(Excerpted From the Library of Congress in an essay by James Hutson)

While most citizens generally consider Indians and Mexicans to have been part of the  "American" experience from Colonial days, nearly all view the Muslim as a fairly recent arrival on U.S. shores.  

No doubt a great number will be surprised to learn that  is a fallacy, according to prolific author James Hutson and chief of the manuscript division at the Library of Congress.  History tells us there were Muslims, both freemen and slaves, in Colonial America.

Hutson writes in his essay,  "The Founding Fathers And Islam":

There may have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Muslims in the United States in 1776—imported as slaves from areas of Africa where Islam flourished. Although there is no evidence that the Founders were aware of the religious convictions of their bondsmen, it is clear that the Founding Fathers thought about the relationship of Islam to the new nation and were prepared to make a place for it in the republic.

Hutson goes on to state that John Locke in his seminal letter on Toleration (1689) insisted that Muslims and all others who believed in God be tolerated in England.   Hutson adds that Thomas Jefferson,  who held Locke in highest esteem, followed his example.  Campaigning for religious rights in Virginia, Jefferson demanded equal rights for the "Mohamdan," the "Jew" and the "pagan." 

Hutson tells us that Jefferson noted with satisfaction in his autobiography that when the Virginia legislature passed his landmark bill for establishing religious freedom, that they "rejected by a great majority" any effort to limit the bills scope   "in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan."

Likewise, George Washington spoke out on behalf of the"Mohamadan" receiving equal treatment in Virginia when he suggested a way for them to receive part of the tax money the legislature had raised to fund Christian churches.  Hutson also adds that Washington had said he would welcome "Mohometans" to Mount Vernon if they were "good workmen."

" Officials in Massachusetts were equally insistent that their influential Constitution of 1780 afforded "the most ample liberty of conscience … to Deists, Mahometans, Jews and Christians," a point that Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons resoundingly affirmed in 1810."

Toward Islam itself the Founding generation held differing views. An evangelical Baptist spokesman denounced "Mahomet" as a "hateful" figure who, unlike the meek and gentle Jesus, spread his religion at the point of a sword.

A Presbyterian preacher in rural South Carolina dusted off Grotius' 17th century reproach that the "religion of Mahomet originated in arms, breathes nothing but arms, is propagated by arms."

Other, more influential observers had a different view of Muslims. In 1783, the president of Yale College, Ezra Stiles, cited a study showing that "Mohammadan" morals were "far superior to the Christian."

Another New Englander believed that the "moral principles that were inculcated by their teachers had a happy tendency to render them good members of society." The reference here, as other commentators made clear, was to Islam's belief, which it shared with Christianity, in a "future state of rewards and punishments," a system of celestial carrots and sticks which the Founding generation considered necessary to guarantee good social conduct.

"A Mahometan," wrote a Boston newspaper columnist, "is excited to the practice of good morals in hopes that after the resurrection he shall enjoy the beautiful girls of paradise to all eternity; he is afraid to commit murder, adultery and theft, lest he should be cast into hell, where he must drink scalding water and the scum of the damned."

Benjamin Rush, the Pennsylvania signer of the Declaration of Independence and friend of Adams and Jefferson, applauded this feature of Islam, asserting that he had "rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mohammed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles."

That ordinary citizens shared these positive views is demonstrated by a petition of a group of citizens of Chesterfield County, Va., to the state assembly, Nov. 14, 1785:

"Let Jews, Mehometans and Christians of every denomination enjoy religious liberty…thrust them not out now by establishing the Christian religion lest thereby we become our own enemys and weaken this infant state. It is mens labour in our Manufactories, their services by seaand land that aggrandize our Country and not their creeds. Chain your citizens to the state by their Interest. Let Jews, Mehometans, and Christians of every denomination find their advantage in living under your laws."

The Founders of this nation explicitly included Islam in their vision of the future of the republic.

Freedom of religion, as they conceived it, encompassed it. Adherents of the faith were, with some exceptions, regarded as men and women who would make law-abiding, productive citizens. Far from fearing Islam, the Founders would have incorporated it into the fabric of American life.

To Be Continued

James H. Hutson is chief of the Manuscript Division and the author of many books, including, most recently, "Religion and the Founding of the American Republic," 1998

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0205/tolerance.html 

 

 

 

 

posted on Sept 3, 2010 10:37 AM (CST)

Post A Comment