One thought which I’ve had many times before, but which this article impresses upon me even more strongly (because Jay is relatively neglected as one of the key “founders”) is that if one takes a list of the key members of that generation, each one individually and most certainly all of them together are greater, wiser, more moral, more admirable than virtually ANY political leaders ever produced in the Muslim world!
Really, where in the entire history of the Islamic world is there even one leader of such admirable qualities and ideas??? Sure one can point to “great” warriors and “great” tyrants in the Islamic world, but where has there ever been a “great” leader for freedom, constitutional government, and citizens’ rights?
Well, of course, those principles and achievements are virtually non-existent in the entire Islamic world, since “Sharia” law and Muslim beliefs, customs, etc are so much at odds with the principles of a free republic.
Thinking about John Jay, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ben Franklin et al.... and of course one can continue the list and also argue the relative merits and order of priority for each one..... truly an amazing generation for all of world history.... but Muslims cannot produce even ONE such figure, or else he/she would be quickly put to death!
oops, I would certainly include John Adams in any such list!!!
and, of course, the list can be considerably expanded with those who had at least one major achievement and/or contribution during that era.... John Paul Jones and quite a variety of early military leaders etc.
My elitist, moderate mother once said of the Founding Fathers, “They’re irrelevant in today’s world. They may as well be cartoon characters. They certainly weren’t gods.”
Sigh. True story. My mother is sadly uneducated about the FF and extremely intolerant of those who revere them, which includes me. She doesn’t believe in God either, ANY god. So there’s where the trouble begins.