An interesting question...

For those of us that fancy ourselves "historically correct" here at the Bund, let's ponder the following:

When did we, the United States of America, become enemies of Islam?

For the vast majority of Americans today, that answer would be in the last 8 years, beginning with the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Our "War on Terror" has such a focus on radical Islam that most liberal opponents to the effort see it as a "War on Islam" itself. Now, I'm not re-opening the Ryan-rant about the failings of the politically-correct issues of racial profiling... I'm posing the question of when the "actual" animosity between the USA and a broad spectrum of the Islamic world began.

One could make the argument that since 1453 and the taking of Constantinople by Mehmet II, Islam has been in a state of "war" with the West... was this the start? Muslim leaders had coveted Byzantine for 800 years prior to the defeat of Constantine XI... Mohammad himself is said to have called for the destruction of the city by the "faithful". Did Mohammad himself lay the foundation for the friction between Islam and the West?

Interesting as these points are... they do not apply to my question, because there was no USA prior to 1776, and no one (not even the most radical Muslim of the day) was paying any attention to the USA in 1776. However, by 1784, Morocco (which had been the FIRST foreign nation to recognise an independent USA) had begun seizing American shipping and selling American sailors into slavery and servitude. Was this the beginning of America's "war with Islam"?

I don't think so... I think that both the First Barbary War and the Second were responses to the Barbary states attacking American shipping, not because we were Americans, but because we were a new, relatively weak maritime power that had yet to "cut its teeth" in the real world. Americans were no more targeted for brutality or by pirates than Spanish, Italian or Greek interests... we simply fought back better than the rest.

So, let's hear it... when was it that we became "enemies of Islam"?