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Over the weekend, I came up with a new reason to believe the appearance of the crescent moon and star symbol on outhouse doors in America during the early 19th century may have been the first visible sign of how many Americans felt — and, indeed, still feel — toward radical Muslims.
This news comes two years after I published a post in which I noted how the symbol that appears on the flags of no fewer than 11 Muslim countries appears remarkably similar to the cutouts that appeared on the doors of old-fashioned outhouses (see photo at right). Below are two key pieces of research that appeared in that post:
“The crescent moon cutout and the star cutout on the door of many (American) outhouses goes back to Colonial times,” according to the folks at Outhouse Graffiti, individuals who stand among the nation’s foremost authorities on the history of outdoor facilities (a.k.a., “one-holers,” “two-holers,” “privies” and “crappers”); and
- A University of Rochester Department of Religion web site provides background about the relationship of the crescent moon symbol to Islam that includes, but is not limited to, the following: “The Crescent moon, often with a five- or six-pointed star, became a prominent symbol for Islam early in the 19th century” and “…the crescent moon is the universal symbol of Islam.”
What I had not considered at the time was the fact that the so-called “Barbary Pirates” were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa from the time of the Crusades (11th century) until the early 19th century. Those pirates gave Americans more than enough reason to be upset with them, not the least of which was their affinity toward commandeering U.S. ships and doing horrendous things to those on board.
For those reasons, I came to the conclusion that it was the early Americans’ dislike of the Barbary Pirates that prompted them to put the crescent moon and star symbol on the doors of their outhouses.
* * *
UPDATE 4/02/2009: Jan Mickelson, host of Iowa’s most-popular talk radio show had me on his show this morning, to talk about this post. For details, see BMW Appears on ‘Mickelson in the Morning’ (podcast included).
11 responses so far ↓
1 Debbie // Mar 30, 2009 at 12:29 pm
You could be right. Smart folks those early Americans.
2 hotoffthepress2 // Mar 30, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Yep.
3 Michael Swartz // Mar 30, 2009 at 5:32 pm
You may remember a few years back that the late cartoonist Johnny Hart did a controversial B.C. comic strip with an outhouse and a panel written as just the word “SLAM” written vertically (as In the letter I). That created an uproar although Hart denied any intent to offend. He was a pretty conservative guy and shrewd too, so who knows?
4 Just a quick study on the symbol of Islam in images. | Vlad Tepes // May 24, 2009 at 10:55 pm
[...] Thanks to Bob McCarty blog for pointing out this interesting thing! [...]
5 vladtepesblog // May 24, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Given the astonishing amount of instruction Muslims seem to need in order to go to the bathroom, one can spin a connection pretty easily. Sometimes as Freud once reputedly said, “A cigar is just a cigar” and it may be a coincidence given that the moon and stars would be a fairly ubiquitous symbol world wide before people had TV to watch at night. Even so the history of the Barbary pirates seems to have been wiped out of the American consciousness and perhaps people where much more aware of it back then and did in fact etch this symbol to mock Islam to a small degree to which it so richly deserves.
6 THE WIZARD // Jul 4, 2009 at 5:40 pm
CHECK THIS OUT
7 kathe // Jul 17, 2009 at 2:27 pm
The star and the moon is also an Akan symbol from Ghana, West Africa. The symbols are known as Adinkra. The Adinkra Dictionary by W. Bruce Willis references the symbols dating back to 1701; also refers to male and female symbolism. Many of the Africans transported duringthe Trans-Atlantic slave trade came from this region. Could the African builders and carftsman have recognized or used this symbolism while constructing outhouses.
8 chris // Sep 2, 2009 at 8:27 am
why is it so difficult to understand: luna = female; star = male: men could and can GO anywhere; women on the other hand had a different role imposed BY men, so the doors that remained were maintained by the MEN to keep the girls content with their own toilet and opportunities to “keep the house”; hense “housekeeper” not “head keeper” that was for the men: innkeeper, etc.
michele malkin is a communist.
9 chris // Sep 2, 2009 at 8:30 am
what are you stupid or just uber-paranoid
I suppose with michelle malkin in this realm, you would be hard pressed to find ANY upright intelligent musings.
10 hotoffthepress2 // Sep 2, 2009 at 8:30 am
Chris — First, you seem to think you know a lot about this crap. Second, you’re wrong about Michelle Malkin; she is NOT a communist.
11 hotoffthepress2 // Sep 2, 2009 at 9:44 am
Spare me your drivel, Chris.
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