======================================================
JEFFERSON ON ISLAM
>I have been studying Ben Franklin lately. Concerning the article I sent, he >seemed to reference Mohammed (Mahomet) and the Muslims (Musselmen) often. It >appears that he had a great deal of respect for them. Are there any references in >Jefferson's writings to this area of people and/or religion? I am reading >Franklin's "Narrative of the late Massacres" about the attacks on Indians by our >"Christian" America . Jefferson did mention the Muslims as being protected by religious freedom, as in the following: "[When] the [Virginia] bill for establishing religious freedom... was finally passed,... a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion." The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination." --Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:67 Other than that, he mentions them when speaking of the various religions and their expectations for the future, by saying, "Some hundreds of millions of Mussulmans expect another prophet more powerful than Mahomet, who is to spread Islamism over the whole earth." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1821. ME 15:336 Jefferson was an extremely tolerant man. He certainly stood up for the right of every person to worship God according to their own conscience.