Past Human Rights Abuses

Islamic Militants: America's First and Last War
By Paul Davis

Once again I am amazed by the accuracy of the Word of God, which states: "The last shall be first and the first shall be last" (Luke 13:30).

The "Barbary Powers Conflict" began shortly after the Revolutionary War and continued through the Presidencies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.1 The Muslim Barbary Powers (Tunis, Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, and Turkey) were warring against what they claimed to be the "Christian" nations (England, France, Spain, Denmark, and the United States). In 1801, Tripoli declared war against the United States,2 thus constituting America’s first official war as an established independent nation. Interestingly enough our first war as a nation was against Islamic militants. Two-hundred years later we are facing the same enemy. Thankfully this time our military might is prepared and ready. Let us however learn from history lest we repeat it.

Throughout this long conflict, the five Barbary Powers regularly attacked undefended American merchant ships. Not only were their cargoes easy prey but the Barbary Powers were also capturing and enslaving "Christian" seamen3 in retaliation for what had been done to them by the "Christians" of previous centuries (e.g., the Crusades and Ferdinand and Isabella’s expulsion of Muslims from Granada4).

I apologize to Muslims for past human rights abuses committed against them by "Christians" who were not acting Christ-like but were most likely serving the imperialistic Roman church which was heretical. It was the Roman church that brought about the Dark Ages because the Bible was not translated into the language of the common man. Hence spiritual ignorance and darkness reigned, as did religious rulers who were without the Holy Spirit to reveal the heart of Christ to them.

In an attempt to secure a release of captured seamen and a guarantee of unmolested shipping in the Mediterranean, President Washington dispatched envoys to negotiate treaties with the Barbary nations.5(Concurrently, he encouraged the construction of American naval warships6 to defend the shipping and confront the Barbary "pirates"—a plan not seriously pursued until President John Adams created a separate Department of the Navy in 1798.)