majority Leader Harry Reid or the interview of Bill O’Reilly with the director of the largest Muslim Association in Canada, both of whom called for the mosque to be built elsewhere. They have been joined by the editors of Al-Arabiya who also argue that the decision to build a mosque at Ground Zero is unfortunate and not in the interests of American Muslims and that in that area of lower Manhattan there is no resident Muslim population whatsoever.

---

New York City mayor Bloomberg and President Obama have endorsed the mosque near Ground Zero as a matter of religious tolerance and cited the letter President George Washington wrote to Rabbi Moses Seixas of the early Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island to express his appreciation for their deepest pledges of loyalty to the new republic in 1790. The famous quote about the United States that “Gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance” was a bit truncated. It is fitting to read the entire paragraph….. “The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistancerequires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.” The utter blindness of lending full support to not just tolerate but make special allowance for Muslims who are unmoved and unconcerned about the absolute intolerance and oppression of non-Muslims and the lack of fundamental rights for women, children, gays, and non-conformists throughout almost all of the Dar-al-Islam (Muslim majority countries), is the ultimate folly of our time. Washington and other national leaders in Europe at that time were well aware that for many centuries their Jewish citizens had accepted unequivocally the rulings established by rabbinical authority that…dina d'malkhuta dina,—“the law of the kingdom (the state) is The Law.” Simply put, that meant that national law always trumped any Jewish law, ritual or ruling that in any way contradicted it or was inconsistent with it. The precise opposite is the case with a significant segment of Muslims in the United States and elsewhere living as minorities in non-Muslim states who demand that Sharia law should nevertheless be permitted for them to follow even if that means adopting new and special state, city or local ordinances whether in matters of marriage, divorce, the raising of children, domestic violence, special holidays, exclusive facilities, and a host of special considerations allowing behavior that deviates from accepted norms. Obama’s attempts to expand on Muslim tolerance and achievement are faulty to say the least but his linking the “Muslim World” to American history is simply absurd when during his famous Cairo speech he quoted John Adams ….”The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second president, John Adams, wrote, The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.” Journalists are using the same kind of argument citing the facts that Thomas Jefferson kept a copy of the Koran in his library and invited the Tunisian ambassador to dinner in the White House in 1805. The citation of events and quotes from 1796 and 1805 overlooks all subsequent history. In 1800-1805 Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe had no direct knowledge whatsoever with Islam or any familiarity with Muslim societies. All of them later, during the period 1806-1815, subscribed to the absolute necessity to confront the Barbary Pirates to end the scourge of piracy and the unprovoked attacks on American and European merchant vessels, the capture and the enslavement of their crews for ransom by the various vicious Muslim “Deys” – the rulers of the North African states. All four of these American presidents, despite their initial reluctance to raise taxes, empower a modern navy and sent thousands of American sailors and marines across the Atlantic to fight a protracted war, became aware of the utter hopelessness of dealing with Muslim rulers who proclaimed their inherent right to act in this aggressive manner because the Koran commanded them to do so against infidels who under the Koran enjoyed no rights whatsoever. No one wishes to fault “outreach” to the “Muslim world”. Critics of Obama’s policy do not meant to deny the importance of achievements made within Muslim societies, or of welcoming Muslim immigrants who desire to be peaceful and loyal citizens of the United States, and some form of American outreach to the world’s Muslims, but one that must be honest and clearly demonstrate that they have had no better friend among the great powers than the United States which had no colonial past in the Middle East, which unlike the Soviet Union, did not covet their territory or deny them religious rights, which has provided massive relief and food aid in every critical emergency to beleaguered areas, and has been a prime victim of terrorism perpetrated by a common enemy that many Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere have seen committed against themselves in the name of Jihad.