Jefferson's Koran

When Keith Ellison did his ceremonial "swearing in", he did it as promised ... on the Koran. It wasn't just any Koran. It was the Koran that belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Ellison wanted to show that he was the same sort of visionary as Jefferson, and that Jefferson believed there was wisdom in the Koran.

Congressman Ellison either displayed his own ignorance or intentionally played off the ignorance of Americans, because the story doesn't quite match up to the facts. Everyone knows the Marine Hymn. "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli" the song begins. To what is it referring? The reference to "the shores of Tripoli" is a reference to one of the very first official actions of the United States Marines. This was the First Barbary War of 1801-1805. In this conflict, Marines marched on Tripoli. Thus the reference. But ... why Tripoli?

Muslim pirates had reigned along the North African Mediterranean for hundreds of years. Treaties with France and England kept them safe, but when America cast off its connections with Britian, she was on her own. In 1785, two American merchant vessels were taken hostage. The new American government decided to pay the ransom against Ambassador Thomas Jefferson's recommendation. But the attacks kept coming and America kept paying. The ambassador asked Tripoli's envoy why they had such animosity toward the United States. He reported that their answer was as follows:

The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman (Muslim) who should be slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.

What wisdom did Thomas Jefferson wish to glean from the Koran? He wanted to know the reasons for the fighting and animosity. He wanted to know the thinking of these people. And he wanted to know the source book of the ones he would declare war on when he became president in 1801 and sent the navy and Marines to put an end to the piracy.

I have to wonder which part of this Keith Ellison had in mind when he intentionally tossed out the traditional root of American government and replaced it with Jefferson's source book for what was wrong with Islam. Was it ignorance? Or did he simply expect that Americans don't really know their history? I am pretty sure that the latter is valid. So many Americans are still thinking of this whole thing in Iraq as a "police action" and can't figure out why we're not "getting the criminal Osama Bin Laden" instead of fighting a war on terrorism. If Americans can't remember yesterday's history, why would they have the slightest sense of the previous centuries? I'm fairly confident, however, that Ellison hasn't a clue that the book on which he swore his oath was intended to be a helpful tool for killing Muslims in the 1800's.