America is blessed with the finest thinkers in the world. So I thought, what would Thomas Jefferson say about all this? Here is one mans opinion.
Freedom of Religion, Dead at Ground Zero
Thomas Jefferson, were he alive today would undoubtedly weigh in about the GZ mosque. A clear thinker on the subject of church and state he knew where the line should be drawn, and made sure his peers knew it as well. We need to ask then, what would Tom do?
Indeed, presented with this scenario, Thomas Jefferson would, without question weigh in. As a pre-eminent proponent of free choice and spiritual necessity he would take a side and stand by it. As the author of what we know today as the “Establishment Clause” or the wall of separation between church and state he was well aware of the importance of keeping the federal government out of the religious arena.
“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” This letter to the Danbury Baptist Association dated 1802 represents a watershed moment in the developing ethos of American culture. Yet this letter also shows Jefferson stating clearly that this wall is based in a legislative mandate from the American people: federal law. Jefferson never spoke of the need for individual states to do the same and left open the door to local control of religious/spiritual issues. He felt that as individual as religion was there was still a need for some type of cohesive control.
A Protestant, Anglican and eventually a Unitarian his views on God and man were clear when he wrote that the teachings of Jesus were “…outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man." This professed faith in Jesus from a man who also claimed “I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know."
In Jeffersons time there was no such thing as “multiculturalism”. His worldview of all being equal may have been based in part by egalitarian principles but when it came to Islam he knew his enemy and acted accordingly. The Barbary Coast pirates and Jeffersons war with Islam was not new, yet Jefferson did, during his presidency effectively end Islamic piracy in the Mediterranean.
Barbary piracy had been ongoing for hundreds of years by the time America saw its independence. Not until Americas independence in 1783 did naval protection from both France and Britain end, mandating the creation of a true American navy. Coastal defense had been the only thought up to now, but with European protection gone there was no choice. Jefferson organized and sent a compliment of warships to the Mediterranean including “Old Ironsides”, a ship purpose-built to deal with the pirates. Thus began a series of attacks and bombardments to convince the pirate nations to cease and desist.
Negotiating a truce is the diplomatic way, and so Jefferson, along with John Adams, ambassadors to France and Britain, respectively met in London with the “Dey of Algiers” ambassador to Britain, Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja. When asked what gave him(Rahman Adja) the right to attack and enslave the people of a country they had no previous contact with he said “Islam was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman (Muslim) who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
200 years ago we hear rational for warfare based in Islamic doctrine and today we hear these same words being spoken by the likes of Al-Qaeda, bin-Laden, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Hizballah, the PA, Iran and a host of other Islamic groups and countries across the globe. How that jibes with the lefts view that Muslim anger is based in our western morals and values, Jefferson doesn’t say.
By 1815 tribute payments(jizya) ended and treaties were negotiated, effectively ending piracy in the Mediterranean. After millions of Europeans and many Americans taken as slaves or murdered there was some measure of calm and peace. Those pirate countries of old are still Islamic enclaves after all these years: Algiers(Algeria), Morocco, Tunis(Tunesia), and Tripoli(Libya) and they are still producing jihadists. Jefferson may have broken the pirates for the short-term but there was nothing that could have been done to stop the longview of conquest and enslavement prevalent in Islamic tenets.
Jefferson, as the consummate student of the religious and secular nature of man always wanted to know more, learn all aspects of the animal human. The Qur’an Jefferson owned, a rare first English translation printed in 1764 was not just for show. Jefferson acquired this Qur’an generally to learn about Islam and specifically to understand the Barbary Coast pirates and what drove them to acts of war.
In 1800 as only the third president of the United States, Jefferson had no CIA to feed intelligence data to him, no daily intelligence briefings, no threat level warnings, no real security apparatus of any kind. The only way to learn about your enemy was to study his doctrine, his ideology and in the day what better way than to read their holy book. Moral guidance and behavior has always been based in theological arguments, thus Jeffersons need to understand Islam by way of the Qur’an. His understanding of why the pirates did what they did, through his reading of the Qur’an enabled the US to defeat the pirates and usher in a relatively peaceful era lasting about 200 years, until Sept 11, 2001.
By Jefferson reading the Qur’an he gave himself knowledge and insight to an enemy which, up to that time was misunderstood. His drive to understand all the worlds religions, and how they affect mankind gave him the upper hand in dealing with, and finally defeating a theologically driven opponent.
Jeffersons interest in Islam and the Qur’an drove him to learn as much as possible and so he furnished his personal library with scholarly works such as: Yazdi Sharaf al-Din 'Ali's Histoire de Timur-Bec, Sauveur Lusignan's History of the Revolt ofAli Bey which contained detailed information regarding Egyptian politics and government; and Paul Rycaut's History of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire. Jefferson decided he needed to learn Arabic and so, with the help of long-time friend Samuel Henley, professor of moral philosophy at William and Mary he began the process of learning Arabic. His first book on that subject “Poeseos Asiaticae Commentariorum”, a work in Latin by Sir William Jones was a historical and critical survey of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish poetry. His books on Arabic language included Rudimenta Linguae Arabicae, by Thomas Erpensius, and Simplification des Langues Orientales, an Arabic grammar book prepared by his friend and correspondent, C.-F. Volney.
Most distressing to Jefferson was how Muslims clung to the claim that the Qur’an in infallible and the perfect word of Allah. In his mind no book of theology could claim that level of absolute authority. He said of the Qur’an and Muslims “"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if
there be one, he must approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear". So he thought the Qur’an, and Islam was a religion of “blindfolded fear” after studying the relevant texts. A prescient observation that applies to the current discourse on the GZ mosque.
With all Jefferson knew about Islam and Muslims, from his studies and his first-hand dealings with it while a diplomat and the president, it is clear he understood the problems, spoke clearly on them and understood the dangers presented. If he were alive today, watching this debate swirl I believe he would have stepped in and demanded no religious sensibilities at ground zero. Jefferson would have asked that freedom of religion, at a site where Islamic doctrine murdered almost 3,000 be set aside and no spiritual dogma enhanced. Thomas Jefferson, defender of free expression of religion would have no protest when freedom of religion dies at a location where religion caused so much pain.
“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
For Jefferson, freedom of religion died at ground zero.
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