The ongoing War on Terror has led people to declare that there is a war on Islam by either Christians or the United States or both. But according to a segment of the population, this actually is not the first time that the United States has been at war with Islam.

A recent chain email made the rounds, and within the email, the clam was made that, in fact, Islam and the U.S. were at war back in the early 19th century. Here's the claim:

"Over 200 years ago, the United States had declared war on Islam, and Thomas Jefferson led the charge!"

PolitiFact looked into the email and rated it FALSE. Reporter Joshua Gillin says the conflict the United States was involved in has been completely miscategorized.

"What we're talking about here is the time at the turn of the 19th century when the United States had cargo ships moving through the Mediterranean," Gillin said. "Those ships were subject to a practice called 'corsairing' along the Barbary Coast, and that was basically state-sponsored piracy conducted by the Ottoman Empire. 

"The U.S. had to pay for protection, or else be subject to this form of piracy. As you can imagine, the U.S. was not happy about that, but we never declared war against anybody over it.  In fact, it was Tripoli who declared war on us for non-payment of these protection fees."

By 1815, that conflict was settled and the U.S. didn't have to pay any protection fees, but what about the Islam factor? 

"The fact of the matter is that we were never in a war against Islam over this," Gillin said. "It was a conflict based solely on money.  In fact, treaties actually said that the United States had no ideological religious concerns with that part of the world.  It was all about the money."

Because the conflict was about money and not about religion, as the email said, the claim gets a FALSE rating.

SOURCES: U.S. at war with Islam in 19th century?

  • PolitiFact ruling
  • Chain email received by PolitiFact in February 2015
  • Gerard W. Gawalt, "America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe" (Library of Congress), accessed Feb. 9, 2015
  • Paul A. Silverstein, "The New Barbarians: Piracy and Terrorism on the North African Frontier" (CR: The New Centennial Review), 2005
  • Text of Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli November 4, 1796
  • Monticello.org, "The First Barbary War," accessed Feb. 9, 2015
  • Email interview with Lance Janda, military historian at Cameron University, Feb. 9, 2015
  • Interview with Frederick C. Leiner, author of The End of Barbary Terror: America's 1815 War against the Pirates of North Africa (Oxford University Press), 2006
  • Email interview with Robert C. Davis, author of Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave/Macmillan), 2003
  • Email interview with Adrian Tinniswood, author of Pirates of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean (Riverhead), 2010
  • Email interview with Paul A. Silverstein, author of Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation (Indiana University Press), 2004
  • Email interview with Greg Bak, author of Barbary Pirate: The Life and Crimes of John Ward (History Press), 2013
  • Email interview with Frank Lambert, author of The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World (Hill and Wang), 2005