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Segment from Islam and the U.S.

Jefferson’s Qur'an

The hosts discuss the Founders’ thoughts on religious faith and freedom.

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BRIAN: I noticed that Frank mentioned Jefferson’s Quran in passing. I’ll tell you the first time that I heard about Jefferson owning a Quran. It was when Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota– Ellison was the first Muslim member of Congress– took his oath on that very Quran. Peter, how did Jefferson end up with a copy of the Quran in the first place?

PETER: Well, Jefferson had everything in print that he could get. I think that’s important to keep in mind– that is, the Enlightenment impulse for universal knowledge. So what does that mean? What does the Quran in his library signify?

Well, it signifies that for Jefferson, it’s all grist for the mill. It’s all part of his effort to understand human nature. In a way, he thinks that religion is false consciousness, Christianity as much as anything else. He’s a Deist. He believes in natural religion. But the superstitions, the beliefs of peoples, these are all understandable. We have to see past them. That’s when enlightenment is all about.

So the result of this is a notion of universal human nature that means that we have to acknowledge the integrity of each human being, and a right to be wrong. So in a way, for people in Jefferson’s time– and Jefferson himself, drawing on the teachings of John Locke and his writings on religious toleration– to emphasize the most outlandish, the most unlikely candidate for–

BRIAN: Shows what a capacious concept this is.

PETER: That’s right. And you know, it’s not just Thomas Jefferson. In the battle for religious freedom in Virginia, it was devout Baptists looking to overthrow the established church and have freedom of worship. They explicitly included Muslims in their account of who should be embraced by this idea of religious freedom.

ED: So it’s kind of damning with faint praise. We are so capacious that we will even include Muslims.

PETER: Right. Right.

ED: Is that the kind, yeah?

PETER: Yeah. Nobody would have anticipated that a congressman from Minnesota– which didn’t exist, of course– was going to swear on this Quran, and to proclaim that that scripture from another faith tradition was equal to the Christian scripture. That was so remote.

What’s different about our ideas today, I think– and this is crucial– is we begin with the idea that we need, in this pluralistic society, to embrace people who are different, and to acknowledge their sameness. For Jefferson, none of that matters. What matters is this universal principle of natural rights. Jefferson believes in the homogeneity of universal principles.

What he’s saying, essentially, is it doesn’t matter what you believe. Now we know it does matter what you believe. It’s central to people’s identity. And somehow, we have to accommodate that.

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Islam and the U.S. Lesson Set

Note to teachers:

In the lesson material that follows, students will have the opportunity to develop and practice several of History’s Habits of Mind. The Habits of Mind provide life-long advantages. They help students build mature thought processes for both learning and living.

In learning about the Founding Fathers’ attitudes toward other religions and their acceptance and toleration of diverse religious beliefs, students can observe the impact made by individuals who have made a difference in history. These men were forerunners of the American way toward a religiously accepting and diverse society. Reading statements of the Founders about religious diversity helps students understand the significance of the past in shaping the present. Learning from primary sources gives authenticity to student learning. But a look at the frustrations of Adams and Jefferson as they attempt to deal with the Barbary States also shows the limitations of individual action and underscores the complexity of historical causation. Adams and Jefferson were representing a weak, disunited country, trying to achieve diplomatic ends on a severely limited budget. These lessons also provide excellent opportunities for students to comprehend the interplay of change and continuity in history. The dialogue between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson over whether military action or diplomatic activity is the best approach to dealing with the Barbary Pirates has echoes in our own time regarding the best approach to preventing a nuclear Iran. The compare and contrast activity for the Barbary Wars and the Gulf Wars also develops this Habit of Mind, as well as helping students to appreciate the often tentative nature of judgments about the past. It is important for students of history to realize that historians disagree. A variety of perspectives come into play as historians make judgments about the past. The research activity exposes students to a variety of secondary sources on the Barbary Wars. They will also develop independent research skills as they learn more about the Gulf Wars of our own time. In addition to developing History’s Habits of Mind and research skills, these lessons provide instruction in the Common Core competencies in reading and in writing arguments supported by evidence. Primary sources appear in both their original form and in modified versions to afford readers with various strengths the opportunity to read documents from the past. Students need guidance in learning how to frame an argument and express a position supported by evidence. The discipline of history is particularly well-suited for developing these skills.