President Obama loves to tell people how Thomas Jefferson held the first iftar dinner at the White House more than 200 years ago. Obama also omits the historical context. It's actually quite a good story, and you can find it here. The more things change....Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, iftar dinner, Islam
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:44 PM
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18 Comments:
Obama also omits the historical context. It's actually quite a good story, and you can find it here. The more things change....
The story is a lie, and it's obvious that the writer knew that, because he needed to use the word 'real' in the title. That is exactly what Islamophobes do when they try to spin lies.
The source for your story is a neo con radical Israel anti Muslim site, run by a neo con, desperate to malign Islam. So desperate that he uses an article by Christofer Hitchens, an Israel hating zealot.
Talk about desperation, talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.
From Oxford University's Islamic Studies Dept:
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The Jefferson Qur'an
Alexandra Méav Jerome
The College of William and Mary
http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/Public/focus/essay0412_jefferson_quran.html
On December 9th, 1805, Thomas Jefferson hosted the United States' first iftar at the White House. It was an unintentional event, one that occurred as a result of Jefferson's scheduled meeting with an invited envoy from the Tunisian government. It was the end of the first Barbary War, and Jefferson was anxious to establish better diplomatic relations with the North African states while ensuring the security of American interests in the Mediterranean. Upon being informed of the envoy's fasting to observe the Islamic month of Ramadan, Jefferson had the mealtime at the White House changed from 3:30 in the afternoon to "precisely at sunset" in an effort to accommodate his guest. This gesture on behalf of the president was not simply a diplomatic one, but one that demonstrated Jefferson's familiarity and comfort with Islam, a faith that interested him since his time as a student at the College of William & Mary. Indeed, Jefferson's interest in the Qur'an and his own study of Arabic led to his active promotion and eventual creation of an Oriental Languages department at his alma mater. As a scholar and a diplomat, Jefferson was keenly aware and interested in the world outside of America and the importance of cultural and intellectual capital to the success of the United States. In studying his Qur'an and the documents that he produced as a part of his nation-building efforts, we see just how Jefferson deployed his knowledge and perhaps how influential Islam was to of one of the nation's founding fathers.
Early American Interest in Islam
American interest in Islam and the Qur'an did not begin with Thomas Jefferson's serendipitous purchase of a Qur'an while a student, but dates as far back as the nation's Puritan forefathers. The firebrand preacher Cotton Mather is said to have devoured books written about the Ottoman Empire and referenced the Qur'an on numerous occasions. Benjamin Franklin, parodying a North African pirate addressing a colonial audience in the 17th century asked his audience, "Is it worse to follow Mahomet than the Devil?"i, a question it seems he did not receive an answer to from amongst his many readers. Even John Adams knew enough of Islam to discuss it.ii In fact, Adam, like many early Americans, from German immigrants to Pennsylvania to our founding fathers, owned copies of the Qur'an.iii Although it may surprise many contemporary Americans that the Puritans read outside the gospel and Franklin and Adams were well-versed in the diversity of the world's faiths, these were men who had a profound and insatiable intellectual curiosity and political genius in that they understood, collectively, that this knowledge was essential to the success of the early colonies as well as to the establishment of a sovereign and sustainable nation state. Unsurprisingly, given his reputation as a voracious reader and humanist, Jefferson was perhaps the most attuned to this necessity of learning about world religions and the social systems and governments that they created. Indeed, it is really through Jefferson, more than any other early American statesman, that we understand the early importance and impact of Islam upon the new republic.
Jefferson purchased his copy of George Sale's translation of the Qur'an at a bookseller on Duke of Gloucester Street while completing his legal studies at The College of William and Mary. This translation of the Qur'an, the best transcribed into English up to that moment, was prefaced with Sale's own introduction:
If the religious and civil Institutions of foreign nations are worth our knowledge, those of Mohammed, the lawgiver of the Arabians, and founder of an empire which in less than a century spread itself over a greater part of the world than the Romans were ever masters of, must needs be so.iv
Sale was also a lawyer and his introduction to the Qur'an as a law book is important for understanding how Jefferson read and related to the Qur'an. Sale placed a heavy emphasis on the notion of Quranic exegesis, treating the Qur'an as it was: a sourcebook for Islamic law.
A further influence on Jefferson's treatment of the Qur'an during his legal studies came from the work of Samuel von Pufendorf, a 17th century German legal scholar whose Of the Law of Nature and Nations, was the preeminent work on comparative law during the period that Jefferson was studying law. In his work, von Pufendorf cites Islam, usually disapprovingly but also with a characteristically rigid, moralistic Protestant worldview, which sometimes unexpectedly lent itself to praise of the Qur'an. He praises Islam vis-à-vis the Qur'an for its laws against games of chance; its emphasis on moral behavior and dress, and the encouragement to establish peace amongst nations.v European legal scholars, as well as for Jefferson, found it difficult to completely discount the contents of the Qur'an. Continuously mining for reasons to critique and discredit Islam, there were occasions where scholars praised Islam, particularly in its stringent prescriptions for morality and justice.vi There is little doubt that Jefferson was influenced by not only von Pufendorf's writing and his legal study, but also in the context of Deism and the American Revolution.
The Law, Deism, and the Qur'an
There are two ways in which Jefferson understood the Qur'an; the first is as a law book. As a legal document, the Qur'an, together with the Hadith and Sunnah, are the scaffolding upon which the Shari'a or Islamic Law is erected. Jefferson understood this implicitly about the Qur'an, probably as a result of his own legal training. In this legalistic understanding of the Qur'an, he was able to probe the text for information for his diplomatic endeavors, particularly those involving the Barbary States. However, there was a second means by which Jefferson understood the Qur'an and that is through his adherence to Deism.
A slightly heretical view to possess in Christendom, Deism espoused the idea that there is a single all-powerful creator (God, Allah, etc.), but that this creator does not intervene in or manipulate human affairs. The deistic view of religion is firmly rooted in natural rather than supernatural law. Jefferson, educated amongst the intellectual elite of the Enlightenment, was very much taken with Deism's ideas and became one of its many 18th century followers. Of the many tenets of Deism, the one that is most consistent with Islamic belief is the rejection of the Trinity. As the Qur'an emphatically states: "Those people who say that God is the third of three are defying [the truth]: there is only One God (Qur'an 5:72)."vii For Jefferson and other Deists, this core aspect of Islamic belief made Islam marginally more relatable than Christianity.
In his analysis of the Qur'an, Jefferson did not follow the precedent set by the so'called "Jefferson Bible," in which Jefferson chose a copy of the Bible from his library and enacted a "Deist approach" to the text by literally removing every supernatural or otherwise scientifically unsound event with a razor blade. Happily, he left his copy of the Qur'an completely intact. If we examine how Jefferson read the Qur'an, we can see where, in contrast to the literal removal of everything that was antithetical to Deism as in the Jefferson Bible, Jefferson did feel the need to perform an intellectual autopsy on the Qur'an, perhaps because the Qur'an is relatively light on miracles, compared to the Bible. For whatever reason, Jefferson refrained from disemboweling his Qur'an and instead put it to good use in both state-building and the fledgling America's relationship with the Middle East.
During the periods when Jefferson was not using his copy of the Qur'an to study for legal or political purposes, the text was housed in his library at Monticello. Jefferson's methodology for organizing his books was of his own rendering, essentially storing the titles on shelves according to their topics and—in the case of religion—where he felt that the faith they represented figured into the grand scheme of the universe. At first glance, it appears that Jefferson ordered his books chronologically from Pagan (Greek mythology) to Christian. However, Jefferson placed the Qur'an immediately following texts on Greek mythology, but before copies of the Bible, and copies of the Old and New Testament. Some scholars argue that Jefferson's placement of the Qur'an indicates that he considered Islam to be an improvement over Paganism, but still ranked below Judaism and Christianity.viii Does this provide any insight into what Jefferson really thought about Islam—that, despite his pluralistic worldview, Jefferson's sympathies truly lay with Christianity? This may be partially the truth, but there is more to Jefferson's logic.
Early copies of the Qur'an, such as those acquired by Adams, Jefferson and others, often included brief histories or introductions to the text as a means of giving early Orientalists and curious readers some context. If we think about Jefferson's interest in historical
The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Qur'an
Whether or not Jefferson was also familiar with the Constitution of Medina—the document dictated by Muhammad to govern relations among the diverse Muslim and Jewish tribes in Medina—is unknown. As legislative documents, there are similarities between the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Qur'an. Some of the contents of the Constitution of Medina, particularly in the inclusion of the unification and protection of a people regardless of creed under the government, equal rights, and protection of religious groups, are articulated in both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Did the contents of the Qur'an and perhaps even the Constitution of Medina influence Jefferson when he authored the two most important documents in American history?
The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution contain similar clauses on some topics. The Constitution of Medina states: "The Jews shall maintain their own religion and the Muslims theirs...The close friends of Jews are as themselves" and "those who followed them and joined them and struggled with them. They form one and the same community" in solidarity against their enemies. Finally, the conclusion of the Constitution states, "Strangers, under protection, shall be treated on the same ground as their protectors; but no stranger shall be taken under protection except with consent of his tribe...No woman shall be taken under protection without the consent of her family." ix If Jefferson was familiar with the Constitution of Medina, the document may have influenced his inclusion in the Declaration of Independence of the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," an almost dogmatic belief in American culture.x
Reflections of the Constitution of Medina and the Qur'an can also be discerned from the U.S. Constitution. The first Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of religion, was originally called the "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom." In his autobiography, Jefferson recounted that the contents of the bill and that he was emphatic that the language of the bill should name precisely the groups protected, writing that "the Jew, the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every [emphasis mine] denomination" should be protected under the law.xi Despite not knowing what Jefferson's familiarity may have been with the Constitution of Medina, we can still see the influence of certain elements of its teaching within the Qur'an, in particular Surah 2:62: "Verily! Those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and do righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."xii The interpretation of this verse is traditionally that those who are members of the Abrahamic family of faiths are protected from both spiritual and social persecution. Did Jefferson find inspiration in this surah? Perhaps.
In 1788, when the states voted to ratify the Constitution, the issue of non-Christian identification was part of the debate. In particular, a lively debate was conducted over Article VI, Section 3 which states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."xiii A similar clause appears in the Constitution of Medina, where loyalty to the state is not tested by religious affiliation but by demonstrated loyalty and that demonstration guarantees the protection of the tribe or state. In North Carolina, delegates debated the amendment deploying the hypothetical situation of a Muslim president.xiv
Whether or not Jefferson was influenced by the Constitution of Medina or his study of the Qur'an in authoring either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, we may never know. But we can conjecture that his understanding of Islam and other world religions, compounded with his remarkable education at the College of William and Mary, which was informed intellectually by the Enlightenment, shaped his crafting of American national pride.
The Barbary Wars
In 1786, while Jefferson was serving as the United States Ambassador to France, the issue of piracy in the Mediterranean became the most serious economic threat to the newly established United States. Independence from Great Britain had had economic consequences abroad. This was before international law had established protections for territorial waters, so if a ship sailed into range from a country with which the local government had no treaty, it was generally assumed to be hostile and therefore subject to attack. While America was still a group of colonies of the British Crown, its ships were protected because the Crown had such a treaty and paid an annual tribute to the government in Tripoli to protect its interests. But with the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. lost the protection of both the royal coffers and the royal navy, making travel and trade a precarious endeavor around the coast of the Maghreb. Pirates from the modern-day states of Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia attacked American merchant ships trading in the region with abandon.
Jefferson, together with his contemporary, John Adams, who was then serving as the Ambassador to England, met with the Ambassador from Tripoli, Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, in an attempt to understand why American ships were being attacked and Americans being taken hostage. In a report to the then Secretary of State John Jay, Jefferson cites the Ambassador as saying:
It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.xv
Scholars recognize the ambassador's paraphrasing of the "Sword Verse" (Surah 9:5), as the Qur'anic passage sometimes used to justify jihad is popularly known. The document is an excellent summation of the pirate's motivations. It may also be read as an eerie foreshadowing of the rationale claimed by some terrorists today. But Jefferson's understanding of the Qur'an resulted in a very different outcome from today's Global War on Terror. The 1796 Treaty of Tripoli was Congress's response to the pirating of American ships in the Mediterranean. Drafted by Jefferson's friend and colleague, Joel Barlow, the treaty stated emphatically that "the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion, as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of Musselmen."xvi
Nearly two hundred years before the State Department found it necessary to delve into the Qur'an, Jefferson had already done so to great effect. Jefferson again engaged with the Barbary Pirates as President between 1801 and 1805, during the first of what would become known as the Barbary Wars. Politically, this would be one of his last diplomatic engagements with Islam where he utilized his knowledge of the Qur'an for the benefit of the United States. At the conclusion of the first Barbary War, with the United States procuring its first victory on foreign shores, a temporary peace was reached and Jefferson extended an invitation to the Tunisian Ambassador in Washington to attend dinner at the White House. The invitation happened to fall in the month of Ramadan, and so dinner was rescheduled and became the White House's first iftar. This iftar that marked the conclusion of 1805 and the treaty with at least one of the Barbary States was a symbolic conclusion to Jefferson's documented and known use of the Qur'an and his knowledge of Islam. Surely both Jefferson and his guest could appreciate the breaking of the Ramadan fast, a reward of nourishment after a day of reflection and struggle for personal betterment.
The Legacy of Jefferson's Qur'an
Thomas Jefferson rarely spoke on the topic of religion and did not leave us any written record of his opinion of Islam. But, based on how he used the Qur'an politically, we can conjecture about his attitudes toward what his colleague George Washington called "the children of the Stock of Abraham."xvii He was certainly sympathetic to Islam and to those in the borderlands of the Christian West, but he was also keenly aware of the effect of scripture, whether Biblical or Quranic, on the politics, motivations, and aspirations of nations and empires. At the same time, Jefferson was perhaps influenced by the moral, humanitarian elements of the Qur'an and, as mentioned above, the Constitution of Medina, which may have accompanied his study of Islam. We may never truly know what Jefferson thought about Islam, but what we do know is that the Qur'an served not simply as an exotic book occupying the shelves of Jefferson's Monticello or Adams's Peacefield; on the contrary, the founding fathers knew about Islam, and they thrust themselves into the necessity of knowing. If we excavate the volumes of documents authored by Jefferson and his contemporaries in the early days of the new republic, we find moments wherein Jefferson's Qur'an may well have even influenced the founding, shaping, and sustenance of a newly sovereign nation.
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taken from:
http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/Public/focus/essay0412_jefferson_quran.html
Written by leading scholars, the Focus On essays are designed to stimulate thought and enhance understanding of vital aspects of the Islamic world. New essays on specific themes, with links to related content within the site for further reading, are pub-lished throughout the course of the year. All visitors to Oxford Islamic Studies Online can access these es-says, but related content links in Previous Features are available to subscribers only.
Islamophobes pretend that the meme that Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Qur’an was due to the dispute with Barbary Pirates in 1780. They frame it as a religious conflict, where as the truth is that it was an economic war, rooted in economics not religion.
Saudi Aramco has an excellent article by Sebastian R. Prange that exposes these petty ignorant lies for what they are.
Also, Jefferson was a Deist and The Qur’an May Have Reinforced Thomas Jefferson’s Commitment to Religous Freedom
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201104/thomas.jefferson.s.qur.an.htm
And although Jefferson was an early and vocal proponent of going to war against the Barbary states over their attacks on us shipping, he never framed his arguments for doing so in religious terms, sticking firmly to a position of political principle. Far from reading the Qur'an to better understand the mindset of his adversaries, it is likely that his earlier knowledge of it confirmed his analysis that the roots of the Barbary conflict were economic, not religious.
Sale's Koran remained the best available English version of the Qur'an for another 150 years. Today, along with the original copy of Jefferson's Qur'an, the Library of Congress holds nearly one million printed items relating to Islam—a vast collection of knowledge for every new generation of lawmakers and citizens, with its roots in the law student's leather-bound volumes.
So Jefferson was a secret Muslim and the USA is secretly part of the Ummah and always has been? Gee thanks for the illumination.
Did someone say something then or was it just the buzzing of a trapped fly?... :P
Empress, up until the 1980's the US was a friend of the Muslim world. Nobody regarded it as an enemy.
It's no co-incidence, that since it picked a war with Islam it's on a downward spiral. That is the fate of the enemy of Islam. Thus it was written and foretold, and thus it has been proven.
The US is history, as is Zionism.
Who said Jefferson was a secret Muslim? The beauty of Islam (unlike any other religion) is that it accepts other Monotheisms. It has a set of a laws, which Jefferson and others (like liberals today) find attractive. He didn't find it to be the empty shell that Christianity is. That is why Islam is superior to all other creeds, and why Muslims never leave the faith for another.
Did you know that of all the religous groups in the world, the most difficult to convert to any other faith is the Muslim.
God's name is written across our hearts.
If you note, Christianity has never been successful as a ruling religion, that is because it dumped the law.
Juniper in the Desert
I hope you've packed your bags and left England by now? You are not welcome, Islamophboes dont' belong in England. Get out.
Empress, watch and learn O dense and ignorant one.
Juniper you too. As I have told you before, Islam created the West.
Muslim Influence on American Culture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QQLn2LAgL4
Jonathan Curiel - Stanford Islam Awareness Series 2009. What do The Doors, Alcatraz Island, and Ice Cream Cones All Have in Common?
San Francisco Chronicle Journalist and Author of Al America,
Chayma:
"Who said Jefferson was a secret Muslim? The beauty of Islam (unlike any other religion) is that it accepts other Monotheisms. It has a set of a laws, which Jefferson and others (like liberals today) find attractive. He didn't find it to be the empty shell that Christianity is. That is why Islam is superior to all other creeds, and why Muslims never leave the faith for another."
Yeah right:
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=281157
"The columnist added that the hate preachers from al-Quds target not only Jews, but also apostate Muslims. He cited the case of Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi who is in hiding in Germany because the Mullahs have issued a fatwa (religious order) for his assassination."
Nah, no one leaves Islam. And they murder anyone who tries it.
Carl,
Ooops, I make a typo, and you waste no time in picking up on it. How come you were not so quick in correcting your own errors which i have highlighted numerous times?
I meant to say, 'rarely' leave the faith,
I know some Muslims do leave the faith, and the death sentence for apostasy is believed in by a minority only. It's not the mainstream view.
But you're the pot calling kettle black as usual. We all know what the punishment for apostasy is in Judaism, as carried out and endorsed by the Prophets.
So what is your problem? That Jews are not respecting the law? If Israel were a theocracy it would have the death sentence for apostasy, and a law against proselytising. Chrisitans would be put to death.
Just ask Isa ibn Maryam :)
Carl,
The Jpost article is misinformation. Shahin Najafi isn't an apostate. He wrote a song mocking the Iranian regime and a Shia Imam for which he was declared an apostate. But he says he did to raise awareness of the regime.
In any case, death sentence for apostasy when a Muslim leaves the faith is rarely carried out, because the traditional view is to wait for the person to see light. You believe lies because you want to, not because they are facts.
Shahin Najafi in his own words:
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'Blasphemous' rapper Shahin Najafi goes into hiding after Iran's hardline clerics put a $100,000 bounty on his head
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/blasphemous-rapper-shahin-najafi-goes-into-hiding-after-irans-hardline-clerics-put-a-100000-bounty-on-his-head-7758076.html
"I am still is disbelief," the rap and hip hop artist said in an interview published yesterday. The singer denied the song was meant as a criticism of Islam, but insisted: "I will never apologise for my art or for speaking the truth about the Iranian government."
Mr Najafi's song, "Naqi", takes its name from Ali an-Naqi, one of the 12 imams or religious figures revered by Shia Muslims. Its lyrics focus on oppression, human rights abuses and the contested 2009 presidential election in Iran. Its refrain is an appeal to Naqi to intervene and save the country.
The song has attracted more than 320,000 hits from Iranians on YouTube. But it has been condemned in some circles as a violation of a "fatwa" or religious edict that calls for the execution of anyone who blasphemes Ali an-Naqi. A subsequent fatwa did not mention Mr Najafi by name, but decreed that a singer who insults Ali an- Naqi is guilty of blasphemy.
The Iranian religious website, Shia-Online, put a $100,000 bounty on the singer's head and said he deserved to die for "grossly insulting" Ali an-Naqi. More than 100 people have joined an online "campaign to execute Shahin Najafi".
Carl, be a darling and comment on this, will you?
Or will you ignore it as usual, or worse still act like a kapo like when you banned any commenting on a Christian missionising blog you wrote because you didn't want to upset your Christian readers, probably feared losing funds.
I bet you agree and want this, but are too scared to say so, because you fear losing your conditional support for the settlements.
What a schnorrer huh? :)
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Iranian pastor sentenced to death. That's halacha, baby.
http://samsonblinded.org/news/iranian-pastor-sentenced-to-death-thats-halacha-baby-27155
Media are screaming about Iranian brutality in the upcoming court hearing for Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani. He has been sentenced to death for apostasy, for converting to Christianity and engaging in missionary activity.
But that is exactly the sentence required by Jewish law for the Christian converts and missionaries in our own midst.
"But that is exactly the sentence required by Jewish law for the Christian converts and missionaries in our own midst."
Only one example of pure unmitigated propaganda you shamelessly post here.
Give me ONE EXAMPLE of Mosaic law leading to such a sentence in the last decade.
Good luck with that, even with your shoddy links!
And no...America's "founding fathers" most whom were either self-described Christians or deists, NEVER gave a rat's derriere for your religion. Nice revisionist history, though!
And Hitchens was an atheist who expressed far more disdain for the unrivaled brutality carried out in the name of Islam over the last 1,300 year. Israel-hating? Nope...we'll leave that to you when you teach your children. But again, nice try.
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