c. 2007 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Ever wonder where the phrase “to the shores of Tripoli” in the U.S. Marine Hymn comes from?
In his new book, “Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present,” Michael B. Oren recounts that during the first years of American independence, the United States was forced to bribe Barbary pirates based in Tripoli, Algiers and Tunis.
Arab marauders would seize U.S. ships and their cargoes, and enslave the captured American seamen. After several decades of fierce battles, including the deployment of the Marines, the U.S. was finally able to make the Mediterranean safe for American merchant ships and naval vessels.
In the interests of full disclosure, Oren, an American-educated Israeli historian and an Israel Defense Forces reserve paratrooper, was my colleague during the 1990s when he served as the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Israel office.
Oren’s richly researched 778-page book details how the U.S. has battled Arab terrorism from the very beginning. It seems everything and nothing has changed from President George Washington to President George W. Bush.
Some people believe America’s current interest in the Middle East is based solely on our addiction to oil. Oren shatters that belief by showing how the Middle East was an early magnet not only for U.S. business interests, but especially for idealistic Protestant missionaries.
Missionaries and their supporters back home decisively shaped American foreign policy long before oil became indispensable for our nation’s industrial needs. Indeed, Oren’s story is more interesting than the better-known saga of American economic and military “power” asserting itself in the Middle East.
For more than a century, American religious zealots armed with Bibles sailed to the Middle East in the absolute belief they would convert Muslims (as well as Jews) to Christianity, “the one true faith.”
One such missionary was 23-year-old Samuel Marinus Zwemer from Vriesland, Mich. The son of a Dutch Reformed minister, young Samuel “stared for hours at the metronome his teacher had placed before the class, ticking each time a soul died unsaved in Asia.”
In 1890, Zwemer traveled first to Cairo and then made a risky trek across what is now Saudi Arabia. While on his journey, his wife, brother and two of his children died of disease. Zwemer ultimately recognized what earlier missionaries had discovered: “The Arabs could not be converted.”
Instead, Zwemer set up schools for Muslims, following the pattern of other American Christians who also failed in their baptizing efforts, and engaged instead in “Social Gospel missionizing” _ establishing universities, clinics, orphanages, hospices and hospitals in the Middle East. The American University of Beirut is the best known of such institutions.
Oren also describes how “Christian restorationism” _ the belief that the Jewish people must return to their ancient homeland and establish a sovereign Jewish state to fulfill biblical prophecy _ attracted thousands of supporters.
In 1891, four years before the rise of modern Zionism, 400 prominent Americans signed a declaration calling for a Jewish state. They sensed an “opportunity to further the purposes of God concerning His ancient people.” Signatories included John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan and Rep. (and later President) William McKinley.
Fifty years earlier, a New York University professor of Hebrew named George Bush had urged that Jews be “elevated to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by establishing a Jewish state. The professor was a 19th-century relative of two future U.S. presidents.
Oren’s book vividly describes the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the strong bipartisan American support it has received in its battle for security and survival. “Power, Faith, and Fantasy” concludes with the American invasion of Iraq and the ominous threat of Iran.
The book is a must-read for everyone who seeks to understand our nation’s 220-year involvement in the Middle East. Oren believes the U.S. still has the “power” and the “principles” to “transform its vision of peaceful, fruitful relations with the Middle East from fantasy to reality.”
(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)
KRE/RB END RUDIN
Editors: To obtain a photo of Rabbi Rudin, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.
