And now class, time for our history lesson for today…

Today we find ourselves living under the repressive guise of European cultural dominance. The European’s great discoveries and advancements in science, technology, and exploration built the foundations for the modern world, or so they say. Now, I don’t mean to completely diss the Europeans, who except for completely destroying all that is sacred in this world for the last 400 years, have achieved many great things (like french fries). The attitude of a superior European culture that existed throughout the latter part of the last millennia, are still very much in existence today. History is one of the biggest victims of cultural dominance. When only one group of people’s version of history remains or only one group of people are allowed to interpret history you are not only losing out on valuable irreplaceable discourse of events we are affectively destroying other people and their heritage. When a person’s roots are cut off and destroyed, his stake in this world no longer exists, making him vulnerable for extinction. If a man doesn’t know where he came from, that means he doesn’t know where he is going either.

Many of us know Christopher Columbus as the valiant Italian explorer, who in 1492 discovered the “New Word” by landing on the island of Guanahani (called San Salvador by Colombus). However, historians now hold that the Romans and Carthegenians already knew about South America which is shown in one of Ptolomey’s maps. Also, it is pretty much fact know that Leif Erricson and the Vikings were the first to reach North America, although they didn’t settle. Also, some historians claim that Zheng He, a muslim admiral of China’s huge navy, arrived at the “New World” decades before Colombus or de Gamma with a fleet of over 300 junks (boats up to 400 feet long!). But perhaps what is most interesting about the discovery and the settlement of America, is it’s Muslim roots.

The atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th Century led by the infamous King Ferdinand and Isabella, tortured and killed Muslims and Jews, and those who lived escaped to north Africa and Asia. This period ended the Muslim rule of Spain (Al-Andalus) and the Catholic church was reinstated as the official religion of Iberia. Many of the Muslims and Jews of Berber descent went to the Canary Islands, and others were sold into slavery to work in ships that sharked the Mediterranean. Amazingly, any of these Muslims either by way of their own expeditions or by Spanish ships ended up in Ameria.

The first Muslims to settle in the “New World” probably came through their own expeditions and ended up first in the Carribean. In 1502, on one of Colombus’ expeditions he writes of encountering strange people different from the natives who traveled in boats strikingly similar to those he had seen in Muslim Granada. Not only was it odd to see the same boats, but he also reported that they wore clothing of colors and styles similar to what he had seen in Granada and that the women aboard “covered their faces like the women of Granada.” Many historians consider these to be Mayan people, however the striking similarities to Muslims in the Mediterranean cannot be ignored.

n 1527, the first land crossing of the United States by a non-Native American most likely was achieved by Azemmouri, a Moroccan Berber -a Muslim. He was commissioned by Spain to lead an expedition of three people across North America. He traveled from Florida to the West Coast and back to Texas. He was also the first one to encounter pueblo villages, so much for Lewis and Clark huh?

In Appalachia, the mountainous areas of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina, there were a group of people who were discovered as early as 1654 by French and English explorers. These people were described to possess European features but have a darker skin described as either tan or olive. They were descendents of early Moors that had come to the “New World.” Before Jamestown, Spain had set up many settlements on the East Coast as well as the Carribean. Santa Ella, off the coast of North Carolina, was one of them. Spain brought many Berbers and Sephardic Jews to work in the settlement as slaves. Eventually the British overran these settlements and the Spanish left, leaving the Berbers and Jews. The fled into the mountains to escape and eventually intermarried with the Native Americans. Later another group would arrive in North Carolina that would eventually combine with them.

in 1586, the English pirate famous for raiding Spanish vessels, Sir Francis Drake captured more than 300 Moors and Turks that were slaves on the Spanish boats. He was on his way back to England with them when he stopped by the English colony at Roanoke Island, who pleaded with them to take them back with him. In order to make room for the returning colonists, he left 200 of the Moors and Turks on Roanoke Island and sailed off for Europe. This group eventually made it to the mountains as well and mixed with the already established group there.
In 1654, the English explorers reported a colony of bearded people wearing European clothing, living in cabins smelting silver and dropping to their knees to pray many times daily, wherever they might be. In the mid 1600’s, there were people living among the Powhatans (the tribe Pocahontas hails from) and related tribes of eastern Virginia and North Carolina who were described as dark like Indians, but called “Portugals.” A similar people in South Carolina called themselves “Turks” The early 17th Century Powhatan Indians description of Heaven is nearly word for word the description found in the Holy Qur’an.
Tennessee Governor John Sevier records a 1784 encounter in what is now Western North Carolina with a dark-skinned, reddish-brown complexioned people supposed to be of Moorish descent who claim to be Portuguese. In east Tennessee in late 1700’s Jonathan Swift, an Englishman, employed dark-skinned men who were known as “Mecca Indians.”

The people were given the name “Melungeons,” and a variety of theories on it’s etymology. The Melungeons eventually became entirely Christian and assimilated with society as time went on. However, they were many reports of discrimination against them and were often times classified as black. Many famous Americans may have been of Melungeon descent such as Abraham Lincoln and Elvis Prestley.

And well, I think that’s enough history for one night. Just goes to show, things are never what they seem…