{"id":129113,"date":"2015-12-14T12:57:15","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T19:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/14\/the-founding-fathers-and-islam.html"},"modified":"2015-12-14T12:57:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T19:57:15","slug":"the-founding-fathers-and-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/14\/the-founding-fathers-and-islam.html","title":{"rendered":"The Founding Fathers and Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Islam and how proposals of religious freedom for the young America would affect Muslims (and other outré non-mainstream-Protestant believers like Jews and Catholics) came up repeatedly during the debates around the Constitution. <\/p>\n

Islam was a particularly interesting edge case for discussing religious freedom; there were few (acknowledge) Muslims in the young United States (the faith of some black slaves notwithstanding), and Islam had old connotations from the days of the Crusades and the Reconquista,<\/i> as well as contemporary connotations of the Barbary states. Muslims were considered about as exotic as could be imagined when it came to discuss the extreme cases of how religious freedom might work.<\/p>\n

And, yet, there they were, used by folk like Jefferson, Madison, and others. None of them were particularly enamored of the idea of Muslims taking government offices in the new Republic, but they found the idea of religious freedom<\/i> even more compelling, seeing the very real and historically present dangers of religious tests and state-sanctioned religious orthodoxy as much greater dangers. <\/p>\n

It was an enlightened attitude, and one we should try and bear in mind today when too many folk argue that "Muslim" naturally equates to "Anti-Western Terrorist and Conspirator" and "Islam" isn't an actual religion, and therefore should garner no protection; those very arguments can be similarly used to exclude people of any<\/i> faith from public office … and have been.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe fascinating history of how Jefferson and other Founding Fathers defended Muslim rights<\/a><\/span>
\nThomas Jefferson and others explicitly mentioned Muslims in outlining the parameters of religious freedom and equal protection in the U.S.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islam and how proposals of religious freedom for the young America would affect Muslims (and other outré non-mainstream-Protestant believers like Jews and Catholics) came up repeatedly during the debates around the Constitution. Islam was a particularly interesting edge case for discussing religious freedom; there were few (acknowledge) Muslims in the young United States (the faith … Continue reading “The Founding Fathers and Islam”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20824,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/22\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-liberals-muslims-haters-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":129113,"position":0},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (Liberals = Muslims = HATERS Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Apr-11 2:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I was going to skip over this one, Bryan, really.\u00a0 Because it's just plain zany.\u00a0 But as I went through the litany of all the things that liberals are or do or hate ... well, I just had to say something. From your AFA-hosted\/sponsored radio show: There's this odd collaboration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dolts"","block_context":{"text":"Dolts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/dolts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/bryan-fischer-afa.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17417,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/20\/everybody-draw-mohammed-day.html","url_meta":{"origin":129113,"position":1},"title":"Everybody Draw Mohammed Day","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 20-May-10 9:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is \"Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,\" as artists (and not-so-artists) draw pictures of the Prophet and post them online in order to demonstrate that unilateral calls by one religion to impose its moral and aesthetic will over believers and unbelievers alike will not be tolerated. My entry is in this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fine Art"","block_context":{"text":"Fine Art","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/mohammed.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/06\/10\/uncovered_judgm.html","url_meta":{"origin":129113,"position":2},"title":"Uncovered judgment","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Jun-03 7:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Sultana Freeman has lost her claim that having an unveiled drivers license photo would infringe on her freedom of religion. Thorpe said the state \"has a compelling interest in protecting...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18157,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/18\/bryan-fischer-is-also-a-dolt.html","url_meta":{"origin":129113,"position":3},"title":"Bryan Fischer is also a dolt","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Aug-10 11:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"Or maybe not a dolt. Yeah, that's still unkind. How about \"... a dangerous lunatic\"? A danger to others, certainly. A danger to logic and rhetoric, unquestionably. A danger to America, without a doubt. Take his appearance the other night on Anderson Cooper 360 (guest hosted by Sanjay Gupta).\u00a0 Fischer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9-11"","block_context":{"text":"9-11","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/9-11"},"img":{"alt_text":"Manzanar internment camp, by Dorothea Lange","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/manzanar-lange.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20539,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/23\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-constitution-for-me-but-not-for-thee-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":129113,"position":4},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (Constitution for Me but Not for Thee Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Mar-11 10:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dagnabbit, Bryan -- it would have been nice to have been able to retire the whole BFiaD category, but in your unhinged hatred for the things you hate (for which I at least applaud your unwavering dedication), you keep providing targets that simply cannot be ignored. To wit, your latest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dolts"","block_context":{"text":"Dolts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/dolts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/bryanfischer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":41251,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/01\/freedom-for-the-goose-is-freedom-for-the-gander.html","url_meta":{"origin":129113,"position":5},"title":"Freedom for the Goose is Freedom for the Gander","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Mar-14 9:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"Part of me objects to these sorts of examples as drumming up fear about \"those crazy Muslims\" and how they would \"abuse\" religious freedom-to-discriminate laws by \"bringing Sharia Law\" to our blessed shores, etc., etc., etc. Because, really, the last thing we need is more people fearmongering about \"the Muslims.\"On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}