Ideas & Arguments

The timeline shows what happened. These essays follow the arguments: how Locke's idea of toleration reached the founders, what they did with it, and what Muslims already here wrote. Each page leads with the answer, quotes the primary text, names the scholars and where they differ, and ends with what remains open.

1. 1 · 1689

   Locke's Letter and the “Mahometan” as boundary case

   Did John Locke argue that Muslims should keep their civil rights?

   Yes. In A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), Locke says neither pagan, Mahometan, nor Jew should be excluded from the commonwealth's civil rights because of religion. His toleration had limits, and Islamic-world influence on him is contested and unproven.

2. 2 · 1765–1821

   Jefferson's Qur'an and the Virginia Statute: rights without endorsement

   What did Thomas Jefferson think about Muslims and Islam?

   Jefferson defended Muslims' civil rights as a matter of principle: in his 1821 Autobiography he said the 1786 Virginia Statute protected “the Christian and Mahometan.” He bought George Sale's Qur'an translation in 1765. Scholars disagree on how much this reflects interest in Muslims, and this site has found no document in which he endorses Islam as a faith.

3. 3 · 1788

   North Carolina, 1788: could a Muslim hold federal office?

   Did the founding generation debate whether a Muslim could be president?

   Yes. On July 30, 1788, North Carolina's ratifying convention argued over whether Article VI's ban on religious tests would admit “Mahometans” to federal office. Anti-Federalist Henry Abbot warned they might; James Iredell replied that excluding any group would undercut religious freedom. It was a contest, not a consensus, and the convention declined to ratify that summer.

4. 4 · 1731–1864

   From Timbuktu to Sapelo: Arabic scholarship under enslavement

   Could enslaved African Muslims read and write Arabic, and what did they leave behind?

   Yes. Two manuscripts show it: Omar ibn Said's 15-page Arabic autobiography of 1831, held by the Library of Congress, and Bilali Muhammad's 13-page Arabic legal text from Sapelo Island, Georgia, held by the University of Georgia. How many enslaved Muslims could write is estimated, not counted.

5. 5 · 1796–1797

   The Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11: what it says and what it does not

   What does Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli say?

   Article 11 of the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli (Senate consent June 7, 1797) says the U.S. government “is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” It stands in the ratified English text; the Arabic text has a different passage there. It is a diplomatic assurance, not a constitutional ruling.

6. 6 · 1689–1821

   Shared protections: Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and the founding lists

   Did the founding generation protect Muslims on their own, or religious minorities together?

   Mostly together. Founding-era texts name Muslims in lists: Locke beside pagans and Jews, Jefferson beside Jews, Christians, and Hindus, and North Carolina's 1788 debate beside pagans, deists, and Catholics. The protections covered several minorities by name, and the exclusions, such as Locke's of atheists and Catholics, also fell on groups.