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Naga Tuma
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Joined: 24 Apr 2007, 00:27

Re: Islam influenced Thomas Jefferson

Post by Naga Tuma » 15 Jul 2025, 04:59

Thomas Jefferson was a student of the first Renaissance.

Many years ago, by a mere chance, I saw and read a copy of a short letter that he authored, which was published in a textbook for Humanities course.

Just like he read the Quran of his own volition, his letter shows that he sought a discussion with Africans, who arrived in America in chains, in order to make his own judgment whether to make them part of the polity in the new republic.

His judgment was negative and he became perhaps one of the most discriminants of the founders, if not the most.

Reading the letter, I connected with his effort to make them part of the polity but judged his judgment.

A while back, I attempted a satire about it: A letter from Thomas Jefferson to the American Republic, its Polity, its British Crudes, and their Clowns

I suspect that America’s racists of this time were determined to maintain Thomas Jefferson’s judgment about the Africans who arrived in America in chains despite so much exposure to the rest of the world in recent times.

I also suspect that if Thomas Jefferson rose from his grave and understood that the pursuit of happiness that he borrowed from Ancient Greece’s civilization was in fact borrowed from elsewhere, he would repent at a moment’s notice to say his judgment was wrong.

That said, he read different things from here and there or met other people doesn’t mean he accepted all that he read or all that he met.

Here is the ሀ ሁ of the constitution of the U.S. that the students of the first Renaissance wrote.

Part of Article 1, Section 8: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts ...”

First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

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