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Reader comment on item: Muslims and Ethnic Arabs in Central and South American Politics

Submitted by Danny brevado (Egypt), Jul 5, 2007 at 03:15

In what context should your reader follow your article? What does ethnic or cultural background have to do with being successful or wealthy? you made it sound like it's a setback to belong to middle eastern ancestory and be successful at the same time.

Ancient America was not isolated from the old world as many historians would have us believe. Knowledge, agricultural products, livestock and other commercial items were exchanged between the two worlds, and Muslims were probably one of the most important contact people before Columbus' voyage. Evidence leading to the presence of Muslims in the ancient Americas comes from a number of sculptures, oral traditions, eyewitness reports, artifacts, and inscriptions. In Meso-American art we see Africans and Semites in positions of power and prestige, especially in trading communities of Mexico.

A report in Before Columbus by Cyrus Gordon describes coins found in the southern Caribbean region: "...off the coast of Venezuela were discovered a hoard of Mediterranean coins with so many duplicates that it cannot well be a numismatist's collection but rather a supply of cash. Nearly, all the coins are Roman, from the reign of Augustus to the 4th century AD. Two of the coins, however, are Arabic of the 8th century AD. It is the latter that give us the terminus a quo (i.e. time after which) of the collection as a whole (which cannot be earlier than the latest coins in the collection). Roman coins continued in use as currency into the medieval times. A Moorish ship, perhaps from Spain or North Africa seems to have crossed the Atlantic around 800 AD."

These coins are solid confirmation of the historical reports recorded by Muslim historians and geographers concerning journeys of Muslim adventurers and navigators across the Atlantic Ocean. In Munuj adh-Dhahab, Al Mas'udi in the year 956 CE wrote about a young man of Cordoba named Khashkhash ibn Saeed ibn Aswad who crossed the Atlantic Ocean and returned in the year 889 CE, Mas'udi wrote: "Some people feel that this ocean is the source of all oceans and in it there have been many strange happenings. We have reported some of them in our book Akhbar az-Zaman. Adventurers have penetrated it on the risk of their lives, some returning safely, others perishing in the attempt. One such man was art inhabitant of Andalusia named Khashkhash. He was a young man of Cordoba who gathered a group of young men and went on a voyage on this ocean. After a long time he returned with a fabulous booty. Every Spaniard (Andalusian) knows his story."

A narration by Abu Bakr b. 'Umar al Qutiyya relates the story of Ibn Farukh who landed in Feb. 999 CE in Gando (Great Canary), visited King Guanariga and continued his journey westwards till he found islands he called Capraria and Pluitana. In May of that year he arrived back in Spain.

Al Sharif al Idrisi (1097-1155) the famous Arab geographer reported in his extensive work The Geography of Al Idrisi in the 12th century, on the journey of a group of North African seamen who reached the Americas. Al Idrisi wrote: "A group of seafarers sailed into the sea of Darkness and Fog (the Atlantic Ocean) from Lisbon in order to discover what was in it and to what extent were its limit. They were a party of eight and they took a boat which was loaded with supplies to last them for months. They sailed for eleven days till they reached turbulent waters with great waves and little light. They thought that they would perish so they turned their boat southward and traveled for twenty days. They finally reached an island that had people and cultivation but they were captured and chained for three days. On the fourth day a translator came speaking the Arabic language! He translated for the King and asked them about their mission. They informed him about themselves, then they were returned to their confinement. When the westerly wind began to blow, they were put in a canoe, blindfolded and brought to land after three days' sailing. They were left on the shore with their hands tied behind their backs, when the next day came, another tribe appeared freeing them and informing them that between them and their lands war a journey of two months."

This astonishing historical report not only clearly describes contact between Muslim seamen and the indigenous people of the Caribbean islands but it confirms the fact that the contact between the two worlds had been so involved that the native people could speak Arabic!

The Daily Clarion of Belize on November 5, 1946, "When Christopher Columbus discovered the West Indies about the year 1493, he found there a race of white people (i.e., half breeds) with wooly hair whom he called Caribs, they were seafaring hunters and tillers of the soil peaceful and united. They, hated aggression. Their religion was Mohammedanism and their language presumably Arabic." On the other hand the British Honduras Handbook states that the Carib "are very clannish and speak a language of their own which they guard jealously. It appears to be basically an African dialect with a strong admixture of French, Spanish and English words."

The Black Caribs, also had a number of clearly Islamic practices like the complete prohibition of the eating of the flesh of swine which they called "coincoin or bouirokou." The Handbook of South American Indians describes the Caribs with the following: "The most prized possessions of the [Carib] men was the Caracoli, a crescent-shaped alloy of gold and copper framed in wood which the warriors obtained during raids upon the continental [South American] Arawak. Some of the Caracoli were small and served as ear, nose, or mouth pendants; others wee large enough to be worn on the chest. They were a sign of high rank, being passed down from generation to generation, and worn only on a ceremonial occasion and during journeys." As you can easily deduct from all the above evidence, history has been deliberately distorted to better suit a certain agenda. So, those presidents and presidential candidates didn't embark on the shores of the Americas in 1913. kindly view more facts on: www.1421.tv

Quotes:

"Phrases such as "Muslim militant" and "Islamic terrorist" appear so often in the U.S. media it is as if word processors were programmed to produce only such pairs. Muslims, now numbering about one billion, are aware of the stereotype. Do these Muslims tend to see a duplicity in U.S. Middle East policy? Do they perceive that the U.S. and Europe make the same stereotypical judgment for all Muslims, all over the world? If they are not seeing Muslims as authentic human beings, will they deem them expendable. Is this why, they ask, the Americans and the West can so easily turn a blind eye to a genocide of Muslims in Europe?" (1994)
Grace Halsell, former speech writer for U.S. President Johnson.

"I hope that in the next century we will come to terms with our abysmal ignorance of the Muslim world. Muslims aren't a bunch of wackos and nuts. They are decent, brilliant, talented people with a great civilization and traditions of their own, including legal traditions. Americans know nothing about them. There are people in that part of the world with whom we are simply out of touch. That's a great challenge for the next century."
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, December 1999.

"Islam is the best chance the poor of the planet have for any hope of decency in their lives. It is the one revolutionary force that cares about humanity." [1998]
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (12) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Ismael Jacinto Haiek: Arab-Islamic anti Semite in Argentina [757 words]Jorge del carmenAug 5, 2020 16:34259843
Regarding Michel Temer [24 words]FabioMay 13, 2016 12:12229449
Arab politicians in Latin America [349 words]PrashantFeb 9, 2019 21:17229449
The amazing history of the Christians from the Middle East in Central and South America and Tacos al Pastor! [333 words]dhimmi no moreFeb 13, 2019 12:21229449
In deed the richest man [51 words]Ugoh SanchezDec 7, 2009 16:21165477
2Are they arabs? [124 words]G.VishvasJul 12, 2007 12:06103515
Arabs in Latin America [29 words]EliasJul 9, 2007 00:56103271
No Number but prediction. [892 words]YnnatchkahJul 21, 2007 13:00103271
1as long as they are not muslims, its fine [47 words]ASJul 8, 2007 16:06103248
1Most of these are Lebanese Maronites who hate Muslims [22 words]JJJul 26, 2007 13:52103248
Poor in Mexico. [284 words]YnnatchkahJul 5, 2007 19:50103055
More Facts [1272 words]Danny brevadoJul 5, 2007 03:15102996

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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