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In January 2007, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota became the United States' first Muslim Congressman when he was sworn into the House of Representatives. For the ceremonial photo opportunity afterwards, he elected to pose with a copy of the Quran published in 1764 and once owned by Thomas Jefferson: Jefferson himself had a significant connection with Islam through the conflict now known as the Barbary Wars, which grew out of attacks on American merchant vessels (and the capture and ransoming of their crew and cargos) by pirates from the North African kingdoms of Tunis, Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco (collectively referred to as the 'Barbary Coast). Through the first half of the 18th century American merchant shipping had been effectively protected by the navies of Britain and France, but by 1784 the Revolutionary War and U.S. independence had ended that protection, and the fledgling United States had no navy that could adequately defend American mechant ships against the depredations of Barbary pirates. In 1787 the Continental Congress ratified a treaty with Morocco calling for the payment of tribute by the United States in exchange for an end to attacks on merchant ships, but Tripoli and Algiers continued to prey on American shipping. In 1794 Congress (urged in large part by New England merchants disgruntled with ship seizures in the Mediterranean and rising insurance rates) passed the Naval Act, which reestablished the U.S. Navy and authorized the construction of six naval frigates to provide for the defense of American shipping interests. The Barbary Wars began in 1801, when President Thomas Jefferson dispatched a naval squadron to the Mediterranean to protect American ships and the crews who manned them. Jefferson drew heavy criticism when Tripoli seized the USS Philadelphia and its 300-man crew in 1803, but the following year Lt. Commander Stephen Decatur led sixty men on a daring raid of Tripoli harbor, where they boarded and burned the Philadelphia (although the crew remained captive). In 1805, Lt. William Eaton led seven Marines and four hundred mercenaries to a decisive victory against the fortress at the port city of Derna on the shores of Tripoli (an action celebrated in the first line of the Marines' Hymn). The pasha of Tripoli soon agreed to release the American prisoners and cease further acts of piracy against American ships in exchange for $60,000, and the Barbary Wars effectively ended when another naval squadron led by Decatur shelled Algiers into submission in 1816. The outline of history presented in the article referenced above is basically correct, although its emphasis on Muslim slave traders (no mention that Jefferson himself, like many other Americans at the time, was also a slaveowner) and the Muslim book of jihad is questionable. The successful resolution of the Barbary issue came about not specifically because of anything Jefferson gleaned from reading the Quran, but because he realized early on that paying tribute to pirates and brigands was not a viable solution, especially when the payees were half a world away and effectively outside the reach of American military power. Believing that paying tribute to the Barbary nations would only lead to additional demands, and that England and France could not be counted upon to join a confederation of nations created to compel the piratical states to perpetual peace, Jefferson reasoned early on that the best course of action was to create a navy which could subdue the Barbary powers by force: Learn more about Jefferson and the Barbary Wars at the Library of Congress.
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