Keith Ellison and the Koran

Ever wonder why Thomas Jefferson had a copy of the Koran? Keith Ellison was elected to serve in the House and demanded to use Jefferson’s original copy of the Koran to do it. If you want to see an article that details the reason Jefferson needed a copy of the Koran, go to this link. www.khouse.org...
I think that you will be fascinated as to the origin of Jefferson’s copy, and even more so, the reason he needed it!! I wonder if Ellison knew of this when he was sworn in. If he did, it would seem that he did so for a very sinister reason.

Well Jefferson was right not to appease the muslims. That never gets anywhere. And pleas edont say im making a "generalization," if we really must break it down, than the wahhabi type muslims.

These people understand one thing, and one thing only, violence.

In the first place, Ellison did not DEMAND use of Jefferson's Koran. He requested it, accirding to the chief of rare books at the Library of Congress. Ellison is in no position to demand such a thing.

Representative-elect Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, requested the 18th century copy of the Koran for the unofficial part of his swearing in on Thursday, according to Mark Dimunation, chief of rare books and special collections at the Library of Congress in Washington.
Source

Secondly, from your source:

Jefferson needed that copy of the Koran because he was desperate to learn something about Islam from that religion’s written de facto standard of all things Muslim. Why? Because the United States was going to war in the early 1800s against conservative, Wahhabi-type, radical Muslims.

From a link I got from the Thomas Jefferson Online Library Catalog:

Jefferson purchased George Sale’s well-known translation of the Quran, on Oct. 5, 1765. Then a 22-year-old law student in Wil-liamsburg, Jefferson saw the Quran cited in Samuel Pufendorf’s classic treatise "Of the Law of Nature and Nations" as precedent on a variety of civil and international legal issues.

Jefferson’s interest in the Islamic holy book led him to learning about Islam and a sustained study of the Quran’s written language, Arabic.
Sourc e

Are you saying that the 22-year-old law student (Jefferson) bought a Koran in 1765 to fight the evil Muslims 40 years later?

What you and your source (as well as many others who wish to demonize Islam) are putting forth is not only a huge lie, it flies in the face of everything Jefferson stood for as far as religion is concerned.

Jefferson famously wrote in 1782 that the "legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."

Jefferson’s Statute on Religious Freedom inspired the U.S. Constitution’s ban on religious tests for office and Bill of Rights protections of religious free exercise and against an establishment of religion.

In an 1821 letter to Georgia Rabbi Jacob de la Motta, Jefferson reflected that America was the "first to prove to the world … that religious freedom is the most effective anodyne against religious dissension." Finding strength in America’s diversity, Jefferson observed that in religion, the maxim is "divided we stand, united we fall."

Originally posted by ForceMaster
Ever wonder why Thomas Jefferson had a copy of the Koran?

I don't wonder at all ....

Library of Congress document

It makes a whole lotta' sense. The Barbary Pirates were giving America a very hard time. Jefferson, in an effort to better 'know the enemy', studied a copy of the Barbary Pirates holy book. It makes excellent sense from a military stand point.

FF, did you read my post? Jefferson bought the Koran 40 years before the wars! He was 22 years old! Did he have some kind of power to see into the future?

jefferson bought the koran to learn more about the cultural mindset of the barbary pirates (i remember this because it involves a president actually considering the mindset of the enemy without having someone telling him to, and because it involves the USA declaring war on pirates)

edit: i read benev's post, sorry
but the below still stands

now, correct me if i'm wrong, but the barbary pirates weren't actually a group of radical muslims. if anything, they were muslim simply because of the demographics of the areas that they came from

[edit on 3/3/07 by madnessinmysoul]