The “medium of war”was the only way to putand end to the Muslim problem.
When American colonists rebelled against British rule in 1776, American merchant ships lost Royal Navy protection. With no American Navy for protection, American ships were attacked and their Christian crews enslaved by Muslim pirates operating under the control of the “Dey of Algiers”–an Islamist warlord ruling Algeria.
Because American commerce in the Mediterranean was being destroyed by the pirates, the Continental Congress agreed in 1784 to negotiate treaties with the four Barbary States. Congress appointed a special commission consisting of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, to oversee the negotiations.
Lacking the ability to protect its merchant ships in the Mediterranean, the new America government tried to appease the Muslim slavers by agreeing to pay tribute and ransoms in order to retrieve seized American ships and buy the freedom of enslaved sailors.
Adams argued in favor of paying tribute as the cheapest way to getAmerican commerce in the Mediterranean moving again. Jefferson wasopposed. He believed there would be no end to the demands for tributeand wanted matters settled “through the medium of war.” He proposed aleague of trading nations to force an end to Muslim piracy.
In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and Adams,then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi HajiAbdul Rahman Adja, the “Dey of Algiers” ambassador to Britain.
The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty based on Congress’ vote to appease.
During the meeting Jefferson and Adams asked the Dey’s ambassador whyMuslims held so much hostility towards America, a nation with whichthey had no previous contacts.
In a later meeting with the American Congress, the two futurepresidents reported that Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja hadanswered that Islam “was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that itwas written in their Quran, that all nations who should not haveacknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right andduty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to makeslaves of all they coul d take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman(Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
For the following 15 years, the American government paid the Muslimsmillions of dollars for the safe passage of American ships or thereturn of American hostages. The payments in ransom and tributeamounted to 20 percent of United States government annual revenues in1800.
The Muslim pirate slavers who over many centuries enslaved millions ofAfricans and tens of thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans inthe Islamic “Barbary” states.
Over the course of 10 centuries, Muslim pirates cruised the African andMediterranean coastline, pillaging villages and seizing slaves.
The taking of slaves in pre-dawn raids on unsuspecting coastal villageshad a high casualty rate. It was typical of Muslim raiders to kill offas many of the “non-Muslim” older men and women as possible so thepreferred “booty” of only young women and children could be collected.
Young non-Muslim women were targeted because of their value asconcubines in Islamic markets. Islamic law provides for the sexualinterests of Muslim men by allowing them to take as many as four wivesat one time and to have as many concubines as their fortunes allow.
Boys, as young as 9 or 10 years old, were often mutilated to createeunuchs who would bring higher prices in the slave markets of theMiddle East. Muslim slave traders created “eunuch stations” along majorAfrican slave routes so the necessary surgery could be performed. Itwas estimated that only a small number of the boys subjected to themutilation survived after the surgery.
Not long after Jefferson’s inauguration as president in 1801, hedispatched a group of frigates to defend American interests in theMediterranean, and informed Congress.
Declaring that America was going to spend “millions for defense but notone cent for tribute,” Jefferson pressed the issue by deployingAmerican Marines and many of America’s best warships to the MuslimBarbary Coast.
The USS Constitution, USS Constellation, USS Philadelphia, USS Chesapeake, USS Argus, USS Syren and USS Intrepid all saw action.
In 1805, American Marines marched across the dessert from Egypt intoTripolitania, forcing the surrender of Tripoli and the freeing of allAmerican slaves.
During the Jefferson administration, the Muslim Barbary States,crumbling as a result of intense American naval bombardment and onshore raids by Marines, finally officially agreed to abandon slaveryand piracy.
Jefferson’s victory over the Muslims lives on today in the Marine Hymn,with the line, “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli,we will fight our country’s battles on the land as on the sea.”
It wasn’t until 1815 that the problem was fully settled by the total defeat of all the Muslim slave trading pirates.
Jefferson had been right. The “medium of war”was the only way to putand end to the Muslim problem. He was a “visionary” wise enough to readand learn about the enemy from their own Muslim book of jihad.