Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja Quotes


Our duty to attack was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it is written in the Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, that it is our right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all we could take as Prisoners, and every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.


Context

“Musselman” was then a term for Muslims used by Europeans. The Arabs then, as many terrorists still do, commonly captured American and European ships enslaving the crews and passengers or holding them for ransom. Jefferson and Adams explained that if this could not be stopped and resolved it might mean war. The Americans could not understand why they were attacked when American had done nothing to offend the Arab Counties. The Arab envoy explained their “duty” and “right” to attack Americans and why war was not a serious deterrent to Islamic nations. Ironically, the same explanations were given by Arab leaders in the early 21st century to illustrate why the Arab countries could not be intimidated.


Citations

Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, *, Envoy to France of the Pasha of Tripoli, Libya, Statement to American Ambassadors to France and England, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, London, 1986 Quoted in the correspondence of the American ambassadors to Secretary of State John Jay and to Congress

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Related Quotes

This quotation was reported to Congress by Thomas Jefferson. Essentially, this religious justification is no different from that made by contemporary Islamic extremists. Particularly interesting is the last sentence. The Koran states that all Muslims who die defending Islam will go immediately to heaven regardless of their previous sins and transgressions. Under that justification, even criminal extortion and terrorism is justified by some Muslims whenever the victims are non-believers.


Slogans taken from posters listing 10 people targeted by Muslim extremists. Most were people who had said or published material that some fundamentalist Muslims had decided were offensive to Islam. One was Charlie Hebdo, the French Publisher who Islamic terrorists murdered later. Note the Americanisms that the terrorist propagandists adopted. The Wanted Dead or Alive was taken from the posters of the American West of the 19th century. The "Yes we can" was lifted from the Barack Obama 2008 campaign slogan. The "Bullet A Day Keeps the Infidel Away" is a takeoff on the American saying "An apple a day keeps the Doctor away." One of the reasons for these Americanisms was that the founding editor was Samir Khan, self-described American traitor.


Most sophisticated Muslim theologians would not agree at all with the “permission” he quotes from the Koran. However, there is no hierarchy of belief in Islam and there are tens of thousands of Muslim imams and millions of individual Muslims who believe and teach just what this particular terrorist stated.


Fanatic Muslims believe that suicide bombers when they blow themselves up have done so to defend Islam and therefore will not only go directly to heaven but will get 72 Virgins when they get there. Most of the suicide bombers are young men with very little or no sexual experience. At the time that Trainor made this remark, there had been an enormous increase in suicide bombers in the Iraq war.


In the 18th Century, the Islamic Barbary States combined their religious beliefs for Jihad against non believers with a classic criminal enterprise. They would authorize cosairs to outfit ships and attack Christian merchant ships on the high seas. They would capture the ship and the cargo, which would be split with the ruler of the country. The crew and passengers would by “rented out” as slaves until they would be ransomed, the proceeds of which would also be shared. To motivate a larger ransom, the captives were regularly tortured as well as worked almost to death. The Barbary Pirates encouraged the “slaves” to write to their relatives, friends and governments to try and raise the ransom. O’Brien’s ship was captured in 1785. He had been a slave for 4 years when he wrote this. See {623704} for a quote from a letter he sent Congress. Finally, after 10 years, O’Brien and those of his crew that were still alive were finally freed. O’Brien’s unusual experience and knowledge of the Barbary States qualified him as an expert and he was then appointed Consul-General to Algiers. Individual Christian countries were offered a “treaty” whereby for an annual payment of tribute to the Barbary country, the corsairs of that country would not attack ships flying their flag. The Christian country had to make 4 different tribute payments to each of the Barbary nations. Most of the European powers were paying the tribute even though some could easily defeat the Corsair navies in a war. The cost of outfitting a fleet for war was much more costly than paying the tribute. The new nation of the United States was good pickings for the Barbary pilots and there was a period of several decades where the Americans had to create a policy to pay tribute or go to war. At different times America did both.


In the 18th Century, the Islamic Barbary States combined their religious beliefs for Jihad against non believers with a classic criminal enterprise. They would authorize cosairs to outfit ships and attack Christian merchant ships on the high seas. They would capture the ship and the cargo, which would be split with the ruler of the country. The crew and passengers would by “rented out” as slaves until they would be ransomed, the proceeds of which would also be shared. To motivate a larger ransom, the captives were regularly tortured as well as worked almost to death. The Barbary Pirates encouraged the “slaves” to write to their relatives, friends and governments to try and raise the ransom. O’Brien’s ship was captured in 1785. He had been a slave for 4 years when he wrote this. See for a quote from a letter he sent Congress. Finally, after 10 years, O’Brien and those of his crew that were still alive were finally freed. O’Brien’s unusual experience and knowledge of the Barbary States qualified him as an expert and he was then appointed Consul-General to Algiers. Individual Christian countries were offered a “treaty” whereby for an annual payment of tribute to the Barbary country, the corsairs of that country would not attack ships flying their flag. The Christian country had to make 4 different tribute payments to each of the Barbary nations. Most of the European powers were paying the tribute even though some could easily defeat the Corsair navies in a war. The cost of outfitting a fleet for war was much more costly than paying the tribute. The new nation of the United States was good pickings for the Barbary pilots and there was a period of several decades where the Americans had to create a policy to pay tribute or go to war. At different times America did both.


He was the first American that who was assassinated by the Central Intelligence Agency by means of a drone attack. He was a major recruiter for Al Qaeda and he preached to 3 of the 9-11 terrorists.


The Messenger is Muhammed, founder of Islam. The Hadith are his sayings which have been compiled but are not in the Koran.


This is one of the extremist justifications of suicide bombing. Note how he tried to turn suicide bombing into an individual right. Yet he and the Muslim Botherhood do not recognize the right of a person to choose his own religion, or the right of freedom of speech or the press. He also cites the Koran--the Muslim Holy Book--as justification. However, most mainstream Muslim clerics can find nothing in Muslim scripture that could possibley justify the murder of innocent people or the individual suicide. His views are extremist, both politically and theologially.


At one level, this statement is typical of Christian theology and practice. Historically, the Christian martyrs were not only presumed to have gone to heaven but many of them were made Saints for their martyrdom. They assumed a type of equivalency of Christian prophets. The problem lies in the different concept of martyrdom. The martyrs of the Christian Church were almost all peaceful and docile people who would not repudiate their Christian faith even though tortured and killed. Martyrs in Islamic tradition included the above but more often were fighters and warriors who died on the battlefield or on a military mission of violence. In that sense, the modern suicide bomber is described as, and perceives him or herself as a martyrs. In Islamic culture, anyone who dies defending the faith, is a martyr. That person immediately goes to Paradise, bypassing all the other potential exclusions that the religion reserves for all others. Further, there are quasi religious beliefs about martyrdom in Islamic nations. One is that the martyr who acends to Paradise is given a bevy of virgins for his sexual pleasure for all eternity. This particular sura is used by suicide bomber recruiters to provide the highest level of religious authority to back up their claims of the advantages of a martyrs death to the would-be suicide bomber. Few of the recruiters however are sufficiently convinced of the martyrdom they sell so well, that they would willingly become martyrs themselves. While many Westerners see this as evidence of a major perversion of a perverse religion, they are usually unaware that in the Crusades, the Pope provided the same immediate ascension to Heaven for any Christian who died while fighting on the Crusades, and this was one of the major recruiting pitches to obtain volunteers to go to the Holy Land.


This is the basis of the immediate access to paradise that Mullahs promise would be suicide bombers or other fighters in jihad. Lest we think of Islam as more reprehensible than other religions, note that this same type of promise of immediate entry to Heaven was given to Christians who fought for Christianity. See {617185} .


One Islamic belief that has stood since the inception of the religion is that if a true believer who is defending the faith in a jihad is killed, he will immediate be transported to Paradise where he will receive the best of the other world. If a Muslim dies under normal circumstances, he is judged and may or may not attain Paradise depending on his past life. However, if he dies in jihad, all past sins are immediately erased and he is guaranteed Paradise. This quotation is exactly what is told to Muslim fighters and suicide bombers today (see {635766}, {588728} and {590762}) and it is just as effective as ever in persuading men to fight and sacrifice themselves. The Roman Catholic Pope issued a similar edict in the Crusades and fights of both religions were willing and almost anxious to die in battle. In modern times Christian leaders do not make such appeals and if they did, few would believe them.


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