Muslims found Americas before Columbus says Turkey's Erdogan

(BBC) Muslims discovered the Americas more than three centuries before Christopher Columbus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

He made the claim during a conference of Latin American Muslim leaders in Istanbul, pointing to a diary entry in which Columbus mentioned a mosque on a hill in Cuba.

Mr Erdogan also said "Muslim sailors arrived in America in 1178".

He said he was willing to build a mosque at the site Columbus identified.

The Turkish president - whose AK Party is rooted in political Islam - gave no further evidence to back up his theory, instead stating: "Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th Century."

Controversial article

Columbus is widely believed to have discovered the Americas in 1492, while trying to find a new route to India.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30067490


-- BBC 2014-11-17

Hah, I don't think Castro is going to allow the construction of any mosque start anytime soon.

There wasn't a mosque back then, but there might have been a TURKEY.

So now we have someone else besides the US to blame for all the problems!

I hear politicians are big on science.
Religious nuts as well.
Huge on science.

Yes. I have been to the landing point, near St. Augustine, Florida, and there is now a muslim buffet restaurant commemorating it.

It's called, Allah You Can Eat.

And Irish coracles made it to Newfoundland before Columbus "discovered" America.

No doubt, the Chinese too.

There is absolutely no import to what Erdogan said, but it is an interesting piece of trivia.

Not sure if there is any credible evidence backing up the statement that muslim sailors met the latin Americans in 1178, but there is a case for the Chinese discovering and mapping America 70 years before Columbus showed up^.

A Chinese map has been discovered dating back to 1418 and is attributed to Chinese Admiral Zheng He. Zheng He — a Muslim eunuch — is arguably the most famous explorer in Chinese history. He was deployed by the emperor, he led Chinese fleets on voyages of discovery that helped expand the empire’s knowledge of the world to include previously unknown areas in the Middle East and Africa. His influence over Asian culture was so strong that he is still considered a god in some parts of Indonesia, so the possiblity that a muslim did actually discover America could actually be true.

Not sure if there is any credible evidence backing up the statement that muslim sailors met the latin Americans in 1178, but there is a case for the Chinese discovering and mapping America 70 years before Columbus showed up^.

A Chinese map has been discovered dating back to 1418 and is attributed to Chinese Admiral Zheng He. Zheng He — a Muslim eunuch — is arguably the most famous explorer in Chinese history. He was deployed by the emperor, he led Chinese fleets on voyages of discovery that helped expand the empire’s knowledge of the world to include previously unknown areas in the Middle East and Africa. His influence over Asian culture was so strong that he is still considered a god in some parts of Indonesia, so the possiblity that a muslim did actually discover America could actually be true.

Gavin Menzies book, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World was worth the read.

Don't know if it stands up to scrutiny though.

We people from the 1969 teenage era were lucky to have been briefed by Erich Von Daniken.

Chariots of the Gods Quotes

Could it be that God was an extra-terrestrial? What do we mean when we say that heaven is in the clouds? From Jesus Christ to Elvis Presley, every culture tells us of high-flying bird men who zoom around the world creating magnificent works of art and choosing willing followers to share in the eternal glory from beyond the stars. Can all these related phenomena merely be dismissed as coincidence?

― Erich von Däniken, Chariots of the Gods.

Not sure if there is any credible evidence backing up the statement that muslim sailors met the latin Americans in 1178, but there is a case for the Chinese discovering and mapping America 70 years before Columbus showed up^.

A Chinese map has been discovered dating back to 1418 and is attributed to Chinese Admiral Zheng He. Zheng He — a Muslim eunuch — is arguably the most famous explorer in Chinese history. He was deployed by the emperor, he led Chinese fleets on voyages of discovery that helped expand the empire’s knowledge of the world to include previously unknown areas in the Middle East and Africa. His influence over Asian culture was so strong that he is still considered a god in some parts of Indonesia, so the possiblity that a muslim did actually discover America could actually be true.

Gavin Menzies book, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World was worth the read.

Don't know if it stands up to scrutiny though.

good book though, and interesting theory

The Cuban muslum community recently petioned the Cuban government to build a mosque. Any connection with this claim by Turkey do you think?

Muslims before Columbus, Vikings before the Muslims, Phoenicians before the Vikings, Egyptians before the Phoenicians and no doubt some African kid on a log that trumped them all.

Not sure if there is any credible evidence backing up the statement that muslim sailors met the latin Americans in 1178, but there is a case for the Chinese discovering and mapping America 70 years before Columbus showed up^.

A Chinese map has been discovered dating back to 1418 and is attributed to Chinese Admiral Zheng He. Zheng He — a Muslim eunuch — is arguably the most famous explorer in Chinese history. He was deployed by the emperor, he led Chinese fleets on voyages of discovery that helped expand the empire’s knowledge of the world to include previously unknown areas in the Middle East and Africa. His influence over Asian culture was so strong that he is still considered a god in some parts of Indonesia, so the possiblity that a muslim did actually discover America could actually be true.

Seems like he circumnavigated Australia too.

So who did Columbus meet when he landed? Muslims or Indians?

People from what is now Korea discovered America. Their descendants are the Native American Indians. Their origins were traced using DNA. They got there during the last ice age when the sea was frozen between what is now Alaska and Russia.

Christopher Columbus discovered the Bahamas, not America, on his first voyage. The Vikings had been visiting America for hundreds of years before Columbus. So why does the USA celebrate Columbus day?

Oh aye, next he'll be telling us they landed on the moon first 'n all.

Uh, hate to tell all these folks, but I think safe bet just might be people known as "Native Americans", which is a little closer than Indians, but still not accurate. Got these others beat by tens of thousands of years.

Don't know what he was smoking. There may have well have been Muslim explorers who found their way to America prior to Columbus, but I doubt there was any mosque in Cuba. As we know, the Vikings got to America before CC and there is evidence the Chinese did as well. Also I just read an article regarding the Polynesians from Easter Island making contact with the native American population in South America and intermarrying. This being said, CC was responsible in the long run for western colonization of the Americas.

Erdogan the megalomaniac, his presidential palace is like 20 time bigger that of the white house,

and so his mouth is... after being snubbed and sidelined by the real players in the middle east

he's trying to be relevant...

he just didn't say which Muslim were they, Shia or sunni......

next will be telling us rode there goat there

funny guy

muslims are not a problem yet in south-america

but hey, everywhere they go ... they bring their PEACE with them, right ...

I thought it was the red man that found the Americas. The white man went there, killed all the red men (left a few in 'reservations') and then said he found it!!

So a Turkish politician claims that the Muslims discovered America in 1178? Although I'm English, I'm happy to say: "Hard luck, mate, but the Welsh beat you by 8 years!"

Click HERE and HERE.

Just think, if only the Welsh had run Hollywood, we could have enjoyed such classics as:

9 1/2 Leeks

The Lost Boyos

An American Werewolf in Powys

Huw Dares Gwyneth

Austin Powys

The Bridge on the River Wye

Look Back in Bangor

Evans Can Wait

A Fishguard Called Rhonddha

Sheepless in Seattle

The Sheepshag Redemption

-------------------

BTW, if you have ever wondered why Sir Anthony Hopkins, who is Welsh, has never been accused of sheepshagging, it's all down to the silence of the lambs.

Having lived in various pats of the Americas I can tell you that the chinese were there long before the Europeans. Up and down the West coast of both North and South America is ample evidence if you open your eyes, but they were mostly traders and didn't penetrate far inland or settle a lot. Look at many of the journals written by the original European settlers in California and they mention chinese already there.

The original folks who crossed the Bering Straits seem to have populated most of the continent, but there are some people who think that there were indigenous peoples - rather like the Hobbits in Indonesia - a different branch of the Homo Sapiens clan.

Columbus was only made famous by the fact that he had a royal "sponsor" and his adventurings were widely publicised. Brendan was a monk and made it before that but never bothered to tell anyone. The Vikings told each other about their expeditions, but they were not too popular in the rest of Europe in those days so the stories never really filtered out into the courts of France or UK - even though the "Normans" who conquered UK from France, were actually very recent descendants of the Viking "Norsemen" who had recently been through UK once already

Every re-discovery of the Americas (or anywhere else for that matter) has resulted in the prior civilisation being virtually wiped out physically and culturally, so it's quite tricky to know what went before sometimes. Where did the the folks who built the Pyramids in the Americas learn how to do that?

I thought it was the red man that found the Americas. The white man went there, killed all the red men (left a few in 'reservations') and then said he found it!!

The "red" men were doing a good job of killing each other before the "white" man arrived but you got the gist of it.

Ownership is only as guaranteed as ones ability to protect it.

So a Turkish politician claims that the Muslims discovered America in 1178? Although I'm English, I'm happy to say: "Hard luck, mate, but the Welsh beat you by 8 years!"

Click HERE and HERE.

Just think, if only the Welsh had run Hollywood, we could have enjoyed such classics as:

9 1/2 Leeks

The Lost Boyos

An American Werewolf in Powys

Huw Dares Gwyneth

Austin Powys

The Bridge on the River Wye

Look Back in Bangor

Evans Can Wait

A Fishguard Called Rhonddha

Sheepless in Seattle

The Sheepshag Redemption

-------------------

BTW, if you have ever wondered why Sir Anthony Hopkins, who is Welsh, has never been accused of sheepshagging, it's all down to the silence of the lambs.

I forwarded that to the Swansea office of MI7 along with how to contact you, so expect Taffy to come knocking on your door any day soon to whip into a pulp with an old daffodil.

Oh aye, next he'll be telling us they landed on the moon first 'n all.

They did, didn't they?

So a Turkish politician claims that the Muslims discovered America in 1178? Although I'm English, I'm happy to say: "Hard luck, mate, but the Welsh beat you by 8 years!"

Click HERE and HERE.

Just think, if only the Welsh had run Hollywood, we could have enjoyed such classics as:

9 1/2 Leeks

The Lost Boyos

An American Werewolf in Powys

Huw Dares Gwyneth

Austin Powys

The Bridge on the River Wye

Look Back in Bangor

Evans Can Wait

A Fishguard Called Rhonddha

Sheepless in Seattle

The Sheepshag Redemption

-------------------

BTW, if you have ever wondered why Sir Anthony Hopkins, who is Welsh, has never been accused of sheepshagging, it's all down to the silence of the lambs.

The Tafia will probably dump a sheeps head on your doorstep later.

Oh aye, next he'll be telling us they landed on the moon first 'n all.

They did, didn't they?

Yep -- that's why it's on their flag