Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an

[Cartoonist]

Sorry if this is old news.

I rode my bicycle to the library today and saw an interesting book on the shelves. It was titled Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an. Not enough rocket ships in it for me to take home, but I did read the dustjacket and the inside book flaps. Just with that information, it sure does put the LIE to those wingnuts who claim America was founded as a Christian nation. Our founding fathers wanted to create an environment where people of all faiths, including atheists could be welcome.

Here's a review By Juliane Hammer

On January 3, 2007, Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, took his symbolic oath of office with his hand on a two-volume English translation (by George Sale) of the Qur’an. It was no ordinary copy of the Qur’an but rather the one owned by Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers and third president of the United States. Ellison had planned to take the oath with a Qur’an and was alerted to the existence of this particular one in a letter from a constituent. When he announced his decision, controversy erupted. In response, Ellison told the Associated Press that the fact that Jefferson owned a Qur’an “demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleaned from any number of sources, including the Quran.” He added, “A visionary like Thomas Jefferson was not afraid of a different belief system. This just shows that religious tolerance is the bedrock of our country, and religious differences are nothing to be afraid of.”

It is this same sentiment that permeates Denise A. Spellberg’s new book, Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders. In it, Spellberg offers a meticulously researched and incredibly detailed account not only of how Jefferson came to acquire a copy of the Qur’an in English but also of the broader historical circumstances of his political career and the role of religion in the period of the founding fathers. Spellberg develops a nuanced and insightful analysis of the seemingly contradicting attitudes towards Islam and Muslims displayed by Jefferson and his contemporaries as represented in historical records. The conundrums she sets out to explore are the following: Why did the founding fathers include the theoretical possibility of Muslims not only as citizens of the United States but as federal office holders (including the presidency) in their deliberations on the one hand, while demonstrating decidedly negative views of Islam (and Muslim political adversaries overseas) on the other? Is the inclusion of Muslims as the farthest edge of political possibility more than a rhetorical tool for defining that same edge? Was Islam recognized as a legitimate religion, together with and beyond Judaism and Catholicism, in a young country that seemed to assume Protestantism as its foundation? What could Jefferson’s musings about Islam and his ownership of a Qur’an tell us about the negotiation of religion(s) in the realm of American politics?
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See more at: http://religionandpolitics.org/2014/04/09/thomas-jeffersons-quran/

[cbayer]

1. It looks pretty fascinating.

I looked at some other reviews and the major point is that his interest in Islam and the middle east was part of his overall quest for religious tolerance.

I agree that what they wanted was for people to be allowed to believe or not believe as they wished and without interference.

I think they would have strongly objected to those that say the US was founded as a christian nation and to those that are generally against all religion and would seek to eliminate it from the US.