JUST SAYIN’-I just finished reading the book, Thomas Jefferson’s Qu’ran, which made me contemplate once again the issue around Muslim people and their religion. The word, Muslim (one who submits to one’s faith), comes from the Arab and Turkish etymologies for mosalman or mussulman and other variations.
Unfounded fears about Islam a nd its practices have been used for centuries in this land (since before the American Revolution) to turn people against each other.
Though an imperfect man, Thomas Jefferson and his cohorts (like James Madison and Baptist minister, John Leland) worked tirelessly to ensure that this new country would not be an officially Protestant nation. Far too many of our Founders, to the contrary, were fervently of the opinion that they should push very hard to establish a variation of a theocracy.
At the time, there was work to be done in every state to write state constitutions after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Nearly every state wanted to impose Protestantism as the official theology on the people within their borders. At the same time, there were oppositional delegates who diligently labored to prevent ingraining an official religion into the articulation of those same documents.
In fact, all but two states ratified wording to exclude certain Protestants (especially Baptists), Catholics, Jews, and Turks (the dreaded Muslims or Musselmen—termsfrequently used as an epithet) from becoming full citizens, precluding them from being able to hold office. A point few people know is that these non-Protestants were forced to pay additional taxes to support the clergy and the church edifices of a religion to which they did not belong!
This regressive thinking, incidentally, was continued into the 20th century with the policies employed regarding the Naturalization process. Citizenship was only granted to “free white persons.” Middle Easterners from Syria, Palestine (most of which is now Israel and Jordan), Armenia, and Turkey were considered Black or Asian and thus non-white. These people, therefore, were denied many of the rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment (1868) regarding equal protection. Only much later, of course, would such procedural implementation change.
When it came to writing the second and final version (except for future Amendments) of the U. S. Constitution, those who adamantly opposed the creation of a religious state spared no effort in preventing this grievous and perverse institutionalization of religious bigotry from transpiring.
Despite their good intentions, the most fervent advocates of genuine and complete freedom of religion were scorned and ridiculed--their lives forever traumatized while having to deal with and defend against character assassination, falsehoods, distortions, vicious name-calling, and so forth.
Thomas Jefferson himself was a victim of such scurrilous outpourings, continuously accused of being an infidel, a Turk, a Muslim, an atheist because of his strongly stated advocacy that all Americans (not ready for slaves) be treated equally. He ardently supported the thesis that even if one does not like a religion, its believers nevertheless have a full and complete right to equality (such clear and unqualified expression made many doubt if Jefferson were even a Christian—he was, in fact, a professed Deist and later a Unitarian).
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Little did these same accusers know just how many Muslims were living in this country at the time, since before its inception, and ever since. Certainly most slaves were Muslim, and many secretly practiced their religion while still enslaved and then after manumission. Too many were forced to become Christians, however, and their succeeding generations lost the knowledge of their bona fide heritage.
I continue to be both astonished and dismayed by the lack of toleration exercised by many among today’s Black Christians toward those of other religions, particularly towards Muslims (and Jews). It is just too ironic that many from the church-going Black community have no knowledge of their Muslim roots and are guilty of attacking others who currently represent their own actual heritage.
By the way, I grimace (as Jefferson and others did) at the use of the word “toleration.” Its actual meaning implies a superiority of one group over another. The Museum of Tolerance and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Toleranceboth incorporate the word when they ought to employ a different word choice, perhaps like “acceptance.”
According to then-future President, Madison, toleration is a whim that can “be extended or withdrawn” at any time—thus the necessity for an immutable law. John Leland, a leading progressive Baptist minister during the founding days, stated “The very idea of toleration is despicable.” Thus, they believed that religious liberty (with all of its ramifications) must be imbedded in our laws and thinking as we continuously moved forward.
We must make every effort to modify our own vocabulary. The words we utilize can positively shape our way of thinking and help us to look at religious and other differences in a more open-minded way.
Another comparison to be made … During the rancorous presidential contest of 1800, Thomas Jefferson was the victim of outrageous attacks based on his belief in freedom of religious practice. John Adams and his surrogates were unrelenting in their vengefulness. Piling on to the Muslim accusations, one Adams’ supporter made the following statement (should Jefferson be elected over the incumbent Adams):
Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with blood, and the nation black with crimes.
It seems that today’s Tea Party is borrowing from that playbook to continue its rants against Barack Obama, accusing him of being a closet Muslim who was born in Africa.
As for me, as untrue as these accusations are pertaining to our President, it is about time that we allow ourselves to consider the certain eventuality that we shall live to see a myriad of changes in the Executive position: a woman, an Hispanic, a Jew, a Muslim. All these groups (and more) are currently represented at every other level—councilmembers and aldermen, mayors, state office holders, the various Supreme Courts, our federal Senators and Representatives.
When I consider the murky areas of our past, I feel nails screeching across a chalkboard. Our history demands of us to give up all the “intolerance” that so many harbor. Time waits for no one. It is a new day, after all. We have come a long way, baby, but we are not there yet!
Just sayin’.
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. Jenkins has written Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts. She also writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
