The Throckmorton-Barton piece focuses on Thomas Jefferson. My understanding of Jefferson on Islam is that although the Barbary Pirates gave him a great deal of trouble during his Presidency, as of 1809, in his letter to James Fishback, he doesn't write Islam off but makes some kind of equivalency between it and Christianity:
... [E]very religion consists of moral precepts, & of dogmas. in the first they all agree. all forbid us to murder, steal, plunder, bear false witness Etc. and these are the articles necessary for the preservation of order, justice, & happiness in society. in their particular dogmas all differ; no two professing the same. these respect vestments, ceremonies, physical opinions, & metaphysical speculations, totally unconnected with morality, & unimportant to the legitimate objects of society. yet these are the questions on which have hung the bitter schisms of Nazarenes, Socinians, Arians, Athanasians in former times, & now of Trinitarians, Unitarians, Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Methodists, Baptists, Quakers Etc. among the Mahometans we are told that thousands fell victims to the dispute whether the first or second toe of Mahomet was longest; & what blood, how many human lives have the words ‘this do in remembrance of me’ cost the Christian world! ...
7 comments:
As with a lot of things, when it comes to the President, it's HOW he says things sometimes more than WHAT he says. If the President is simply trying to appeal to the nation's heritage in asking Americans to show tolerance to all faiths and to welcome people of all faiths, then what he SHOULD have said is: "Welcoming people of all faiths, including Islam, as been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding." That would have been entirely correct and I would've applauded him for saying that. But, instead, he says that "Islam" was "woven" into the founding of the nation. THAT is quite an overreach on his part.
Once again, a post-presidential prattling from Jefferson is offered as some sort of proof of something.
On the whole, the tolerance for Islam and Muslims was only in principle, and those who actually knew something about Islam thought poorly of it.
In a March 23, 1790, letter to the editor of the Federal Gazette, Ben Franklin wrote:
Nor can the Plundering of Infidels be in that sacred Book [the Quran] forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God has given the World, and all that it contains, to his faithful Mussulmen, who are to enjoy it of Right as fast as they conquer it.
etc.
http://pjmedia.com/blog/no-professor-ahmed-the-founders-were-not-so-fond-of-islam/
But Franklin also thought public American Churches should be open to the preaching of for instance the Mufti of Constantinople.
In theory. But the Islam they spoke of favorably was an imaginary Islam, not the real thing.
The president's fairy tale that "Islam was woven into the fabric of the Founding" is as big a whopper as anything David Barton ever said.
Indeed, there's not a trace of Founding principles anywhere in the Muslim world some 250 years later. When Gaza or Egypt hold a democratic election, they vote in Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood!
Tolerance for the individual's religious freedom is an American principle, but that Islam the religion was "woven" into the Founding is another claim entirely.
"The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force."--JQ Adams
The president's fairy tale that "Islam was woven into the fabric of the Founding" is as big a whopper as anything David Barton ever said.
Well, no. It sounds like the president borrowed 'the fairy tale' from Hutson, chief of the Manuscript Div. in the Library of Congress: Far from fearing Islam, the Founders would have incorporated it into the fabric of American life.
Barton seldom makes an acquaintance with the truth, never mind gets so near it.
You prophesied that our next conversation would involve Barton, TVD. Here we are :-)
SSS
P.S.The Roman Catholics and Jews didn't make it into the founding fabric either. It was pretty much a 1 sex, 1 race, 1 religion piece of cloth until new weavers came on the scene.
Nice to see you, sister.
P.S.The Roman Catholics and Jews didn't make it into the founding fabric either. It was pretty much a 1 sex, 1 race, 1 religion piece of cloth until new weavers came on the scene.
Pretty much true as a fact on the ground, and validates the criticism of Obama's fairy tale.
On the theory end, Catholic social science had some influence, but it was indirect. [As opposed to Islam, which had none atall.]
http://www.ewtn.com/library/HUMANITY/zchascarroll.htm
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=6607
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