'Islamist Turkey' - President Erdoğan says America was discovered by Muslims, not Columbus.

'Islamist Turkey' - President Erdoğan says America was discovered by Muslims, not Columbus. (HD).

America was discovered by Muslims, not by Christopher Columbus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has claimed, vowing to build a mosque in Cuba if the authorities of the Caribbean nation grants the permit.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of First Latin AmericanMuslim leaders summit in Istanbul on Nov. 15, Erdoğan slammed colonialism before referring to a controversial claim about the discovery of the Americas.

"Muslim sailors had arrived in the shores of America in 1178. In his diaries, Christopher Columbus referred to the presence of a mosque on top of a mountain in Cuba," Erdoğan said, claiming the diary is a proof that "the religion of Islam was widespread" when the first European explorer discovered the New World in 1492.

Dr. Youssef Mroueh of the As-Sunnah Foundation of America had publicized the claim about a pre-Columbus mosque in Cuba. In 1996, he wrote that "Columbus admitted in his papers that on Monday, October 21, 1492 CE while his ship was sailing near Gibara on the north-east coast of Cuba, he saw a mosque on top of a beautiful mountain."

Some Muslim scholars aside, the same diary entry is widely understood as a metaphoric reference to a protuberance on the summit of a mountain that resembles a mosque's dome or minaret. Moreover, although the first "widespread" habitation of the Americas is dated around 16,500–13,000 years ago, a pre-Columbian ruin of an Islamic structure has yet to be discovered.

"Converting people by force, by the sword, has never been a part of Islam. Our religion has never been a tool of exploitation," Erdoğan continued, arguing that "those who colonialized America for its gold and Africa for its diamonds, now do it in the Middle East for its oil with the same dirty plot."

Turkish President also criticized certain Muslims. "And do rich Muslims in the Islamic world pay their zakat for their oil revenues?" Erdoğan asked rhetorically, before saying that "nobody can answer this question positively."

Zakat is the religiously-sanctioned benefits paid to poor Muslims by the wealthy.

"Muslims should first criticize and correct themselves. Then, we should be subjects to nobody but Allah," Turkish President said. Hmmm........Seems like the 'Caliph' wants to Rule the Saudis as well.