By R. A. Hawkins
In the early part of this nations history we can find the first echoes of what we are currently attempting to grasp and deal with. There we can also find the answers to our current problems. There has been a lot of cheering about inclusiveness from the left lately. It has to do with the swearing in of a certain Islamic Congressman who is unsurprisingly from Minnesota, a state that is not only on the outskirts of the nation but also on the outskirts of reality.
The swearing in of this particular congressman was performed on the copy of the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. Many have questioned why Jefferson would have owned a copy of that book. Well, if the truth be told, he had copies of just about any book on any religion. This was one of the few books that survived the burning of his library. I for one am quite pleased that it did. I’m also quite pleased that someone who is ignorant of history, I assume, suggested that Ellison use that book.
At the very start of this nation we were dealing with the Pirates of Barbary. They were capturing our ships and impeding commerce with other nations. Once the United States was free of Britain we were also free of her protection. The British had been paying the demanded tributes. Tripoli had demanded $225,000 in cash and annual payments of $25,000. Adams was inclined to follow the model of the British but Jefferson wasn’t. Jefferson tried to form an international coalition to fight them but that failed because then, like now, everyone decided it was easier to give the bully their lunch money.
Jefferson was fascinated by the fact that these pirates really weren’t pirates at all. They didn’t take their booty and go out and party and chase women or rape and pillage. They invested their money back into their ability to make war. He could tell that they were different in some way. In 1786 in an attempt to better understand them, and possibly to negotiate peace, both he and John Adams met with the Ambassador from Tripoli stationed in Britain. His name was Sidi Haji Abdul Raman Adja. They asked him what grudge they could possibly have against a startup nation like the United States of America. His answer gets its very own paragraph.
He said their war was “founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it is written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it is their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to enslave all they could take as Prisoners, and that every soldier in this war who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
Eventually in 1801 now President Jefferson embroiled us in a war because he wasn’t going to pay that tribute. He once said that the Koran was a notch above paganism. It’s a good thing there weren’t as many vocal pagans back then as there are now because that should have upset them. But back to that war; Jefferson eventually had to negotiate a quick peace settlement because everyone back here got a little upset over his starting a war with someone who declared it against us for not paying that tribute. Not long after that the Barbary Pirates were back to their old tricks. It wasn’t until we decided in 1815 to get the job done for real that the piracy ended for good. The European nations were also fed up with them by this time.
When we are told that Islam is a religion of peace go study their words. Do it on your own. You will quickly discover that they mean when the entire world is under Sharia law there will be peace.
Fortunately not all of them feel this way. But those that do must be dealt with harshly and with haste before their thinking is allowed to spread. I struggle to understand how the left doesn’t see hate crime stamped all over everything these radicals do. Well actually I do understand it fully. All that matters to them is power. The conservatives that just don’t get it are no different. Those who vote these clowns into office are getting just what they deserve. The rest of us have to sit back and prepare and brace.
The next attack here will come because of the cowardice that is being projected from DC by certain politicians and media. When we leave Iraq it will only embolden the enemy. The left will Macarena right up until the next attack and then blame Bush for making them mad, forgetting the lesson that Jefferson learned about these same people.
Reference Links:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjprece.html
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R.A. Hawkins is the author of “Through Eyes of Shiva”, available through www.amazon.com. Visit -Entropical Paradise –(http://www.entropical-paradise.com/) The Home of R.A. Hawkins for more commentaries and editorials by R.A. Hawkins.
Comments are always welcome. Please send them to,R.A.Hawkins(ra_hawkins@earthlink.net)