Without Islam, the United States would not exist.

That’s right: without Islam, the United States as we know it would not exist.

No, Reza Aslan has not knocked me over the head with a rock and taken over the writing of Jihad Watch, using my name. It’s absolutely true: if it weren’t for Islam and Muslims, the United States would not exist today.

Every schoolchild knows, or used to know before public school curricula became far too concerned with teaching microaggressions and diversity to bother with marginalia such as history, that in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered America.

Why did he sail the ocean blue? Because he was searching for a new, westward sea route to Asia.

Why was he searching for a new, westward sea route to Asia?

Because the fall of Constantinople to the Muslims on May 29, 1453 closed the trade routes to the East. This was devastating for European tradesmen, who had until then since time immemorial had taken the land route through Constantinople and Anatolia to travel to India and trade for silk, spices and other goods. But when the Muslims conquered Constantinople, these tradesmen would have been taking their lives into their hands if they traveled by these ancient routes. As non-Muslims in Muslim countries, they would have been subject to being taken hostage, or enslaved, or forcibly converted to Islam, or killed outright.

Either there was going to be no more European trade with India, or a new route had to be found.

Columbus’s voyage was trying to ease the plight of European merchants by bypassing the Muslims altogether, and making it possible for Europeans to reach India by sea. And of course, as every schoolchild knows or used to know before valuable class time to teach about the inherent racism of the United States was no longer wasted on such trifles, this is why Native Americans were and often still are called “Indians,” because Columbus, not knowing there was another continent in between, thought he had indeed reached India by sailing West.

The bellicosity and intransigence of Islam ultimately opened the Americas for Europe — and made the United States possible. On this Columbus Day, if you are still able to celebrate it without being knocked to the ground or doused with red paint by Antifa, raise a glass of champagne to Muhammad, and thank him for making the great American experiment possible.