The Barbary wars

In Barbary wars, did U.S. declare 'war on Islam'?

Ask most Americans about the details of the Barbary wars, and you’re likely to get blank stares. But the obscure, early 19th century wars between the newly established United States and a group of north African powers has become evidence for a chain email that lectures about the present-day dangers of radical Islam.

Here are excerpts from the chain email.

"Most Americans are unaware of the fact that over 200 years ago, the United States had declared war on Islam, and Thomas Jefferson led the charge! 

"At the height of the 18th century, Muslim pirates were the terror of the Mediterranean and a large area of the North Atlantic. They attacked every ship in sight, and held the crews for exorbitant ransoms. Those taken hostage were subjected to barbaric treatment and wrote heart breaking letters home, begging their government and family members to pay whatever their Mohammedan captors demanded. 

"These extortionists of the high seas represented the Islamic nations of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers -- collectively referred to as the Barbary Coast and presented a dangerous and unprovoked threat to the new American Republic. ..."

"Islam, and what its Barbary followers justified doing in the name of their prophet and their god, disturbed Jefferson quite deeply. America had a tradition of religious tolerance. In fact, Jefferson himself, had co-authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, but fundamentalist Islam was like no other religion the world had ever seen.

"A religion based on supremacism, whose holy book not only condoned but mandated violence against unbelievers was unacceptable to him. His greatest fear was that someday this brand of Islam would return and pose an even greater threat to the United States."

This excerpt offers a lot to chew over (and the full text includes even more), but for this fact-check we’re going to focus on the opening claim -- that "over 200 years ago, the United States had declared war on Islam, and Thomas Jefferson led the charge!"

Some background on the Barbary Wars

The Barbary wars aren’t entirely forgotten -- they are the source of the lyric "to the shores of Tripoli" in the Marine Hymn, among other things. But they did occur more than two centuries ago, so they offer fertile ground for questionable claims.

The wars -- the first fought between 1801 and 1805 and a second in 1815 -- followed centuries of piracy in the Mediterranean by semi-autonomous outposts of the Ottoman Empire, including Tripoli and Algeria.

Historians describe these actions as a well-developed protection racket. Countries paid hefty monetary "tributes" to the north African powers in order to get free passage for their ships. Countries that refused would risk being boarded, with crew members held hostage and cargo confiscated. (Technically, this was not "piracy," which is committed by non-state actors; the proper term for such government-backed privateering is "corsairing.")

Over the years, many seafaring European nations concluded that payment of tribute was the lesser of two evils, so they complied. During the era of the American colonies, American merchant vessels received protection by virtue of being of being British; the British were among the countries that paid tribute. Then, during the American Revolution, an alliance with France protected American ships. But full independence brought an end to that.