Free Republic

“The Quran gained a popular readership among Protestants both in England and in North America largely out of curiosity,” says Denise A. Spellberg, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Thomas Jefferson’s Qu'ran: Islam and the Founders. “But also because people thought of the book as a book of law and a way to understand Muslims with whom they were interacting already pretty consistently, in the Ottoman Empire and in North Africa.” When Jefferson bought his Quran as a law student in 1765, it was probably because of his interest in understanding Ottoman law....

A Texas teen’s journey from handcuffs to presidential handshakes reminds us how far some remain from understanding this nation’s founding ideals, a lesson a former president – and inventor – might help us understand even as 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed visits the White House at the invitation of President Obama. A month ago, the Irving, Texas, high school student was arrested for demonstrating ingenuity while Muslim by inventing a clock. Like Ahmed, Thomas Jefferson was an inventor. Coincidentally, he also helped imagine our concept of religious freedom. Jefferson, like the Texas teen, also loved a new gadget. In 1806, while a...