Kind of riffing on my post “Any Different” from the other day; was startled to consider that the president thinks this is true:
Here in America, Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.
While I was struggling to remember how Islam was woven into the fabric of your great land, I did remember the open lines from the Marines Hymn:
From the Halls of Montezuma ,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
And then I thought, well I suppose the president is more correct than he intended – at least in this regard: The First military conflict authorized by Congress of the United States was the Barbary Coast War. This war was fought because the Barbary (read Muslim) Corsairs were attacking American Merchant ships and ENSLAVING their crews!
While still contemplating, I ‘Googled’: ‘Islam, Fabric of our Lives’ and discovered this fabulous article by Walid Shoebat (with an indepth back-story on the Barbary Coast Wars. More interesting the the Wikipedia entry on the Barbary Coast Wars)
