Thomas Jefferson's Koran and the National Guard

Two stories today:

The first is that Representative Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, was sworn in, using a Koran...and not just any Koran, but a Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson. This story has been repeated over and over in the media, as if to show what a rich history Islam has here in America. When you look at why Jefferson owned a Koran, however, the story gets even more interesting.

The blog Boker Tov, Boulder cites a 2005 report from National Review, which gives the history of Jefferson's Koran.

Take, for example, the 1786 meeting in London of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja, the Tripolitan ambassador to Britain. As American ambassadors to France and Britain respectively, Jefferson and Adams met with Ambassador Adja to negotiate a peace treaty and protect the United States from the threat of Barbary piracy.

These future United States presidents questioned the ambassador as to why his government was so hostile to the new American republic even though America had done nothing to provoke any such animosity. Ambassador Adja answered them, as they reported to the Continental Congress, “that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in Battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

Why did Jefferson own a Koran? It wasn't out of some drive toward tolerance or multiculturalism...it was there so Jefferson could better understand why the Barbary Muslims wanted to kill Europeans and Americans. Jefferson's conclusion? They wanted to kill Europeans and Americans because they didn't believe in Islam.

The second story: A National Guard border patrol unit was overrun by an unknown number of gunmen. The border fence still has yet to be started...or funded. If stories like these continued to be ignored by the national media, who is still more interested in pushing the liberal line on illegal immigration, our nation will be in big trouble.