THE TOM JEFFERSON QU'RAN

MUCH HAS BEEN MADE OF LATE to the existence of a Qu'ran that was owned by America's third president and one of its more profound scholars, Thomas Jefferson. When the Barbary pirates were attacking this young nation's merchant ships in the Mediterranean Sea, killing, pillaging, and enslaving its sailors, as current president, Jefferson inquired of his friends in Europe to brief him about these ruthless scalawags. After learning that these "Musselman" pirates followed a strange and conquering religion, he inquired further, and eventually came into possession of the now infamous Qu'ran that Minnesota Congressman Larry Ellison, Democrat and Islamic convert, was sworn into office upon.

This was little more than a cheap PR tactic, especially if Ellison had known the full story of what was contained within the pages of the book that he wanted to replace the traditional Bible many others, Jew and Gentile, have used in the ceremony over the ages. Once again, Islamicists prove they do not wish to integrate but to subordinate...

The Qu'ran he was describing was a translation by George Sale, first published in 1734. Jefferson’s was a two volume edition published in London in 1764. By chance, I was able to buy later edition of this Qu'ran which included the 145 page “Preliminary Discourse” found in all editions. Had Keith Ellison or President Obama read this introduction, they would have never cited this particular Quran as evidence of our Founding Fathers’ respect for Islam. Here is one excerpt:

As the Arabs have their excellencies [such as hospitality], so have they, like other nations their defects and vices. Their own writers acknowledge that they have a natural disposition to war, bloodshed, cruelty, and rapine, being so much addicted to bear malice that they scarce ever forget an old grudge… The frequent robberies committed by these people on merchants and travelers have rendered the name of an Arab almost infamous in Europe; this they are sensible of, and endeavour to excuse themselves by alleging the hard usage of their father Ishmael, who, being turned out of doors by Abraham, had the open plains and deserts given to him by God for his patrimony, with permission to take whatever he could find there; and on this account they think they may, with safe conscience, indemnify themselves as well as they can, not only on the posterity of Isaac, but also on anybody else, always supposing a sort of kindred between themselves and those they plunder. And in relating their adventures of this kind, they think it sufficient to change the expressions, and instead of “I robbed a man of such or such a thing,” to say, “I gained it.” We must not, however, imagine that they are the less honest for this among themselves, or towards those whom they receive as friends; on the contrary, the strictest probity is observed in their camp, where everything is open and nothing ever known to be stolen.

Now more recently, President Barack Obama, in his June 4 speech in Cairo to the Muslim nations, has seemingly drawn a false conclusion in referencing the Jefferson Qu'ran by saying that Islam has made a long and lasting contribution to the United States. Jefferson was so moved by the barbarity of what he read in the book that he called on Congress for the funds to build a navy. Neither John Adams nor George Washington before him thought they had a need for a naval force, given the vast isolation of the western hemisphere, but the Islamic pirates in this case, so effective were they in disturbing the shipping lanes of American commerce that they did indeed contribute a long and lasting impact on the United States...

Jefferson's navy soon cleaned up the shipping lanes, and the rest is history. From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. A great lyric, thanks in part to those pesky Muslims. Perhaps this is what our current president meant. A little bit of Obama-style taqiyya, eh?

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