How were we to know that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Locke were really "Islamofascists" in disguise?
George Washington asked in a March 24, 1784, letter to his aide Tench Tilghman that some craftsmen be hired for him: "If they are good workmen, they may be of Assia, [sic] Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans, [Muslims] Jews, or Christian of any Sect - or they may be Atheists ..."
John Locke had already advocated civil rights for non-Christians in his Letter on Toleration: "Thus if solemn assemblies, observations of festivals, public worship be permitted to any one sort of professors [adherents], all these things ought to be permitted to the Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Arminians, Quakers, and others, with the same liberty. Nay, if we may openly speak the truth, and as becomes one man to another, neither Pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion. The Gospel commands no such thing."
(Both quotations from Juan Cole.)
For more, see Late Nite FDL: Thomas Jefferson, Islamofascist.
("Sheikh Thomas Jefferson" graphic courtesy of darkblack.)
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