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(DISCLAIMER: I know next to nothing about this person. I had heard the name before in relation to Algeria, but only today did I decide to do any research and it's been limited...)

Read an article today (USA Today) on this guy who I knew very little to nothing about previously. Online resources on him are scarce for me - so far - but from what I've read he was an anti-French interventionist Algerian war hero hailed as being compassionate to people of other faiths. He is currently lauded as an example for modern moslems to follow concerning inter-faith relations and anti-extremist/fundamentalist ideology.

I also discovered that he was immensely popular in Europe, the UK, and US. With the Pope, Lincoln, and Queen Vicky all singing his praises, the French eventually decorating him, and a town in Iowa named for him.

Not knowing much about Abdelkader or his personality myself, I wondered what fruit an alternate El-Kader exile (around 1860 AFTER the saving of Christians in Damascus) in the United States might have brought in relation to:

1. If he (like many European expats in the US) decides to contribute to the Civil War, what side might he support or would he get involved at all (my hope of course would be that, yes, he does on the side of the Union).

2. If he becomes an author and speaker in the U.S. how does Islam develop in that country? The idea here is for Islam to be more - if even very slightly - widespread, more accepted by Americans, and for the purest (i.e. not auto-anti West) form of Islam itself to become more internationally popular.

Apologies again for my lack of knowledge but I'm fascinated by this guy.

Here is the USA Today article I read, and here is the Wikipedia.org article on the man.

Any direction to other alternate TLs on this guy would be appreciated as well.

So, the effect of Abdelkader in America? None or maximum possible?
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