Founding Fathers Rip Obama’s Muslim ‘Fabric’
President Obama’s remarks thanking Muslims for “building the very fabric of our nation” and claiming they were in part responsible for “the core of our democracy” have left many in and outside of Washington scratching their heads. But the Founding Fathers would find the comments even more baffling.
Far from incorporating Islam into America’s early tapestry, their own writings reveal the Founding Fathers were at war with the creed and its adherents.
In 1801, President Jefferson sent the Navy to the Barbary Coast to stop Islamic pirates’ reign of terror on U.S. merchant ships. Jefferson read the Quran to understand what was motivating the pirates, and he learned that the Muslim holy book commanded the faithful to “plunder and enslave” non-Muslims.
In 1814, after Tripoli broke its truce and began attacking U.S. ships again, former President John Adams wrote Jefferson a letter advising that Islam’s founder and prophet was “a military fanatic.” In another writing, he condemned Islamic law as “contemptible.”
His son and future president, John Quincy Adams, went further, arguing that the essence of Islam is “violence and lust: to exalt the brutal over the spiritual part of human nature.” He suggested the Quran’s commands to fight and conquer other lands “in the cause of Allah” were at odds with democracy, peace and the Judeo-Christian ethic on which America was founded. ...