Yahya Hendi has made some large claims about the supposed Muslim presence, and influence, in America since the country’s earlist days. This too is a common interfaith theme; it is Obama’s “Islam has always been part of America’s story.”
One aspect Hendi would like to educate attendees on is American Muslims’ contributions to the U.S.
“Many people do not know that Islam is a uniquely American experience as well. American Muslims have been part of America since its inception,” he said.
That means the Muslim faith goes back further in the shaping of America than many people realize.
No, there is no “uniquely American” version of Islam. Islam everywhere remains based on the same Qur’an and the same Hadith. Muslims obviously have had a different experience in America than they have had, for example, in France or Sweden, but the Islam taught and practiced in France, Sweden, and America remains the same.
As for the claim that “Muslims have been part of America since its inception,” this claim which is now made so frequently by apologists has no basis in fact. In the last few decades, exaggerated claims have been made for the numbers of slaves in America who were Muslims. First came a claim of 5%, then 15%, then 20%, and now we hear that “30% of the slaves were Muslims.” There is no evidence supplied for any of these figures: they are simply made up out of whole cloth, or plucked from the air. What we do know is that no slave-trader, no slave-owner, and no slaves themselves, appeared to have noticed any Muslims in their midst, as they surely would have had there been any. Or rather, none were mentioned save for a handful – fewer than ten — whose names are endlessly repeated. The three most noted are Omar ibn Said, Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (Job ben Solomon), and Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahim Sori. There is evidence, then, that at most one-hundredth of 1% of the slaves, not 30%, may have been Muslims.
We next find Islam as “part of America since its inception” with the building of the first mosque, in 1929, in Ross, North Dakota, a tiny one-room structure that could fit a dozen people. Then, in 1934, the “mother mosque” in America was built in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. These two mosques do not suggest much of a Muslim presence. There was, however, an Arab Christian presence, an emigration that began in 1880 and continued until 1924 (when the immigration laws were changed), consisting of those who fled the Ottoman-ruled lands, chiefly Syria and Lebanon, to escape Muslim oppression. These immigrants formed such Arab neighborhoods as Little Syria in New York, but these communities had nothing to do with Islam. Nonetheless, one finds Muslim propagandists today suggesting that Christian enclaves such as Little Syria were in fact “Muslim,” in order to backdate and exaggerate the Muslim presence in the United States.
“How many people know that Thomas Jefferson read the Quran?,” he [Yahya Hendi] asked.
No one knows if Jefferson read the Qur’an he bought, as he bought thousands of other books, because he was a curious and learned man. Muslims have made much of his owning a Qur’an, suggesting slyly that he must have read the book and admired it. But the evidence is strong that he did not read it, for he habitually left notes on all his reading, and there is nothing he wrote about the Qur’an. Instead, there is evidence that in his dealings with the North African Muslims, he was horrified by their attitude toward non-Muslims. When he and John Adams were negotiating with the envoy from Tripoli, that envoy informed them that “it was written in the Koran, that all Nations who should not have acknowledged their [Muslims’] authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon whoever they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.” That was enough for Jefferson, and when he became President, he was determined to go to war against the North African Muslims – the Barbary Pirates — in order to suppress their attacks on Christian shipping. He had no admiration for the Muslims; he understood them to be an enemy of the Christians, as the Tripoli envoy said,and in making war on the Barbary Pirates, Jefferson acted on that understanding.
Hendi said he will share historical data that shows how Muslims have shaped what America has become.
I’m eagerly anticipating that “data” – aren’t you? How have Muslims “shaped what America has become”? What have been their contributions to the philosophy, politics, art, literature, and music of these United States? Since instrumental music is haram in Islam, how could there have been much of a contribution to our music? Since the depiction of living creatures is also haram, severely limiting the possibilities for artistic expression, what Muslim contributions can there have been to American art? What about philosophy? There is no philosophic thought for devout Muslims outside of Islam itself, which they believe, if rightly understood, contains all of wisdom. And politics? Islam and the democratic West have very different views. In Islam the legitimacy of any government depends on whether the ruler follows the will of Allah, as expressed in the Qur’an. A ruler may be despotic, as long as he remains a good Muslim. In the United States, as elsewhere in the advanced West, the legitimacy of any government depends on its reflecting, however imperfectly through elections, the will expressed by the people. There is a big difference.
“So our fellow neighbors will know that American Muslims are not newcomers to America that we have shaped the economy, the politics, the policies of the United States of America for the last 220 years,” he said.
So those dozen-odd Muslim slaves in America – the only ones known to historians – have magically multiplied to become 5-10-30% of all the slaves in America, that is, have gone from being ten or twelve, to being several million. This mendacious multiplication took place in recent years, prompted first by Muslims, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, and unopposed by those who did not dare to question them, for fear of being labeled “islamophobes.”
For the “last 220 years” – that is, since 1800, Muslims “have shaped the economy, the politics, the policies of the United States of America.” What can Yahya Hendi be thinking? Let’s try to tease out what it might be. As for the economy, there are no records of Muslims owning any property, working in any factories or on any farms (save for the 1-12 Muslim slaves who are known), inventing new devices, or otherwise contributing to, much less having “shaped,” the economy. I suspect that what Hendi means is that “slaves contributed to the economy,” and he claims many of the slaves were Muslim, so Muslims must have “contributed to the economy,” which then resulted in a further ludicrous claim that “Muslims shaped the economy.” Read the history books, and see if there is a scintilla of evidence that more than a handful of Muslim slaves existed in America. How could those dozen Muslims — several of whom returned to West Africa, and at least one converted to Christianity – or the handful of their descendants who remained Muslims (despite being without Qur’ans or mosques) — conceivably have “shaped the American economy for the past 220 years”?
How could American Muslims have “shaped the politics” of America for the “last 220 years”? Voting? Running for office? What can Hendi be thinking? Between those 10-12 recorded Muslim slaves, and the first one-room mosque that was built in 1929, why do we not hear anything about Muslims in America? Surely it is because there were next to none here until very recently. There have never been Muslims in elective office, state or Federal, until the last few decades; the first Muslim to be elected to the House was Keith Ellison, in 2002. He had no discernible effect on legislative policies. In 2018, two Muslim females, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, were elected to Congress; they have been noisy, and get a lot of media attention for their controversial views, but in the hard slog of legislation they have done nothing, and have had no effect on government policies. Perhaps Hendi has some “data,” as he calls it, about the “real” Muslim population in the 19th century that has till now has been hidden from view, or has uncovered evidence of Muslim industrialists and entrepreneurs (anything is possible) that he has decided to share with his interfaith audience.
As for the future, it is possible that Muslims, as their numbers increase, will indeed help to “shape” policies – concerning, for example, the Arab-Israeli conflict. But Muslims, who were hardly discernible in this country until the 1960s, have not “shaped the economy, the politics, the policies” of America for the past 220 years except in one unforgettable and disastrous way. The Muslims who attacked on 9/11 caused an estimated two trillion dollars in economic damage to this country, and also prompted further spending of another six trillion dollars on misguided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is unlikely to be something Yahya Hendi will want to discuss. In that sense only have Muslims “shaped” our country.
It will be fascinating to see how Yahya Hendi supports his fantastical remark, that “for the past 220 years, Muslims have shaped the economy, the politics, the policies of the United States of America.” It can’t be done. Of course, he can always lie. “War is deceit,” said the Perfect Man and Model of Conduct. Who is Yahya Hendi not to take Muhammad at his word?
pfwag says
And those ” handful of Muslim slaves” were probably bought and sold by Muslim slave traders.
Herb says
Not probably, but surely Muslim Slave traders as they were first in line for Slave trading right after Muhammad started to take prisoners as slaves and all their villages and families. THEY ARE STILL SLAVE TRADERS, they are called CAIR.
Jayell says
Just muslim slaves sold by muslim save traders? Surely the same muslim traders also had a big hand in the sale of all the other slaves as well? Slavery was a big international operation even then, and the muslims were key players not only within the African continent but also as far as northern Europe, where Barbary pirates would raid towns and villages on the coasts of Ireland and south-west England in the 1700’s-1800’s and ship them to north Africa. But I presume these ‘white’ slaves (1000’s of them apparently) would be too desirable a commodity for sale on to the transatlantic trade, and, according to contemporary reports and accounts, spent the rest of their days in north Africa unless they managed to escape. Just like today, when(according to press reports) Africans who have paid money to (non-European) traffickers to get them to Europe have been found on sale in north African slave markets.
gravenimage says
Yes–the entire African slave trade was backed by Muslim slavers. Most of the victims were Infidels, although they did sometimes sell those from rival Muslim tribes into slavery.
Lotus says
Ah yes, the great Muslim contribution to the US of A. Here’s a question: when was jihad first declared against the USA? Are you thinking 1979, the Iranian Revolution? Wrong. Try 1801.
And did you know that the USA once made huge jizya payments to Algerian pirates?
I doubt any of the following is in this imam’s lesson plan. It is extracted from ‘Sword and Scimitar’ by Raymond Ibrahim.
// In 1785 Algerian pirates captured two American ships, the Maria and Dauphin; they enslaved and paraded the sailors through the streets to jeers and whistles. Considering the aforementioned treatment of Christian slaves, when the Dauphin’s Captain O’Brian later wrote to Thomas Jefferson that “our sufferings are beyond our expression or your conception,” he was not exaggerating.
Jefferson and John Adams—then ambassadors to France and England respectively—met with Tripoli’s ambassador to Britain, Abdul Rahman Adja, in an effort to ransom the enslaved Americans and establish peaceful relations. In a letter to Congress dated March 28, 1786, the hitherto puzzled American ambassadors laid out the source of the Barbary States’ unprovoked animosity:
”We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
Back in Congress, some agreed with Jefferson that “it will be more easy to raise ships and men to fight these pirates into reason, than money to bribe them.” In a letter to a friend, George Washington wondered: “In such an enlightened, in such a liberal age, how is it possible that the great maritime powers of Europe should submit to pay an annual tribute to the little piratical States of Barbary? Would to Heaven we had a navy able to reform those enemies to mankind, or crush them into nonexistence.” But the majority of Congress agreed with John Adams: “We ought not to fight them at all unless we determine to fight them forever.”
Considering the perpetual, existential nature of Islamic hostility, Adams was probably more right than he knew. Congress settled on emulating the Europeans and paying off the terrorists, though it would take years to raise the demanded ransom.
In 1794 Algerian pirates captured eleven more American merchant vessels. Two things resulted: the Naval Act of 1794 was passed, and a permanent standing U.S. naval force was established. But because the first war vessels would not be ready until 1800, American jizya payments—which took up 16 percent of the entire federal budget—began to be made to Algeria in 1795. In return, some 115 American sailors were released, and the Islamic sea raids formally ceased. American payments and “gifts” over the following years caused the increasingly emboldened pirates to respond with increasingly capricious demands.
One of the more ignoble instances occurred in 1800, when Captain William Bainbridge of the George Washington sailed to the Dey of Algiers (a Turkish honorific for the pirate lords of Barbary), with what the latter deemed insufficient tribute. Referring to the American crew as “my slaves,” Dey Mustapha proceeded to order Bainbridge to transport the Muslim’s own annual tribute—hundreds of black slaves and exotic animals—to the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul/Constantinople.
Adding insult to insult, the Dey commanded the U.S. flag taken down from the George Washington and the Islamic flag hoisted in its place; and, no matter how rough the seas might be during the long voyage, Bainbridge was ordered to make sure the vessel faced Mecca five times a day for the prayers of Mustapha’s ambassador and entourage. Initially outraged, Bainbridge condescended to being the pirate’s delivery boy.
Soon after Jefferson became president in 1801, Tripoli demanded an immediate payment of $225,000, followed by annual payments of $25,000—equivalent today to $3.5 million and $425,000, respectively—or else. “I know,” he argued, “that nothing will stop the eternal increase of demand from these pirates but the presence of an armed force.”
Jefferson refused the ultimatum. (Perhaps he had recalled Captain O’Brian’s observation concerning his Barbary masters: “Money is their God and Mahomet their prophet.”)
Having not receiving the demanded jizya, on May 10, 1801, the pasha of Tripoli proclaimed jihad on the United States. But by now, the latter had six war vessels, which Jefferson deployed to the Barbary Coast. Their initial show of force was enough to cause Tunis and Algiers, which were flirting with the idea of emulating Tripoli’s demands on America, to think otherwise.
For the next five years, the U.S. Navy warred with Tripoli, making little headway and suffering some setbacks—the most humiliating being when the Philadelphia and its crew were captured in 1803. //
Eventually, in 1815 the now much larger US fleet destroyed the pirate bases on the Barbary Coast (Algeria and Tunisia). Raymond Ibrahim sums up this historical episode as follows:
// Thus the United States’ first war—which erupted before it could even elect its first president and intermittently lasted some thirty-two years—was against Islam; and the latter had initiated hostilities on the same rationale that had been used to initiate hostilities for the preceding 1,200 years.
Though most Americans are now unaware of their nation’s first military conflict, references to it are common. The oldest paean of the U.S. armed forces, “The Marines’ Hymn,” boasts of fighting everywhere for “right and freedom”—including as far as “to the shores of Tripoli”; the oldest U.S. military monument was made to honor those Americans who fought and died in the Barbary Wars. According to its plaque, “‘Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute’ became the rallying cry for this war.” //
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Hello, Lotus. Thanks for this excerpt from ‘Sword and Scimitar’ by Raymond Ibrahim:
“Adding insult to insult, the Dey commanded the U.S. flag taken down from the George Washington and the Islamic flag hoisted in its place; and, no matter how rough the seas might be during the long voyage, Bainbridge was ordered to make sure the vessel faced Mecca five times a day for the prayers of Mustapha’s ambassador and entourage. Initially outraged, Bainbridge condescended to being the pirate’s delivery boy.”
What? A *ship* — not the ship passenger who is praying — must face Mecca for five-time-a-day prayers? I have never heard of this. Where does this rule come from? (For that matter, where does the general face-Mecca-when-praying rule come from?) I am unable to find Wikipedia confirmation that in the Pakistan and Turkish navies, submarines are oriented so as to face Mecca five times a day at prayer times. How will Allah punish these blasphemous navies?
Lotus says
Hello Mark.
The source that Raymond Ibrahim uses for the incident in which the ‘George Washington’ was required to face Mecca is this one, if you want to follow up on it:
Kilmeade, Brian, and Don Yaeger. 2015. ‘Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History’. New York: Sentinel.
As for a ship being turned to face Mecca, I don’t think that it is a regular practice. I suspect it was an additional requirement laid upon the ship’s captain in order to humiliate him and assert Muslim dominance. What we would call mind games today.
The three Barbary Coast pirate countries (Algeria, Libya and Tunisia) eventually got a good drubbing from the Americans in 1815 and were forced to pay indemnities, if that’s any consolation to you.
Plum says
Thank you so much for your extensive comment.
gravenimage says
Fine posts, Lotus and Mark.
Lotus says
As for the claim that Thomas Jefferson read (implied: and appreciated) the Quran, Raymond Ibrahim has this to say about its first printing and reception in the US:
// In October 1806, the first American edition of the Koran was printed in the United States. As the editor’s note makes clear, its publication was not for the “cultural enrichment” of Americans—as is often claimed today—but to inform them why they had been at war for the last four years.
After opening up by saying, “This book is a long conference of God, the angels, and Mahomet, which that false prophet very grossly invented,” the editor concluded: “Thou wilt wonder that such absurdities hath infected the better part of the world, and wilt avouch, that the knowledge of what is contained in this book, wilt render that law [sharia] contemptible.” //
It’s not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it?
Diane Harvey says
“How have Muslims ‘shaped what America has become?'”
“Remove your shoes, belts, and all contents from your pockets including keys and coins and put them in the plastic bins. Then move quickly over to the line for the full body scan”
commonsense says
+1
Raluca Voda says
How the Muslims have shaped America? Well, they are going full steam at it and it is not only the Americans that can do something about it, because the quote down below illustrates the Islam war against the “infidels”. Here it is, from Omar Ahmad, Founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has shown time and again to support Islamic terror since the inception of CAIR:
“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth”.
How in hell did we let it come so far? Apart from “political correctness”, which in the end is a futile effort to convince people that there is a clean spot on a piece of shit where you can touch it. Callings things by their real names has never done any harm, so let me call here Islam exactly what it is: An evil cult, an exact copy of a nazi regime, Communism, Stalinism, and any other form of suppression known to mankind put together.
Angemon says
Oh, I’m certain he’ll bring it up – just as soon as the ink dries…
gravenimage says
Interfaith Healing with a Georgetown Imam (Part 2)
……………..
More Taqiyya and revisionist history.
Carol the 1st says
Notice he says “So our fellow *neighbors* will know that American muslims are not newcomers…” I guess you’re not fellow *citizens* when one group lives in Dar al-Islam and the other in Dar al-Harb.
Peddling snake oil almost twenty years after 9/11!!- they must really think we are children addicted to fairy tales. Fortunately for the likes of Yahya shamelessness is the sanctioned default mode when speaking to the kuffar.
gravenimage says
Grimly true. The disturbing thing is that too many Infidels are willing to swallow this tripe.
CogitoErgoSum says
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
That was Jefferson’s oath. If Islam is not tyranny over the mind of man then nothing is. I’m with Jefferson. My hostility toward Islam is eternal.
mortimer says
Islam as part of American history? Islam entered American history as extortion, white slavery, and broken treaties.
Islam entered American history in the form of Barbary Pirates who enslaved American sailors and held them and the country for ransom so that American ships would be permitted by the Muslims to take goods to Europe. Extortion payments to Tripolitania were a big part of the outgo of Congress’s expenditures.
There were almost no Muslims in the US for 150 years. But when Yahya Hendi seez chipmunk tracks in the middle of the historical forest, he knows that mighty Islam has been part of American history.
Real history shows that the effect of Islam on the US has been highly negative … principally, the enormous outflow of cash to oil-producing Muslim countries. The jihad problems created by Islamic countries have increased in large measure because the West has made those Muslim countries fabulously rich by purchasing their oil.
We should all stop using oil from Muslim countries and the jihad problem will diminish to virtually nothing.
gravenimage says
+1
David Ashton says
Rewriting history is part of the war against the west, especially Whites and Christians. This is not just an Islamist endeavor – Africans, Communists, “Christians” and “Jews” are also involved.
James says
When I was in junior high I wrote a book report or some sort of homework on the Barbary Coast pirates and the American fleet. For some reason I did not catch the point that this was Islamic attacks on shipping by the West. They did not bring this point out in my source. This suggests that perhaps Islam had no particular significance then. One could discuss the topic of piracy without mentioning Islam.
gravenimage says
Yes, James–I remember learning about the Barbary pirates in school–never any mention that they were Muslim. I thought they were just like someone like Captain Kidd. I assumed that their actions were illegal in north Africa, and that these nations were just too disorganized to be able to stamp piracy out and and needed our help.
Carol the 1st says
Just shows how that Judeo-Christian stuff can really throw you off-track!
gravenimage says
“Fraid so, Carol.