Early American Perceptions of Muslims

Bahar 2013 . Cilt 3 . Sayı 5 Early American Perceptions of Muslims M. el-Moctar EL-SHINQITI* Abstract: This paper briefly surveys the early American perceptions of Muslims as reflected in the Barbary-related literature, and follows some of the traces of that past in Today’s American culture. The four themes of traditional European Orientalism can be easily found in the early American literature on Barbary: Islam is portrayed in this literature as the religion of political tyranny, antiChristian darkness, sensual pleasures, and oppression of women. What is new in this study is the American context in which these themes function. Timothy Marr believes that Islam was used by the early Americans as a “cultural enemy”, an “oppositional icon” that helped the new nation build its own identity. This rhetorical use of Islam against internal and external enemies seems to have responded to an American need for creating a new nation’s self-consciousness. Marr called this internalization of Islam “domestic Orientalism” and its external projection “imperialism of virtue”. Key words: America, Muslims, Turks, Christianity, Orientalism, identity, perception, stereotype. Introduction The famous American theologian, Cotton Mather (1663-1728), once remarked, “we are afar off, in a land, which never had (that I ever heard of) one Mahometan breathing in it”1. During the early years of the Republic, Americans interacted with many “real and imagined * 1 Dr., Associate Professor of History of religion, Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, Qatar. Cotton Mather, American Tears upon the Ruines of the Greek Churches (Boston, Massachusetts: B. Green and J. Allen, 1701), p.38. As quoted by Thomas S. Kidd, “Is It 7 M. el-Moctar EL-SHINQITI Muslims”2 in different ways. This paper briefly surveys the early American perceptions of Muslims as reflected in the Barbary-related literature. During the fifty years between 1786 and 1836, the United States Government signed nine treaties with the North African states. During the decade of 1785-1795, about 130 Americans were taken as captives and enslaved in these states, mainly in Algiers. Concluding treaties were issued in order to secure American trade in the Mediterranean and liberate the American slaves in North Africa. This seems to have been a hot topic in the public life of the nascent Republic. The original draft of the American constitution, referred to the King of England: “This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain…”3 This paragraph in the draft of the Constitution, reflects deeply the crisis with North-African states embedded within the American public life, since the ‘infidel powers’ intended in the text are clearly the North-African Muslim states4. The captivity of Americans in North-Africa left a bitter taste and a great disappointment in the hearts of many Americans of that time. Injustices involved in enslaving free Americans and exhausting the American treasury were the order of the day. But, as Richard Parker noticed, many Americans expressed their disappointment with a great deal of “fabrication, exaggeration, and ignorance, not to mention ingrained stereotyping.”5 Even William Shaler, with his matter-of-fact narration and cold-blooded analysis, called the captivity of 130 Americans and few ships “the terror of Christendom and the scourge of the civilized world.”6 2 3 4 5 6 8 Worse to Follow Mahomet than the Devil?”: Early American Uses of Islam, Church History. 72, no. 4, (2003) p.767 Kidd, “Is It Worse to Follow Mahomet than the Devil?”, p.767 Jefferson, Autobiography, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/jeffauto.htm. retrieved April 15, 2007. This is how Timothy Marr interpreted the text, see Marr, The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism, p. 20 Parker, Uncle Sam in Barbary, p.3 Shaler, Sketches of Algiers, p.15 Early American Perceptions of Muslims From 1780 to the French occupation of Algiers in 1830, there existed serious interactions between the U.S. and Muslim societies of North Africa. These interactions were embedded with successive crises, treaties, wars and skirmishes. They manifest in the literature on Islam and the Muslims, studied here. Look at the sources The sources of this paper are diverse. It primarily includes factual and fictional accounts of the American captives in Algiers, Tripoli and Morocco. Texts of legal and political documents, diplomatic correspondences and writings are also contained therein. Two fictional works, Slaves in Algiers7, and the Algerian Spy in Pennsylvania8, lend a sense of the cultural ethos of the relations between the Americans and the North-African states. Here the use of fictional works as a historical source is justified by the fact that these works reflect people’s opinions and perceptions that shaped the major view points in regards to the Muslim peoples. I am deeply indebted to Paul Baepler’s sourcebook, White Slaves, African Masters for the captive narratives here, in particular, Cotton Mather’s speech, the Glory of Goodness. As for the secondary sources, the groundbreaking works of Edward Said on Orientalism9 and Covering Islam10 opened the door for other scholars to take a closer look at the American perception of Islam and Muslims. Timothy Marr borrowed some of his main conceptual tools from Said11; Thomas Kidd followed in seeing “early American uses of Islam 7 8 9 10 11 Rowson, Susanna H. Slaves in Algiers; or, a struggle for freedom: a play, interspersed with songs, in three acts (Philadelphia: Wrigley and Berriman, prtrs., 1794) Peter Markoe, the Algerian Spy in Pennsylvania or Letters written by a Native of Algiers on the Affairs of the United States in America from the Close of the Year 1783 to the Meeting of the Convention (Philadelphia: Richard and Hall, 1787) Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vantage, 1979) Edward Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (New York: Vantage,1997) Marr, The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism, pp. 2,4,8,13 and 77 9 M. el-Moctar EL-SHINQITI as essentially discursive.12 Melani McAlister expanded the application of Said’s theory from the textual arena to the broader popular culture, in her study of “the cultural work that happens at the messy intercessions”13 of the US-Middle East relations. Richard Parker, an American historian and practicing diplomat, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Algeria, Morocco and Lebanon in both the Ford and Carter administrations, lends an excellent historical background of the diplomatic relations between the U.S and North-African states in his book, Uncle Sam in Barbary. Common prejudices involving the American interpretations of events, is exposed by Robert Allison, in The Crescent Obscured.14 Rhetorical use The four themes of traditional European Orientalism can be easily traced in the early American literature on Barbary: Islam (...truncated)