Friday, January 05, 2007

Holy Quran!

Somethin to know:-

Congressman Takes Oath of Office on Thomas Jefferson’s Quran

Keith Ellison finds book symbolic of U.S. founding fathers’ religious tolerance

Incoming Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison became the first Muslim member of the U.S. Congress January 4, swearing his oath of office on a copy of the Quran that belonged to the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.

In an interview with USINFO, Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert said the choice of Jefferson’s Quran was significant because it “dates religious tolerance back to the time of our founding fathers.”

“Jefferson was … one of the more profound thinkers of the time, who recognized even then that there was nothing to fear, and in fact there was strength in recognizing religious tolerance,” he said.

The Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson and used by Representative Keith Ellison during his swearing-in ceremony (© AP Images)Jefferson’s 6,000-volume personal library was the largest in North America at the turn of the 19th century. He obtained his English translation of the Quran in 1765 as he was finishing his law studies at the College of William and Mary. The translation by British historian and solicitor George Sale first was published in 1734. The Quran, along with the rest of Jefferson’s books, became the basis of the Library of Congress after British troops burned the U.S. Capitol, destroying the old congressional collection in the War of 1812.


Btw, Jefferson's copy is spelled Koran.

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