Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Juan Cole on Pat Robertson

Juan's got a long rant today, about Pat Robertson's bigoted statements about Muslims being unfit to serve in the Cabinet. Can't blame him for that; Robertson is easy to get steamed up about.

Juan says: Robertson knows nothing about the Koran or Islam.

I would submit that he's not real expert on the Bible or Christianity either. I am vehemently opposed to the idea that fundamentalists are the "real" spokesmen for any religion, or that their incessent scripture-quoting reflects any depth of knowledge.

However, the most important thing Juan does here is demolish the idea that Thomas Jefferson (!) would have approved of excluding anyone from office on the basis of religion. There is this very popular myth being pushed by the Religious Right, which many people who ought to know better buy into, that the Founding Fathers were committed to establishing a Christian country, which is totally wrong and dangerous.

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