Tuesday, August 3, 2010

America's Founding Fathers on Islam

Today, we see many Americans go out of their way to indirectly denounce the first amendment usually when it comes to Islam. This is born of the erroneous belief that America was founded on the principles of Christianity, and allowing Islam to flourish in America will prove competitive for Christian evangelism.

However, based on scrutiny of some documents written by Americans during the era in which the founding fathers of America lived, we see that there was considerable tolerance of Islam, and respect for the Prophet(PBUH). According to this article written by James Huston where he pointed to the fact that many of the Africans brought to America as slaves were Muslims, with numbers probably in their thousands, we see some accolades showered on Islam. From Thomas Jefferson, to George Washington, to Richard Henry Lee, there was tolerance for Islam.

Many people are not interested in learning about history, or it's implication in the contemporary world. It just feels comfortable to be spoon fed with information, and taught whom to hate. Unfortunately, there is enough guilt to go around as far as that is concerned.