Jordan has Fayetteville’s interests at heart
I was very happy to read in Saturday’s Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette that Lioneld Jordan has decided to run for a third term as mayor of Fayetteville.
In the 16 years I have known Lioneld, he has shown himself to be an extremely hard-working and dedicated representative and leader who always has the best interests of the people of Fayetteville up front in his mind. He has also shown himself to be a man who can and will get things done.
Our city is fortunate indeed that he is willing to take on this very demanding and difficult job for yet another four years. Thank you, Lioneld!
WILLIAM A. MOELLER
Fayetteville
Exploring Islam’s impact on U.S. history
President Obama speaks the truth when he often says “Islam has been part of America from the beginning.” Because of Islam, the United States Navy was founded and the United States Marine Corps was sent on one of its most honored deployments. Thanks to Islam, the phrase “to the shores of Tripoli we fight our country’s battles” is part of the Marines Hymn. It comes from the fact that President Jefferson sent Navy warships and marines to the Mediterranean Sea to fight the Islamic Barbary pirates who were plundering American ships and getting ransom payments worth 25 percent of our young republic’s budget every year. The Muslim pirates also kidnapped Christians to sell as slaves in the Ottoman (Islamic) slave markets. They had preyed on the Mediterranean and West African Atlantic as far back as the ninth century. They raided seashore towns as far north as Ireland carrying all the men off to work them to death as galley slaves. They sold the girls and women as concubines in harems of rich, powerful Muslims.
Along with bribery, America’s founders tried diplomacy with the Islamic terrorists of their generation. The Muslim Barbary pirates’ spokesman told a U.S. delegation that the laws of their prophet in the Koran required them to make war on non-Muslims. Benjamin Franklin reported that the Muslim plunderers claimed God had given the world and all in it to Muslims and they should take it as fast as they could. John Adams called Muhammad a “military fanatic” who “arrogates everything to himself by force of arms.”
Yes, Islam is part of United States history from early times, but not for the reason President Obama pretends. Why does the president of the United States repeatedly peddle the fiction that Muslims had a significant and positive part in the founding era of America? One reason is to boost Democrat vote counts and win close elections in areas where Muslims live in large numbers. I leave it to the readers to draw their own conclusions about a second reason.
GERALD HOLLAND
Bentonville