Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan says Muslims are the First to Discover America not Columbus

This will eventually finger issues over who really owns America, if it's the Columbus or the Muslim community, according to Erdogan, America is first discovered by the Muslims

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Muslims discovered the Americas over three centuries before Christopher Columbus, Presstv reports.

"Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus," Erdogan said in a televised speech during a summit of Muslim leaders from Latin America in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Saturday. CONTINUE READING...


Columbus is believed to have discovered the Americas in the 15th century in search for a new maritime route to India.

Erdogan, however, referred to a diary entry from Columbus that mentions the presence of a mosque on a Cuban hill.

In an article published in 1996, historian Youssef Mroueh, with the As-Sunnah Foundation of America, also said Columbus had spotted a mosque along the Cuban coast upon his arrival on the American continent in October 1492.

Some scholars, however, believe that the reference is a metaphorical allusion to the shape of the landscape.
Elsewhere in his address, the Turkish president furthered expressed Ankara’s enthusiasm to construct a mosque at the site Columbus had identified.

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