Thomas Jefferson's Quran

Friday, September 10, 2010

THE FOLLOWING was written by Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld:

On Friday, August 13th, President Obama welcomed members of the Muslim community to the White House to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Ramadan with an Iftar banquet — the meal served after the sunrise-to-sunset fast. Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar.

In the course of his flattering remarks about the great contributions of Muslims to America, the President mentioned the presence at the banquet of two Muslim members of Congress: Andre Carson, Democrat from Indiana, and Keith Ellison, Democrat from Minnesota, the latter of whom took his oath on Thomas Jefferson’s copy of the Quran, which has been preserved in the Library of Congress.

What the President didn’t mention is why Jefferson bought a Quran in London and why he read it. In preparing for war, he read it to find out what kind of religion the rulers of the Barbary States on the coast of North Africa believed in.

For centuries the Muslim pirates had cruised the Mediterranean Sea, capturing ships and taking prisoners, forcing Christian nations to pay tribute for freedom of passage. To avoid such confrontations, some Christian nations were willing to appease the Islamic enemy by signing treaties requiring them to pay a certain amount of tribute each year. It was a form of extortion that Muslims could impose on frightened Christians.

The pirates also raided coastline villages and took prisoners. The reason why so many Christian Greek coastal villages were built up in the hills was to provide protection against the depredations of the Muslims. Millions of Africans and thousands of Christian Europeans and Americans were enslaved by these raiders, who killed many non-Muslim older men and women and kidnapped young women and children to be sold as concubines. The boys were often mutilated to create eunuchs for use in harems and as servants.

Congressman Keith Ellison, born in Detroit to a Catholic family, was converted at age 19 to Islam while at Wayne State University. In law school, he wrote articles in support of Louis Farrakhan, with whom he is no longer affiliated. He said he chose to use Jefferson’s Quran because it showed that “a visionary like Jefferson” believed that wisdom could be gleaned from many sources. Actually, it wasn’t wisdom that Jefferson gleaned from the Quran, but a realistic understanding of what the United States was up against with the Barbary Pirates.

In 1786, Jefferson, then the American ambassador to France, and John Adams, then the American ambassador to Britain, met in London with Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Tripolitan ambassador to Britain. American merchant ships had been captured by the Barbary corsairs and their crews and passengers imprisoned. They could only by freed by the payment of large ransoms. The Americans wanted to negotiate a peace treaty to spare their ships these piratical attacks. Congress was willing to appease the Barbary pirates if only they could gain peace at a reasonable price.

During the meeting, Jefferson and Adams asked the ambassador why Muslims held such hostility toward America, a nation with which they had had no previous contacts. Jefferson later reported to John Jay what the ambassador had told them: the reason for the Muslims’ enmity was that “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 (Muslim) who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to [P]aradise.”

What was Paradise like? George Sale, the translator of the English edition of the Quran that Jefferson had purchased, wrote in his commentary:

[T]he very meanest in paradise will have eighty thousand servants, seventy-two wives of the girls of paradise, besides the wives he had in this world, and a tent erected for him of pearls, jacinths, and emeralds, of a very large extent; and, according to another tradition, will be waited on by three hundred attendants while he eats, will be served in dishes of gold, whereof three hundred shall be set before him at once, containing each a different kind of food...[T]here will be no want of wine, which, though forbidden in this life, will yet be freely allowed to be drunk in the next, and without danger, since the wine of paradise will not inebriate, as that we drink here...[T]he inhabitants of paradise will not need to ease themselves, nor even to blow their nose, for that all superfluities will be discharged and carried off by perspiration, or a sweat as odoriferous as musk, after which their appetite shall return afresh.

So Jefferson was well aware of the superstitious lunacy and irrationality that motivated the Muslims willing to die as martyrs for Mohammed. And when he became President, he resolved to repel force by force. Within days of his inauguration, Jefferson ordered four warships to sail to the Barbary Coast and blockade and attack any Barbary State that was at war with the United States. Jefferson and his Cabinet all agreed that American power was needed to protect the young nation’s commercial interests in the Mediterranean.

Joseph Wheelan writes in Jefferson’s War that the third U.S. President “pitted a modern republic with a free-trade, entrepreneurial creed against a medieval autocracy whose credo was piracy and terror. It matched an ostensibly Christian nation against an avowed Islamic one that professed to despise Christians…. Jefferson was willing to send a largely untried squadron across the Atlantic to go to war with a people whose customs, history, and religion were alien to the early American experience.”

The new President did not have a CIA to tell him what the enemy was like. He found that out by reading the Quran he had bought for his own edification. In other words, Jefferson’s copy of the Quran helped him understand the nature and mentality of the Muslim enemy. He was wise enough to do his own research long before the United States government had any intelligence apparatus.

The Barbary War was the first foreign war fought and won by the newly independent United States. After many attempts to appease the duplicitous Barbary Muslims, the U.S. finally decided that force was the only way to put an end to the piracy. And thanks to Jefferson, a new U.S. Navy was created to fight and win this war.

The result was that the United States and the Christian nations of Europe were then able to keep the Muslims at bay for over a hundred years. The French went so far as to invade Algeria and colonize it with Europeans. But in 1960, Charles de Gaulle undid it all — and now there are over five million Muslims in France. Indeed, the loss of Christian nerve has once more opened the gates of the West to a barbaric Muslim offensive.

It’s hard to believe that all this history is unknown to Congressman Ellison as well as President Obama, who knows full well what is in the Quran and what motivates the global jihadists. He doesn’t need the CIA to tell him what we are up against in this new phase of our never-ending war with Islam, for as long as the religion of Islam exists it will never disobey its Prophet’s command to conquer unbelievers and dominate the world.

Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of nine books on education including NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, The Whole Language/OBE Fraud, and The Victims of Dick & Jane and Other Essays. Mr. Blumenfeld’s columns have appeared in such diverse publications as Reason, The New American, The Chalcedon Report, Insight, Education Digest, Vital Speeches, WorldNetDaily, and others.

23 comments:

Anonymous September 17, 2010 at 6:35 PM  

Had King Author's crusaders completed their task, Jefferson would not have had the problem and neither would we have it to day.

I am in the process of reading an English translation of Al Kor'an and copying the first of the three translations of the 114 books. The translations can be found at http://www.alquran-english.com/. Muslims are instructed to kill all unbelievers and infidels

Anonymous January 7, 2011 at 11:35 PM  

Thank you so much for writing this piece. This angered me so much, that I could hardly speak. However, I do not believe that it is the case that Ellison, or Obama do not know their history, but rather are re-writing history. We have become a nation of appeasment, and political correctness; and when history gets in the way of that, they just re-write it.

Abdul Jabbar August 7, 2012 at 5:03 PM  

Greetings,

Just to be clear, I must first admit that I am a Muslim. Hence, I see that your understanding towards Islam is as a result of what has been fed to you by your mainstream media. I may not be the best person to explain this, but at least I will try. Islam, in nature, is a peaceful religion. According to some verses in the Koran, violence is only allowed when Islam in threat or to uphold the laws set by God. A number of Muslims have misused the permission to commit violence and say that it is Jihad, when the matter of fact is that they either lack the actual understanding of those verses, or they have their own agenda towards addressing those issues. If you ever come to Malaysia, you'll find a different way of how Islam is practiced in a multi-racial environment compared to Arab countries.

Citizen Warrior August 8, 2012 at 1:46 AM  

Abdul, you're giving me the exact message mainstream media gives. If you would like to convince someone of what you're saying, please convince the orthodox Muslims who are beheading people and pushing for concessions and blowing people up. What good does it do to convince NON-Muslims?

1Universe Of Ideas November 9, 2012 at 1:52 PM  

adasdI am Muslim i know Islam has the history of robbing people and killing the people for last 1400 years.

Anonymous August 29, 2013 at 4:09 PM  

I would highly recommend people watch the movie "Four Feathers" and read the book "White Gold" based on a true story of someone who escaped from their slave masters.

Citizen Warrior August 29, 2013 at 11:06 PM  

Thank you. I've never seen that movie, but the book, "White Gold" is fascinating and well-written.

Anonymous October 14, 2013 at 8:38 AM  

I now realize that what I learned about Columbus in grade school in the early 1960s was...incorrect? a lie? We were taught that he was looking for a shorter trade route to the Indies. No mention of Islam and associated problems.

Katie October 14, 2013 at 12:18 PM  

This is a recent article posted on Salon.com with quite a different perspective of Jefferson and his quran. http://www.salon.com/2013/10/05/our_founding_fathers_included_islam/singleton/

Anonymous October 14, 2013 at 4:37 PM  

Did you sent this to the president?did you inform the representatives of what Islam is?

Anonymous December 10, 2013 at 1:07 PM  

It's not like the Christian Bible has been misinterpreted and used as an excuse to commit countless atrocities against indigenous primitives all over the world, for centuries...

Citizen Warrior December 10, 2013 at 1:25 PM  

I'm not a Christian, but the differences between the doctrines are drastically different in important ways:

http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2008/10/why-im-worried-about-islam-but-not.html

Anonymous December 10, 2013 at 1:41 PM  

Your lack of charity and tolerance make it clear you aren't a Christian

TheRadiomikeman April 10, 2014 at 5:52 PM  

Mainstream media does not inform America on the dangers of Islam. History teaches us what Islam has done to hundreds of millions of " Unbelievers " throughout history. Murdered them. Jesus is The Prince of Peace. All world religions are at emnity with the One True God. His name is Jesus.

Corey Graham April 26, 2014 at 11:10 PM  

@Abdul
"According to some verses in the Koran, violence is only allowed when Islam in threat..."

Define "threat". If by threat, you mean actual force, then yes, retaliatory violence would be appropriate. However, the Koran defines threatening behavior as spreading disbelief. So, if a missionary tries to convert Muslims to Christianity, he can be killed because he's "threatening" Islam.

Anonymous October 13, 2015 at 9:45 AM  

obongo took his oath on same koran jefferon used for his

Jerry December 22, 2015 at 10:57 PM  

Islam is a peaceful religion? Throughout history it has brutally conquered like Isis, and Boko Harem are now! If there is peace it is because they had thoroughly conquered their the new people's by Conversion by the sword if not off with their heads the men that did not convert were slaughtered, the old were killed and the woman were raped! Peaceful? What is the penalty for a Muslim to become Christian?

Jerry December 22, 2015 at 11:02 PM  

Name one part of the Bible where Jesus led people to fight, enslave, and rape non believers?

ANONYMOUS February 11, 2016 at 8:09 AM  

AN AMERICAN, FRED. SAID.... FEBRUARY 11, 2016

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WHOLE ARTICLE TO ALL FEDERAL & STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS, REMINDING THEM THAT THEY WILL BE FIRST ASKED THEIR FEELINGS AND INTENTION ABOUT THE ABOVE, PRIOR TO THEIR NEXT ELECTION. ANYONE REFUSING TO DO SO, SHOULD NOT RECEIVE ONE VOTE. IT IS TIME FOR ALL AMERICANS, WHATEVER RELIGION, TO STAND UP AND BE COUNTED....& IF IT BECOMES NECESSARY, TO OIL OUR WEAPONS. WE CANNOT ALLOW INSURGENTS TO RESIDE IN OUR COUNTRY, NOR TO ENTER OUR SHORES. " REMEMBER: "GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES". "GOD HELP US ALL".

Fonzieboy. April 3, 2016 at 11:59 PM  

Islam forbids a Muslim using their intelligence.
Let's get this clear it is based on child abuse, sex, and war.the absurdity of being allowed to lie should show the Muslim how far away from reality and truth they really are.

Fonzieboy. April 4, 2016 at 12:08 AM  

Well said end of story.

Anonymous June 23, 2016 at 9:32 AM  

Islam is indeed a "PIECEFUL" religion, just flesh blow into pieces.

Santiago Matamoros October 11, 2016 at 7:04 AM  

Islam is not a religion,it's a Violent Ideology with the governing "Sharia Law". Hence no Religious Protection and should be outlawed as a "threat" to the U.S. Constitution and American Values. Because,"this is who we are."
Name me one muslim islamic extremist country where we would be allowed to promote and advance Christianity and the U.S. Constitution? That's what I thought...
Santiago Matamoros
TRUMP / PENCE 2016

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