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Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, will use a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson during his ceremonial swearing-in today.

According to CNN.com, Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert said the new congressman “wants this to be a special day, and using Thomas Jefferson’s Quran makes it even more special.”

“Jefferson’s Quran dates religious tolerance to the founders of our country,” he added.

The fact that Jefferson owned a Quran doesn’t necessarily speak to his tolerance at all. Jefferson also owned several Bibles (and even created his own), but had very little tolerance for “clergy” of any stripe. He didn’t believe Jesus to be the son of God or believe in miracles. Jefferson is best known for his desire to isolate religion, and an honest look at this nation’s history reveals a lot about his relationship to Islam. It isn’t what I would call tolerance.

By the 1780s, the U.S. was ready to market their products in Europe. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were commissioned by Congress to assemble in Paris. It didn’t take long for U.S. ships to run into trouble along the so-called Barbary Coast. “Barbary Pirates” customarily plundered merchant ships, capturing crews and demanding ransom from the American government. Interestingly, these were not pirates as we think of them - they were Muslims. In his book American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Ellis recounts Jefferson’s description of American ships being terrorized.

[Jefferson] answered us that it was founded on the laws of the prophet, that it was written in their koran, 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…

Less than 20 years later when Jefferson became president, the leader of Tripoli (Yusif Karamanli) demanded a $225,000 tribute from the new administration. Jefferson’s refusal resulted in the First Barbary War, America’s first war with Muslim powers.

There’s a lot of interesting history here, and much of it speaks to the predicament in which we find ourselves today. The “war on Terror” isn’t anything new, and neither is Jihad. The claim that Jefferson exhibited tolerance simply because he owned a Quran is in direct opposition to historical fact. Scholars and statesmen commonly own books with which they disagree. Let’s not let our tolerance get in the way of honesty.

On another note, modern Christians shouldn’t let their historical idealism get in the way of honesty, either. Let us not forget the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 is abundantly clear:

As 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, and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Related:
• Islam: Religion of Peace
• Christianity & Government

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