Thomas Jefferson Was a Muslim
A candidate was accused of being a closet Muslim. In the 18th century, not the 21st.
By Abbas Milani
April 25, 2014
Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders by Denise A. Spellberg (Knopf)
In the smear campaign before the election for the presidency of the United States, one candidate was accused by his opponents of being a closet Muslim. Some Christians “viewed all Muslims as agents of religious error and a foreign threat.†The United States faced a hostage crisis, as many Americans were taken hostage by Muslim powers and freed only after a ransom was paid. In one country alone, “more than one hundred Americans had been captured and imprisoned.†Accounts of these captivities, even forced conversions, were often bestselling books. Piracy off the coasts of North Africa was a major problem for American cargo ships. A “social Christian,†hoping to preserve “a purely Protestant Christian America,†was worried that aliens might take over the reins of power in the country and opined that “the few ... Jews, Mahomedans, Atheists or Deists among us†must, in the name of prudence and justice, be excluded “fromour publick offices.â€
https://newrepublic.com/article/117173/thomas-jeffersons-quran-denise-spellberg-reviewed
