In this original and illuminating book, Denise A. Spellberg
reveals a little-known but crucial dimension of the story of
American religious freedom—a drama in which Islam played a
surprising role. In 1765, eleven years before composing the
Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a
Qur’an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong
interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous
books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel,
taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English
common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam
notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a
sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in
England and America. But unlike most of them, by 1776
Jefferson could imagine Muslims as future citizens of his
new country.
Based on groundbreaking research,
Spellberg compellingly recounts how a handful of the
Founders, Jefferson foremost among them, drew upon
Enlightenment ideas about the toleration of Muslims (then
deemed the ultimate outsiders in Western society) to fashion
out of what had been a purely speculative debate a practical
foundation for governance in America. In this way, Muslims,
who were not even known to exist in the colonies, became the
imaginary outer limit for an unprecedented, uniquely
American religious pluralism that would also encompass the
actual despised minorities of Jews and Catholics. The
rancorous public dispute concerning the inclusion of
Muslims, for which principle Jefferson’s political foes
would vilify him to the end of his life, thus became
decisive in the Founders’ ultimate judgment not to establish
a Protestant nation, as they might well have done.
As popular suspicions about Islam persist and the numbers of
American Muslim citizenry grow into the millions,
Spellberg’s revelatory understanding of this radical notion
of the Founders is more urgent than ever. Thomas
Jefferson’s Qur’an is a timely look at the ideals that
existed at our country’s creation, and their fundamental
implications for our present and future.
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