They supported broad religious tolerance that theoretically included Muslims as future citizens or residents, treating them as the outer boundary of pluralism to protect liberty for everyone (including Jews, Catholics, and nonbelievers). That is distinct from esteem for the faith itself.
Primary evidence and scholarly accounts (including Denise Spellberg’s detailed study of Jefferson’s engagement with the topic) show a consistent pattern:
Primary evidence and scholarly accounts (including Denise Spellberg’s detailed study of Jefferson’s engagement with the topic) show a consistent pattern:
- Tolerance and inclusion of Muslims as people: Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786) was deliberately framed to protect “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.” He and allies like Richard Henry Lee explicitly rejected efforts to limit it to Christians. George Washington wrote that he would welcome “Mahometans” (or workers from Asia/Africa/Europe of any faith, including atheists) at Mount Vernon if they were good workmen, and more broadly that America should receive the oppressed of all nations and religions. Benjamin Franklin supported a non-sectarian meeting house in Philadelphia open even to a missionary from the Mufti of Constantinople preaching “Mahometanism.” John Adams and others owned or referenced Qurans as part of broad reading. The 1796–1797 Treaty of Tripoli (ratified under Adams) stated that the U.S. government “is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion” and has “no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen.”
