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Could a Muslim – or a Catholic or a Jew – Be President? A 1788 Constitutional Debate
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Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the founders
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