Muslims discovered America before Columbus, says Erdogan

[Bolrieg]

No they didn't Gangsta Squid found it first...

[Herskerstad]

Secretly ALL of the Americas was his Harem.

Which is also, incidentally, a good enough reason to claim them I suspect.

Explains a lot. Or not.

Just fetch me some fallafel!

Turkey in their magnanimous nature will not claim all of the Americas for this fact, just the east Coast from Panama and upwards and most of the Caribbean. The statue of liberty will have it's face covered by a burqua as not to lead men into sin, and everyone wins.

[Braberbourg]

Well, it's possible. There have been many 'stories' about people going west and finding new land. A good example is the Welsh prince Madoc, who's said to have sailed to a strange new land in the west with his followers. This story is backed-up by strange-looking Native Americans who spoke some kind of Welsh (as a Welsh diplomat could communicate with those Native Americans), together with this Welsh-styled hill fort / burh which has been found in those natives' lands. Besides that, they are reported to have small boats similair to those in Wales.

[The Rich Port]

Technically, Native Americans discovered America before anybody else did.

So, moot point either way.

[Ifreann]

Technically, Native Americans discovered America before anybody else did.

So, moot point either way.

They could have told us about it.

[CTALNH]

Technically, Native Americans discovered America before anybody else did.

So, moot point either way.

I don't think it works like that.

[Ethel mermania]

Technically, Native Americans discovered America before anybody else did.

So, moot point either way.

But thats not what he is claiming. He didn't say discovered, he said before Chris.

[Hurdegaryp]

Technically, Native Americans discovered America before anybody else did.

So, moot point either way.

But thats not what he is claiming. He didn't say discovered, he said before Chris.

The eleventh century Vinland colony was the first European attempt to create permanent settlements in North America. But since the locals were less than charmed, it didn't work out.

[Papait]

Technically, Native Americans discovered America before anybody else did.

So, moot point either way.

It could be argued if they knew they discovered it, they did not know it was another continent, they just walked east, little did they know that ice they walked on would melt and they were actually on a entirely new continent.
Also they were not advanced enough as a civilisation to comprehend the idea of that their land may be unknown to anyone else, and that there may be people living further than what they know to exist

[Ethel mermania]

But thats not what he is claiming. He didn't say discovered, he said before Chris.

The eleventh century Vinland colony was the first European attempt to create permanent settlements in North America. But since the locals were less than charmed, it didn't work out.

If the Vikings shared their aquavit the outcome may have been very different.

[The TransPecos]

All this foolishness about humans doing it. Actually it was aliens who built a colony near present-day Roswell, New Mexico. They wandered around for a while, hence the strange drawings at many petroglyph sites. In order to protect their identity they enchanted all the residents they came in contact with, hence the slogan "The Land of Enchantment." The colony structures were built of mud and during one particularly intense thunderstorm they all got washed away. That's why they couldn't find them a few decades ago and running short of fuel, their ship crashed.

Now you know the rest of the story.

[Quintium]

It's rather fascinating to read all the different theories on who discovered the Americas first. Recently, there are two theories that I've read up on a bit - one states that before the migration through the Bering Strait, people related to the Australian Aboriginals lived in parts of South America until they were murdered or driven to Tierra del Fuego, where tiny populations remained until a few decades ago. There are also records of several indigenous tribes in the Americas worshipping "a white god in white robes with a staff who came to visit them and killed all but two people in a massive flood". Fairly prophetic, if you ask me, even if the flood was a flood of diseases.

[European Socialist Republic]

It's rather fascinating to read all the different theories on who discovered the Americas first. Recently, there are two theories that I've read up on a bit - one states that before the migration through the Bering Strait, people related to the Australian Aboriginals lived in parts of South America until they were murdered or driven to Tierra del Fuego, where tiny populations remained until a few decades ago. There are also records of several indigenous tribes in the Americas worshipping "a white god in white robes with a staff who came to visit them and killed all but two people in a massive flood". Fairly prophetic, if you ask me, even if the flood was a flood of diseases.

Wait, so the Americas were actually discovered by Saruman the White?

[Herskerstad]

It's rather fascinating to read all the different theories on who discovered the Americas first. Recently, there are two theories that I've read up on a bit - one states that before the migration through the Bering Strait, people related to the Australian Aboriginals lived in parts of South America until they were murdered or driven to Tierra del Fuego, where tiny populations remained until a few decades ago. There are also records of several indigenous tribes in the Americas worshipping "a white god in white robes with a staff who came to visit them and killed all but two people in a massive flood". Fairly prophetic, if you ask me, even if the flood was a flood of diseases.

Wait, so the Americas were actually discovered by Saruman the White?

Yes, and he was a muslim.

[The Rich Port]

Wait, so the Americas were actually discovered by Saruman the White?

Yes, and he was a muslim.

That explains so much...

[European Socialist Republic]

Wait, so the Americas were actually discovered by Saruman the White?

Yes, and he was a muslim.

So Allah = Sauron?

[Hurdegaryp]

Yes, and he was a muslim.

So Allah = Sauron?

That would make the Sunnites orks, I'm afraid.

[Baltenstein]

Apparently, Turkish politicians have started some sort of party game on the supposed discoveries of the Muslim world:

Muslim scientists working around 1,200 years ago were the first to determine that the Earth is a sphere, Turkey's science, industry and technology minister, becoming the latest Turkish official to inform the world about apparent scientific firsts on the part of Islamic world.

Speaking at a reception for business leader in the Central Anatolian province of Konya late Nov. 28, Minister Fikri Işık stressed the contributions of the Islamic world to science throughout history. "Some 700-800 years before Galileo, 71 Muslim scientists led by al-Khwarizmi convened by the order of the Caliph Al-Ma'mun and revealed that the Earth is a sphere," he said. Işık added that a copy of the original document is currently in the Museum of Islamic Science and Technology in Istanbul.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/muslim ... sCatID=338

I'll see your discovery of America and raise you the discovery of Earth as a sphere. Boom, bitch!

I mean, sure, the theory of spherical Earth wasn't actually related to Galileo at all, but hey: It's the thought that counts.

Anybody dares a raise? Construction of the wheel, inventing TV, first moon landing?

[The Alma Mater]

I mean, sure, the theory of spherical Earth wasn't actually related to Galileo at all

It indeed was not - it predates him by quite a few centuries

[New Chalcedon]

The Turkish president, ever the joker, held a speech in which he claimed that Muslims sailed to the Americas several centuries before Columbus and left their marks in form of Cuban mosques, which Columbus also wrote about apparently.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Americas were discovered by Muslims in the 12th century, nearly three centuries before Christopher Columbus set foot there.

"Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus," the president said in a televised speech during an Istanbul summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America.

"Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast," Erdogan said.

The president also said that Ankara was prepared to build a mosque at the site mentioned by the Genoese explorer, the AFP news agency reported.

"I would like to talk about it to my Cuban brothers. A mosque would go perfectly on the hill today," he said.

Most history books say that Columbus set foot on the American continent in 1492, while seeking a new maritime route to India.

Some Muslim scholars have recently suggested a prior Muslim presence in the Americas, although no pre-Columbus ruin of an Islamic structure has ever been found.

In a controversial article published in 1996, historian Youssef Mroueh refers to a diary entry from Columbus that mentions a mosque in Cuba.

However, the passage is widely understood to be a metaphorical reference to the shape of the landscape.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 41516.html

What do you think? Personally, I just think it's Erdogan being, well, Erdogan.

Even the claims about Zheng He or other Chinese explorers setting foot on the Americas before Columbus are probably more likely than this theory.

He sounds about as reasonable as the Grand Mufti of Australia, who claimed that Muslims are the only "real" citizens since they paid their way out to Australia, while white Australians were sent out as convicts. I do wish senior Muslims would get their feet out of their arses - episodes like these only make it harder to sell the idea of coexistence.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Apparently, Turkish politicians have started some sort of party game on the supposed discoveries of the Muslim world:

Muslim scientists working around 1,200 years ago were the first to determine that the Earth is a sphere, Turkey's science, industry and technology minister, becoming the latest Turkish official to inform the world about apparent scientific firsts on the part of Islamic world.

Speaking at a reception for business leader in the Central Anatolian province of Konya late Nov. 28, Minister Fikri Işık stressed the contributions of the Islamic world to science throughout history. "Some 700-800 years before Galileo, 71 Muslim scientists led by al-Khwarizmi convened by the order of the Caliph Al-Ma'mun and revealed that the Earth is a sphere," he said. Işık added that a copy of the original document is currently in the Museum of Islamic Science and Technology in Istanbul.

I imagine this allegation is ignoring that the idea of the earth being spherical/round goes all the way back to Ancient Greece, around the 6th century BC. Even the Ancient Egyptians predate these supposed Muslim scholars by several centuries, regarding the circumference of the planet.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_Earth

[The Scandinvans]

T'was the vikings, dammit! Why does everyone forget the vikings?

Actually it was Polynesians

Actually considering a more accepted colonization date for Easter Island being somewhere between 1000 and 1200 it seems unlikely for them to have beaten the Vikings to the Americas.

[Huda]

Great job Erdogan. I'm sure you'll be saying that Einstein was Muslim.

[Papait]

Great job Erdogan. I'm sure you'll be saying that Einstein was Muslim.

Don't be silly Einstein was a zoroaster.
Nikila Tesla was off course a muslim

[Herskerstad]

Yes, and he was a muslim.

So Allah = Sauron?

And Saurman is his prophet.