Jefferson and the Koran

I know this is a little late, what with the swearing-in having happened while I was in Mexico and all, but my mom just forwarded a pithy history lesson by By Ted Sampley, U.S. Veteran Dispatch.

There is no doubt Ellison was right about Jefferson believing wisdom could be “gleaned” from the Muslim Quran. At the time Jefferson owned the book, he needed to know everything possible about Muslims because he was about to advocate war against the Islamic “Barbary” states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli.