No, Professor Ahmed, the Founders Were Not So Fond of Islam

Pajamas Media ^ | September 10, 2010 | Laura Rubenfeld

[Kaslin]

While doing the MSM circuit this week, American University professor Akbar Ahmed told some whoppers about Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin

Akbar Ahmed, the chair of Islamic studies at American University, has advised many government officials, including General Petraeus, Richard Holbrooke, and George W. Bush. He speaks regularly on BBC and CNN, and has appeared on many U.S. shows, including Oprah and Nightline.

To oppose the “burn the Quran” event planned by Pastor Terry Jones, Ahmed wrote an editorial for CNN in which he stated:

Not only are the actions of Jones contrary to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, but they are also against the ideals of the American Founding Fathers.

…

The Founding Fathers read and honored the same Quran that Jones is now seeking to burn.

…

[John Adams, America’s second president] showed the utmost respect for Islam, naming the Prophet Mohammed as one of the greatest truth seekers in history.

These statements are utterly opposed by the facts.

John Adams said absolutely nothing of the kind. Correspondence from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson on July 16, 1814, reveals John Adams’ true feelings about Islam: Adams states that Mohammed is “a military fanatic” who “denies that laws were made for him; he arrogates everything to himself by force of arms.”

John Adams did indeed own a Quran — the copy he owned contained the following in the preface:

This book is a long conference of God, the angels, and Mahomet, which that false prophet very grossly invented; sometimes he introduceth God, who speaketh to him, and teacheth him his law, then an angel, among the prophets, and frequently maketh God to speak in the plural. … Thou wilt wonder that such absurdities have infected the best part of the world, and wilt avouch, that the knowledge of what is contained in this book, will render that law contemptible …

Perhaps Akbar Ahmed misspoke, and was referring to John Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams? The sixth president, not the second?

No. Here is what John Quincy Adams wrote about the Islamic prophet Mohammed:

In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust, by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE. [emphasis in the original]

John Quincy Adams also described the Quran in one of his essays as follows:

The precept of the koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.

Ahmed also claims in his editorial that “Benjamin Franklin called the Prophet Mohammed a model of compassion.” Ahmed made similar claims on The Daily Show:

I quote the Founding Fathers. … John Adams on the Prophet of Islam: He called him one of the greatest truth seekers in history. (Ben) Franklin called him a model of compassion. And Jefferson had the first Iftaar … and owned a copy of the Quran. … Those Americans who are attacking Islam simply as a terrorist religion or a religion of evil, really need to go back to their own Founding Fathers.

In a March 23, 1790, letter to the editor of the Federal Gazette, Ben Franklin wrote:

Nor can the Plundering of Infidels be in that sacred Book [the Quran] forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God has given the World, and all that it contains, to his faithful Mussulmen, who are to enjoy it of Right as fast as they conquer it.

Thomas Jefferson? Like John Adams, he did own a Quran, one translated by George Sale. Here are some of Sale’s comments on the Quran, included by Sale in his introduction:

It is certainly one of the most convincing proofs that Mohammedism was no other than human invention, that it owed its progress and establishment almost entirely to the sword.

In his editorial, Akbar Ahmed claims:

Thomas Jefferson kept the … Quran in his personal collection and it informed his decision to host the first presidential iftaar during Ramadan.

President Obama repeated this claim — that Jefferson hosted the first presidential iftaar — at the most recent White House Ramadan dinner.

Let’s review the facts.

During the Barbary Wars, in 1805, the bey (i.e., monarch) of Tunis threatened war with the United States after the U.S. had been successful in capturing some Tunisian pirate ships. The bey sent an envoy to the United States to negotiate for the return of the ships. This envoy stayed in Washington for six months, during which the month of Ramadan passed.

One of Thomas Jefferson’s many invitations extended to this envoy to meet with him at the White House was during the month of Ramadan. To accommodate the envoy’s religious obligation, Jefferson changed the time of dinner from the usual “half after three” to “precisely at sunset.”

Jefferson was being polite — not celebrating the first White House iftaar, as Akbar Ahmed suggests.

The first Ramadan iftaar was not actually held at the White House until 1996.

Indeed, in a letter dated June 26, 1822, Jefferson had this to say about Islam in a passage regarding Calvinism:

Verily I say these are the false shepherds foretold as to enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but to climb up some other way. They are mere usurpers of the Christian name, teaching a counter-religion made up of the deliria of crazy imaginations, as foreign from Christianity as is that of Mahomet.

For good measure, Akbar Ahmed also mentioned John Locke:

The Founding Fathers were also inspired by Christian thinkers like John Locke, who declared that the true Christian’s duty was to “practice charity, meekness, and good-will in general toward all mankind, even to those that are not Christians.”

Akbar Ahmed is currently Ibn Khaldoun chair and professor of Islamic studies at American University. Ibn Khaldoun was a 14th century Islamic philosopher and scholar, a man about whom Akbar Ahmed has written. Ibn Khaldoun advocated for violence against non-Muslims as a religious duty, in order to achieve the larger goal of dismantling non-Muslim civilization and imposing an Islamic caliphate.

Ibn Khaldoun makes it clear that holy war is the duty of every Muslim. From his most famous work, Muqaddimah:

In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the (Muslim) mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.

Akbar Ahmed is, as previously noted, an advisor to General Petraeus. One wonders if General Petraeuss has been influenced by the false teachings of this professor.

[Diogenesis]

"The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong
to some man as his absolute property - either as a child,
a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery
until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men."
[Winston Churchill, 1899, "The River War"]

---

"Bust of Churchill Returned by Obama
"After the September 11th attacks our British allies loaned President George Bush
a bust of one of the greatest Britons the world has ever known, Sir Winston Churchill.
It was a gesture to show their support for the United States in one of its darkest hours.
The bust sat prominently in the Oval Office for the balance of President Bush’s tenure there,
and once President Obama took office, the British offered him the opportunity to keep it for the length of his term.
His response was cold and most likely sent tremors through the British diplomatic community."
....
"Diplomatically this is a faux pax that only an unseasoned politician could make.
The British have stood by our side as strong allies for decades and we need to maintain that relationship,
especially in a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous (See Is Nuclear Weakness on the Horizon)
If he did not want to look at it in the oval office he could have displayed it elsewhere in the White House
and not slapped the British in the face in such a blatant disregard of political etiquette."

---

" I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."
Winston Churchill

---

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."
Winston Churchill

[rarestia]

Great read! I love reading about our Founders in context, and their disdain for Islam is quite apparent.

That won’t stop the Muslim higher ups from outright lying to attempt approval. If the American people buy into this pablem, it’s their own funeral. It says right in their “Holy” book that conversion of the infidel must occur by force or fraud. Not sure how anyone could trust a Muslim knowing that what they’re spewing is likely a lie.

[freeangel]

“false teachings of this professor.”

False teachings by any other name-—LIE to the infidel. Obama must be SO pleased.

[vanilla swirl]

“One wonders if General Petraeuss has been influenced by the false teachings of this professor.”

really?
I didn’t notice./sarc

[MattinNJ]

Awesome posts.

[The KG9 Kid]

Thanks for this article. It’s a compilation of what I already knew about most of the Founders’ view on Islam and it’s followers, with some references that I didn’t know.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

What kind of gas is this idiot passing?.....

[pgkdan]

Thanks for posting this Kaslin. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference.

[TigerClaws]

Agree. Great find!

[ridesthemiles]

Islam is not only NOT a religion of PEACE-—
They are a cult of LIES.

The sheer audacity of their ‘spokespersons’ ios only a wee bit worse than the disdain they seem to have for the intelligence of the American citizen.

[Vigilanteman]

Facts are inconvenient things. As the evidence shows, our founders had no sympathy for Islam either as a religion or a political system.

The founders were, however, fond of one country in the Muslim world-- Morocco, which was one of the few functional states in that region which did not have to rely on piracy, slave trading and other underworld methods to support itself.

The main reason it alone was functional among the Muslim world is because it was largely secular. It was also one of the first countries to recognize the independence of the United States of America.

This long friendship came in very handy during World War II. American troops did not have to invade North Africa. They were invited to land in Morocco and simply moved east to meet up with Montgomery's forces after initial tactical setbacks in Algeria and Tunisia, the worst of which was Kasserine Pass.

[CaptainPhilFan]

Thanks for this! I’ve shared on my FB page.
Wonderful resource for future reference.
God bless you.

[AnAmericanMother]

Just about the only Founding Father who had a nice word to say about Islam was John Randolph of Roanoke.

Of course, he was crazy as a bedbug and everybody knew it. So crazy that his will was broken:

The Devil and John Randolph

[bereanway]

[John Adams, America’s second president] showed the utmost respect for Islam, naming the Prophet Mohammed as one of the greatest truth seekers in history.”

Ahmed is your typical Muslim, Islam by its very nature breeds liars and cheats. When I was in Engineering School the Muslim students from the Middle East had so perfected cheating that it had become an art form. If they’d worked half as hard at comprehending the material as they did at cheating they may have actually learned something. It appeared to me that cheating to their way of thinking was preferable to honest gain.

BTW, this is a great article with tremendous quotes that I’ll save for future reference.

[null and void]

The Founding Fathers were so interested in islam that this country’s very first military excursion was against muslim pirates and slavers.

[FarRightFanatic]

Bookmarking

[Dick Bachert]

How’s about we contact Rome and ask the Catholic Church to apply to construct another St. Peters – IN SAUDI ARABIA.

There is a most revealing scene in the classic film “Lawrence of Arabia” that expresses the muslim penchant — indeed, REQUIREMENT — to lie to non-muslims to further their cause.

Go to 4:45 in the link directly below to see that scene.

If you STILL don’t think the West is under attack, you are clearly delusional.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZHKujjul-I
THEN go to the link at the bottom for a real eye-opener!

The below message from my contact, a retired USAF Fighter Pilot (served in combat), living in Alaska. He is fluent in Arabic reading as well as speaking, and has read the Qu ran in the original Arabic. He vouches for the content of the Video presented in the link below. Below are his words to his correspondents. I suppress his name and e-mail address to protect him as he has previously received death threats for what he has published. See the video and wonder why, the best known apostate in the world (BHO) from Islam has not had a FATWA of death issued by the Jihaddist Imams of the world!

A group calling themselves “White Roses” created a video to inform non-Muslims about Islam. The name of this video is Three Things About Islam
White Roses is head quartered in Sweden. This first version is in English. The name “White Roses” is based on a student resistance group “Die weiße Rose” in Nazi Germany. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet campaign, from June 1942 until February 1943, which called for active opposition to Adolf Hitler’s regime.

I urge all of you to view this video. You may be familiar with the points made in this video but many Americans are not, either out of a desire to put their heads in the sand to avoid confronting the problem or just simple ignorance of the crisis we face. It may not be possible to get all the Dramatis Persona to acknowledge this Islamic road to perdition but those Americans, who just do not know, out of ignorance, just might find the learning experience worthwhile.

As a person who has spent lengthy time studying Islam I can tell you this video is one of the best I have seen…it’s short and to the point and all those points are dead on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9rofXQl6w&feature=player_embedded

[EternalVigilance]

Bump!

[SvenMagnussen]

When should a name on a passport renewal be struck out?

Read the declartion just above Stanley Ann’s signature on her passport renewal application.

" I have not (and no other person included or to be included in the passport or documentation has), since acquiring United States citizenship, been naturalized as a citizen of a foreign state; taken an oath or made an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state; entered or served in the armed forces …

(If any of the above-mentioned acts or conditions have been performed by or apply to the applicant, or to any person included in the passport or documentation, the portion which applies should be struck out, and a supplementary explanatory statement under oath (or affirmation) by the person to whom the portion is applicable should be attached and made a part of this application.)"

Marked P1, Strunk FOIA, August 13, 1968. Obama renounced his US Citizenship and became Soebarkah, Indonesian National, in 1968.