#denise spellberg

[deathvsthemaiden]

if this isnt too late.. top 5 non-fiction books? 🌷❤️🌺

Def not too late! 🌹🌷💐💜❣️💖

1) I mention this book so much but qgxjshshs I rlly love it so! The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan, I’ve rarely had soooo much fun reading nonfiction! It’s about apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes and while I don’t particularly love or care abt some of those, I was gripped by the book the whole time + ended up feeling more respect for every plant covered when I was done cheesy as that sounds wgshwhs 😓😳🤭 also it should be noted that this book may not be as objectively thrilling as I may unintentionally be making it out to be, I’m just very into plants and if I had the brain for science and my uni offered it I think I’d have enjoyed studying botany just as much as my current major 🤔🌱

2) What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund. Don’t rlly remember the specifics of this book (other than cool graphics + that I rlly enjoyed it!) but the title is self explanatory and I remember thinking the content was illuminating 💡

3) 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes, edited by Vincent Starrett (theres a bit of fiction in this too, it’s like a series of writing by various ppl on Holmes and I thought almost all the essays were fascinating! Some wild theories in here (of extremely varied quality + believability) ranging from “Sherlock was part American!” to extremely overconfident and implausible (imo) guesses abt the identities of some of Watson’s alleged several wives. Reading this was a fun time + I liked the variety even if not every individual essay and story 🔎

4) What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing, edited by Peter Ginna. When I decided I not only wanted to eventually work in editing and publishing but that I’d be good at it I found this book, and while I’m sure it’s somewhat outdated considering the speed of tech evolution and how industries race to keep up, I remember it just confirming my desire to pursue this occupation/field even when, if not especially when, it discussed the drawbacks and challenges involved. Like 221B it’s a bunch of essays by different ppl, so you get glimpses into the life of a textbook editor vs a children’s book editor etc etc. 📚

5) Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men by Lundy Bancroft. It’s like the nonfiction equivalent of Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns for me in terms of how seen it made me feel and all the things it affirmed for me when no one and nothing else would. I honestly think everyone should read this or similar studies/literature so that like. Common misconceptions about the nature of abusers and abusive situations eventually become.... less common. I think misunderstanding these issues exacerbates them so much, you know? :/ and it’s so avoidable! Not to mention how many cycles of violence we could nip in the bud if we could sense earlier on what people’s real motivations when they act out are!! Very readable book + lays things out very clearly, there’s good reasons tumblr is/was very in awe of it, imo 📖

Honorable mentions:

I’m looking forward to the release of Crying in H Mart by , the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast! I read some excerpts and what can I say but wowza and this is going to hurt my child-of-immigrant-parents’ ❤️

I also have fond memories of reading parts of Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth in a high school mythology class with one of the nicest teachers I’ve ever had, and later seeking out the audiobook and walking around looking at autumn leaves as I listened to it (the book in both formats is a long interview basically, and it felt very cozy) so the book itself makes me very nostalgic, I only recently came across those criticisms of Campbell for labeling concepts like The Hero’s Journey universal when he really only looked at European myths? (Or smth along those lines idr exactly atm) so I wanna revisit those criticisms and this book+finally read all his other stuff too someday!

[militant-holy-knight]

I recently came across the title of an Arabic book, “We will never live as Dhimmis” (lan naish  zimieen), written by a Lebanese Christian, Amin Naji, in 1979.

A Dhimmi is a Christian or Jew living in a region overrun by Muslim conquest who was accorded a protected status in exchange of a poll tax (Jizya), and allowed to retain his or her original faith.

Lebanon is an example. It was established after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the end of World War I in 1923. Since the majority there were Christians, unlike any other Middle Eastern land, the French mandated a Christian president and commander in chief. Then, in 1975, a civil war broke out over the political privileges of Christians and the rights of Lebanese Muslims who had become the majority of the country.

In his book, Naji discusses the destruction of pre-civil war Lebanon by a coalition of Muslim militias and their Palestinian allies. He wrote of violence and annihilation. He also listed one of the tools that had been used, before the war, by Muslim “conquerors.” It is “the Arabization via distorting history, changing the national identity, and destroying culture”. This cultural jihad gets too little attention and is too little understood.

Some U.S. Muslims are applying this basic scheme here. They do not have adequate political control in the U.S. to simply impose a new Islamic culture on our society. But they are infiltrating the culture by claiming that Muslims and Islam have long been central contributors to American governance and culture.

Western audiences often hear these Muslim declarations as an appeal to the wider society and to allow Muslims to be real participants in the E Pluribus Unum experiment that is America. We would do well to remind ourselves of the old Arabic proverb about the camel’s nose under the tent.

One egregious example of this groundwork for cultural Jihad appears in the PBS program “History Detectives”. It claims, “When the first Muslims came to the land that would become the United States is unclear. Many historians claim that the earliest Muslims came from the Senegambian region of Africa in the early 14th century. It is believed they were Moors, expelled from Spain, who made their way to the Caribbean and possibly to the Gulf of Mexico.”

PBS claims that when Columbus made his journey to the United States, he carried a book written by Portuguese Muslims who had navigated their way to the New World in the 12th century.

Others—most notably a man named Istafan—claim there were Muslims who accompanied the Spanish as a guide to the New World in their early 16th century conquest of what became Arizona and New Mexico.

The make-up of the first real wave of Muslims in the United States is clear. They were African slaves of whom ten to fifteen percent were said to be Muslims. It was difficult for them to maintain their religion and many were forcibly converted to Christianity. Any effort to practice Islam, and keep the traditional clothing and names alive had to be done in secret.

Edwin’s Gaustad in his nearly encyclopedic book, “A Documentary History of Religion in America to the civil war” (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; 2nd edition (April 1993), does not mention any social, cultural, or intellectual contribution from Muslims to early America. Could the absence prove the point?

There are farcical claims that Thomas Jefferson relied on the Quran as a source of inspiration and insight regarding the writing of the American constitution. One might well find Denise Spellberg’s book Jefferson’s Quran interesting—though not insightful—on the matter. However, nowhere in Jefferson’s constitution is there any overt quotation or allusion to the Quran.

In his book, Jefferson’s War, Joseph Wheelan noted that after Jefferson created an American Navy to combat Muslim pirates in North Africa, and American forces had their first major victory under Lieutenant Andrew Sterett, there was celebration in the United States at the defeat of the Muslim pirates. President Jefferson used the navy and marines to make real progress in defeating what was commonly called “The Terror”. (Wheelan, Joseph, Jefferson’s War, Carroll and Graf Publishing, NY 2003, p. 119)

Nothing in Jefferson’s combat against the Muslim corsairs of North Africa indicates any appreciation of Muslim culture or Islamic approach to governance.

In December, 2019, the Muslim American Society (MAS)-Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) held a convention in Chicago–the largest in the nation. At the convention, guest speaker Dalia Moghahed, gave a speech titled “Muslims that Shaped America,” captured on video. She began by responding to a plaintive cry from a Muslim American mother who asked, “What can we do to help our children who face constant verbal attacks, name-calling, insults and micro aggressions at their schools against their identity; only because they are Muslims?’”

Ms. Mogahed said that Muslims need to be given the intellectual tools to confront “the flawed and crooked framework that make up the ideas of Islamophobia.” They are to teach that “their roots as Muslims in this country run deep” and “This is their country, and no one has the right to tell them otherwise” and “no one should be waiting for a welcome to their own house.” Ms. Mogahed also said, “So if someone has a problem with our children being here, then they can go back to where they came from … This is not mere rhetoric, but historical fact.”

She then made her case for this point of view.

She stated, “There were Muslims with Christopher Columbus when he landed in the Americas” and “It is important to note that the first country to recognize the United States as an independent nation was Morocco.” She also said, “This is just to lay a framework to challenge the myth that there is an inherent and inevitable conflict between the values of the United States and the values of Muslim societies, civilizations or communities. It is simply not supported by logic or history.” Furthermore she said, “Estimates range from 10 % to 30% of enslaved Africans brought to the United States were Muslims.”

Ms. Mogahed’s efforts are not sophisticated, but exemplify, at the popular level, the clash between Western open society and Muslim ideology today.

More eloquent and polished Islamist apologists and speakers are preparing their own versions of this Islamic claim. We cannot only worry about violent Jihad, we must recognize and confront the academic effort to lay claim to the United States as a legitimate possession of the House of Islam that is now temporarily controlled by the Kuffar (infidels).

Social and political theorist and philosopher Isaiah Berlin said in his lectures, “the German poet Heine warned the French not to underestimate the power of ideas: philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor’s study could destroy a civilization.” (“Two Concepts of Liberty,” “Four Essays on Liberty,” Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1969, p. 120)

To this thought about a professor’s power we must add “or an imam”. Distorting history by inserting Muslim memes into the nation’s historical ethos and shoving pre-Islamic society aside has worked before in Islamic history.

Now, they are applying this ideological approach as an initial blow for the Islamization of our society and to supplant our open society ideals

[kadaryanto97]

Al-Quran dan Impian Amerika Serikat Kisah Thomas Jefferson Mengkaji Islam Saat Pendirian Amerika Serikat Judul Asli : Thomas Jefferson’s Quran Penulis : Denise A. Spellberg Penerjemah : Adi Toha Penerbit : Alvabet Cetakan : I, November 2019 Halaman : 488 hal Cover : Soft Cover Original Harga Rp99.000 diskon 20% Rp79.200 Sinopsis Pada 1765, sebelas tahun menjelang Deklarasi Kemerdekaan Amerika Serikat (AS), Thomas Jefferson membeli al-Quran. Rupanya, ini menandai awal dari minatnya yang panjang terhadap Islam. Setelah itu, ia terus mencari sejumlah buku tentang bahasa, sejarah, dan perkembangan Timur Tengah. Jefferson lalu memahami Islam secara intensif meskipunhal itu dinilai menghina keimanannya, sebuah sentimenumum yang berlaku di kalanganProtestankala itu. Syahdan, sejak 1776, Jeffersontelah membayangkankaum Muslim sebagaiwarga negara masa depan bagi negeri barunya, AS. Buku ini mengungkap cerita penting yang tak banyak diketahui ihwal riwayat toleransi dan kebebasan agama di AS; sebuah drama di mana Islam memainkan peran mengejutkan. Penulis menceritakan bagaimana para pendiri Amerika Serikat tertarik pada ide-ide toleransi Islam untuk menciptakan landasanbagi pemerintahan Amerika yang tengah sengit diperdebatkan. Dalam hal ini, kaum Muslim, yang kala itu bahkan tak diketahui eksistensinya di koloni itu, menjadi batas imajinasi terjauh bagi pluralisme keagamaan Amerika. Kini, selagi kecurigaan Barat terhadap Islam terus hidupsementara jumlah warga Muslim di AS kian membesar, cerita Spellberg perihal gagasan revolusioner para pendiri AS ini sangat penting diketahui. Di tengah menguatnya keyakinan ihwal benturan peradaban antara Islam dan Barat, buku ini menjadi bacaan yang tepat untuk merajut kembali harapan akan perdamaian dunia. #agama #islam #dakwah #ilmu #hijrah #indonesia #muslim #sunnah #lizard #alquran #motivasi #tauhid #salaf #reptiles #doa #pendidikan #muslimah #agamaislam #aqidah #cinta #ceramah #bukumurah #kebebasanberagama #ulama #iman #shalat #thomasjefferson #allah #amalan #indostar_bookstore https://www.instagram.com/p/B-w5KI8DgaW/?igshid=1swb8ag17z9mk

[bimlenugna657678-blog]

history of audiobooks : Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an by Denise A. Spellberg | History

Listen to Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an new releases history of audiobooks on your iPhone, iPad, or Android. Get any BOOK by Denise A. Spellberg History FREE during your Free Trial

Written By: Denise A. Spellberg Narrated By: Jo Anna Perrin Publisher: Tantor Media Date: November 2017 Duration: 13 hours 28 minutes

[oyiabrown]

Hugh Fitzgerald: Denise Spellberg on Jefferson’s “Marked Interest” In Islam (Part Two)

Hugh Fitzgerald: Denise Spellberg on Jefferson’s “Marked Interest” In Islam (Part Two)

Jefferson did not, despite Spellberg’s claim, demonstrate a “marked interest�� in the faith. As a 22-year-old law student in Williamsburg, Virginia, he bought a Qur’an, just as he bought many books on many subjects, ultimately leaving a library of 6,487 books. There is no evidence that Jefferson ever read his Qur’an. There are no notes he left about its contents, no marginalia written by…

[mystlnewsonline]

Why Jefferson's vision of American Islam matters today

Why Jefferson’s vision of American Islam matters today

—Jan 03, 2019  —Why Jefferson’s vision of American Islam matters today

Denise A. Spellberg, University of Texas at Austin (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Denise A. Spellberg, University of Texas at Austin (THE CONVERSATION) The new Congress includes its first two Muslim women members. One of them, Rashida Tlaib of…

[guncelpdfindir-blog]

Thomas Jefferson’ın Kur’an‘ı

Thomas Jefferson’ın Kur’an‘ı Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin üçüncü başkanı Thomas Jefferson, 1765 yılında, Bağımsızlık Bildirgesi’ni oluşturmasından 10 yıl önce Kur’an’ın İngilizce bir çevirisini satın aldı. Bu, onun İslam’a olan ilgisinin başlangıcıydı. Bu zaman süresince Jefferson, İngiliz genel hukukuna ilişkin olarak İslam hakkında kapsamlı notlar alacak ve Orta Doğu dilleri, tarihi ve seyahatleriyle ilgili pek çok kitap edinmeye devam edecekti.   Jefferson, zamanın İngiltere ve Amerika’sındaki Protestan çoğunlukla birlikte, İslam’a karşı gösterilen hor görüye sahip olmasına rağmen, onu anlamaya çalışacak, Kur’an’ı inceleyecek, 1776’da, Müslümanları ülkesinin gelecekteki vatandaşları olarak hayal edecek ve İslam’a olan bu ilgisi yüzünden siyasi rakipleri tarafından Müslüman olmakla itham edilecekti.   Denise A. Spellberg, bu kitabında Batı dünyası ile İslamiyet’in ilişkilerini, tarih boyunca İslam’a karşı gösterilen olumlu ve olumsuz tepkilerin, okyanusun diğer tarafında yeni kurulmakta olan günümüzün Amerika Birleşik Devletleri üzerinde nasıl bir etki yarattığını sorguluyor.   Thomas Jefferson’ın Kur’an’ı, Batının günümüzdeki İslam’a negatif bakışının tarihte nasıl şekillendiğini anlayabileceğiniz en iyi kitaplardan biri!

Thomas Jefferson’ın Kur’an‘ı

[djgblogger-blog]

Why Jefferson’s vision of American Islam matters today

http://bit.ly/2xO9Uz5

The place setting for the President prior to an Iftar dinner. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

After last year’s deliberate break with tradition, President Donald Trump has resumed the iftar dinner – the sundown meal during the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. An estimated 3.3 million American Muslims celebrate Ramadan.

The month of Ramadan marks the time when Prophet Muhammad is believed to have first received revelations from God and has been celebrated at the White House since 1996. It was Hillary Clinton who started the tradition as first lady. However, last year, the Trump White House did not host the traditional reception. Neither did the State Department under Secretary Rex Tillerson, even though the holiday has been commemorated there since 1999.

Despite the relatively recent nature of these formal celebrations, the fact is that Islam’s presence in North America dates to the founding of the nation, and even earlier, as my book, “Thomas Jefferson’s Qur'an: Islam and the Founders,” demonstrates.

Islam, an American religion

Muslims arrived in North America as early as the 17th century, eventually composing 15 to 30 percent of the enslaved West African population of British America. Muslims from the Middle East did not begin to immigrate to the United States as free citizens until the late 19th century. Key American Founding Fathers demonstrated a marked interest in the faith and its practitioners, most notably Thomas Jefferson.

As a 22-year-old law student in Williamsburg, Virginia, Jefferson bought a Qur’an – 11 years before drafting the Declaration of Independence.

The purchase is symbolic of a longer historical connection between American and Islamic worlds, and a more inclusive view of the nation’s early, robust view of religious pluralism.

Jefferson purchased a Qur'an much before drafting the Declaration of Independence. SSk Graphy, CC BY

Although Jefferson did not leave any notes on his immediate reaction to the Qur’an, he did criticize Islam as “stifling free enquiry” in his early political debates in Virginia, a charge he also leveled against Catholicism. He thought both religions fused religion and the state at a time he wished to separate them in his commonwealth.

Despite his criticism of Islam, Jefferson supported the rights of its adherents. Evidence exists that Jefferson had been thinking privately about Muslim inclusion in his new country since 1776. A few months after penning the Declaration of Independence, he returned to Virginia to draft legislation about religion for his native state, writing in his private notes a paraphrase of the English philosopher John Locke’s 1689 “Letter on Toleration”:

“(He) says neither Pagan nor Mahometan (Muslim) nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion.”

The precedents Jefferson copied from Locke echo strongly in his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which proclaims:

“(O)ur civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions.”

The statute, drafted in 1777, became law in 1786 and inspired the Constitution’s “no religious test” clause and the First Amendment.

Jefferson’s pluralistic vision

Was Jefferson thinking about Muslims when he drafted his famed Virginia legislation?

Indeed, we find evidence for this in the Founding Father’s 1821 autobiography, where he recorded that a final attempt to add the words “Jesus Christ” to the preamble of his legislation failed. And this failure led Jefferson to affirm that he had intended the application of the Statute to be “universal.”

By this he meant that religious liberty and political equality would not be exclusively Christian. Jefferson asserted in his autobiography that his original legislative intent had been “to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan [Muslim], the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.”

By defining Muslims as future citizens in the 18th century, in conjunction with a resident Jewish minority, Jefferson expanded his “universal” legislative scope to include every one of every faith.

Ideas about the nation’s religiously plural character were tested also in Jefferson’s presidential foreign policy with the Islamic powers of North Africa. President Jefferson welcomed the first Muslim ambassador, who hailed from Tunis, to the White House in 1805. Because it was Ramadan, the president moved the state dinner from 3:30 p.m. to be “precisely at sunset,” a recognition of the Tunisian ambassador’s religious beliefs, if not quite America’s first official celebration of Ramadan.

A White House tradition

Muslims once again provide a litmus test for the civil rights of all U.S. believers. Even though this administration resumes the traditional White House Ramadan celebration in 2018, many prominent American Muslims have publicly stated that, even if invited, they would not attend. Many American Muslim have not forgotten Trump’s many wrong assertions against them. Currently, the legality of this administration’s Muslim ban is pending before the Supreme Court.

Regardless of the stated anti-Islamic political views of this president, Ramadan still provides a moment to remember that Islam has long been practiced in America. Its adherents remain a pivotal part of its founding history. The presence of Muslims in America, as American citizens, has now been acknowledged by the Trump administration, in this year’s markedly more inclusive 2018 statement about Ramadan. The statement reads in part:

“Ramadan reminds us of the richness Muslims add to the religious tapestry of American life. In the United States, we are all blessed to live under a Constitution that fosters religious liberty and respects religious practice.”

Today, Muslims are fellow citizens, and their legal rights represent an American founding ideal still besieged by fear mongering, a practice at odds with the best of our ideals of universal religious freedoms. Despite demonstrating more public hostility toward Islam than any previous administration, the White House celebration of Ramadan this year underscores a more important, implicit historical reality: Muslims have practiced their faith here for centuries and will continue to do so.

This is an updated version of a piece first published on May 31, 2017.

Denise A. Spellberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

[my-shakir-mumtaz]

Demonizing, Repressing a Religious Minority!

      DEMONIZING AND REPRESSING A RELIGIOUS MINORITY BECAUSE IT HAS DIFFERENT MORAL VALUES THAN THE MAJORITY CAN HAVE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES. A classically American approach that protects the many religious streams running together to form the American cultural heritage rather than damming one in favor of another. As historian Denise Spellbergobserves of Thomas Jefferson’s view of Islam, “In the…

[hamnetdeui]

Humor Sang Nabi

Nabi Muhammad SAW merupakan Nabi terakhir yang Allah SWT utus untuk menyempurnakan risalahNya dari Nabi-nabi sebelumnya. Beliau mempunyai Akhlak yang agung dan mulia sehingga beliau menjadi panutan bagi siapapun baik umat islam maupun bukan. Itulah kenapa ilmuan barat yakni Michael H. Hart menempatkan beliau sebagai urutan pertama dalam daftar 100 tokoh paling berpengaruh di seluruh dunia mengalahkan Nabi Isa As (Yesus Kristus dalam agama nasrani) dan Siddharta Gautama (Buddha).

Baca juga tulisan ini : Rasulullah SAW Paling Mencintai Nabi Isa As, Ar Rahman Ar Rahim (4)

Nabi Muhammad SAW merupakan representasi nilai-nilai universal dari agama rahmatan lil’alamin ini sehingga walaupun bukan penganutnya, nilai-nilai tersebut dapat dicontoh maupun ditiru oleh siapapun. Salah satunya adalah bapak pendiri negara Amerika Serikat (The founding father of USA) yakni Thomas Jefferson. Berdasarkan informasi yang saya dapatkan dari beberapa sumber tepercaya bahwa ketika dia hendak merumuskan sebuah undang-undang kebebasan beragama, dia sangat terinspirasi oleh kandungan ayat-ayat Al-Quran salah satunya adalah Al-Baqarah ayat 256 , “Laaa ikrooha fid-diin” yang artinya tidak ada paksaan dalam menganut agama.

Baca juga tulisan ini : Dr. Zakir Naik buktikan kitab suci semua agama gagal diuji, kecuali Al-Qur'an

Well, pada tulisan saya kali ini tidak akan membahas panjang lebar mengenai hal itu, melainkan saya akan mengulik Untold story atau kisah lain dari Nabi akhir zaman ini. Saya sangat kagum kepada sosok beliau bukan hanya karena lengkapnya syariat dan ilmu-ilmu yang sudah beliau wariskan kepada kita umatnya, melainkan sisi humanisme dan selera humor beliau.

Baca juga tulisan ini : Hasan Bashri dan Tetangganya yang Nasrani, Ar Rahman Ar Rahim (3)

Diriwayatkan oleh Abu Ya’la (sanadnya hasan) bahwa Aisyah ra mengemukakan : “Aku mendatangi Nabi dengan membawa khazirah (sejenis makanan) yang telah masak. Lalu aku berkata kepada Saudah (asisten rumah tangga kalau jaman sekarang), saat Nabi berada diantara aku dan dia: ‘Makanlah!’

Baca juga tulisan ini : Binary Narrative

Namun dia enggan memakannya, maka aku berseru : ‘Makanlah, atau aku akan melumuri wajahmu dengannya!’

Saudah tetap enggan memakannya, sehingga aku benar-benar melumuri wajah dia dengan khazirah Nabi tertawa melihat kelakukan kami. Kemudian beliau meletakkan makanan tadi ke tangan Saudah seraya berseru: “Lumurilah wajahnya!’

Baca juga tulisan ini : Beginilah Nabi Mengamalkan Toleransi

Lantas Nabi tertawa untuknya-- setelah dia melakukan hal serupa terhadapku. Tanpa kami sadari Umar ra lewat, …, mengira sahabat itu hendak masuk, beliau menyuruh kami : “Bangkitlah dan cucilah wajah kalian!’

Penggalan riwayat diatas merupakan sedikit dari bukti bahwa beliau juga manusia biasa yang butuh rileksasi serta hiburan atau humor ringan supaya tidak terkesan seorang Nabi yang kaku dan serius.

Wallahu'alam

Referensi : Denise Spellberg, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders

Buku Ensiklopedi Sahabat Jilid 1 (Hal. 196 s/d 197)

[bababookstore]

Pada 1765, sebelas tahun menjelang Deklarasi Kemerdekaan Amerika Serikat (AS), Thomas Jefferson membeli al-Quran. Rupanya, ini hanya menandai awal dari minatnya yang panjang terhadap Islam. Memang, setelah itu ia terus mencari sejumlah buku tentang bahasa, sejarah, dan perkembangan Timur Tengah. Jefferson pun intensif memahami Islam meskipun hal itu dinilai menghina keimanannya, sebuah sentimen umum yang berlaku di kalangan Protestan kala itu di Inggris dan Amerika. Syah dan, sejak 1776, Jefferson telah membayangkan kaum Muslim sebagai warga Negara masa depan bagi negeri barunya, AS. Buku ini mengungkapkan cerita penting yang sedikit diketahui ihwal riwayat kebebasan agama di AS; sebuah drama di mana Islam memainkan peran mengejutkan. Denise A. Spellberg menceritakan bagaimana para Pendiri Amerika Serikat—Jefferson termasuk yang terkemuka di antaranya—tertarik pada ide-ide Pencerahan perihal toleransi Muslim untuk menciptakan landasan praktis pemerintahan Amerika yang tengah sengit diperdebatkan. Dalam hal ini, kaum Muslim, yang kala itu bahkan tak diketahui eksistensinya di koloni itu, menjadi batas imajinasi terjauh bagi pluralisme keagamaan Amerika, yang juga mencakup kaum Yahudi dan Katolik sebagai minoritas sebenarnya. Kini, selagi kecurigaan Barat terhadap Islam terus hidup dan jumlah warga Muslim di AS kian tumbuh menjadi jutaan, cerita Spellberg yang mengungkap gagasan revolusioner para Pendiri AS ini sangat penting diketahui. Di tengah menguatnya keyakinan ihwal benturan peradaban antara Islam dan Barat, buku ini menjadi bacaan yang tepat untuk merajut kembali harapan akan perdamaian dunia. ~•~ Kontroversi Al-Quran Thomas Jefferson >> Rp. 85.000 ~•~ WA / LINE : 085640654073 #novel #jualbuku #bukumurah #jualnovel #jualbukumurah #book #novelmurah #bukuanak #books #bukuislam #bukubekas #bestseller #indonesia #jualnovelmurah #bukumotivasi #bukubagus #bukuislami #bukuonline #sayajualbuku #komik #novelterjemahan #onlineshop #komikmurah #jualbukuonline

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Thomas Jefferson’s Quran: How Islam Shaped the Founders

Thomas Jefferson’s Quran - A new book argues that to understand the debate over church and state, we need to look to the Founders' views on Islam, writes R.B. Bernstein. One of the nastiest aspects of modern culture wars is the controversy raging over the place of Islam and Muslims in Western society. Too many Americans say things about Islam and Muslims that would horrify and offend them if they heard such things said about Christianity or Judaism, Christians or Jews. Unfortunately, those people won’t open Denise A. Spellberg’s Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders. This enlightening book might cause them to rethink what they’re saying. Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an examines the intersection during the nation’s founding era of two contentious themes in the culture wars—the relationship of Islam to America, and the proper relationship between church and state. The story that it tells ought to be familiar to most Americans, and is familiar to historians of the nation’s founding. And yet, by using Islam as her book’s touchstone, Spellberg brings illuminating freshness to an oft-told tale. Spellberg, associate professor of history and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, seeks to understand the role of Islam in the American struggle to protect religious liberty. She asks how Muslims and their religion fit into eighteenth-century Americans’ models of religious freedom. While conceding that many Americans in that era viewed Islam with suspicion, classifying Muslims as dangerous and unworthy of inclusion within the American experiment, she also shows that such leading figures as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington spurned exclusionary arguments, arguing that America should be open to Muslim citizens, office-holders, and even presidents. Spellberg’s point is that, contrary to those today who would dismiss Islam and Muslims as essentially and irretrievably alien to the American experiment and its religious mix, key figures in the era of the nation’s founding argued that that American church-state calculus both could and should make room for Islam and for believing Muslims. Click to Post

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Denise Spellberg Wins 2014 University Co-op Book Award

We're thrilled to hear that faculty affiliate and Difficult Dialogues professor, Denise Spellberg, has won the 2014 University Co-op Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards for her book Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders.

Dr. Spellberg is one of the original Difficult Dialogues faculty, and developed the first-year signature course, Islam in America, in 2007.

You can read an in-depth review of the book at the New Republic.

"In this original and illuminating book, Denise A. Spellberg reveals a little-known but crucial dimension of the story of American religious freedom—a drama in which Islam played a surprising role. In 1765, eleven years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur’an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America. But unlike most of them, by 1776 Jefferson could imagine Muslims as future citizens of his new country." - About the Book

Read an excerpt from the book

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On September 16th at 12pm, historian Denise Spellberg will be at GMU to discuss her book, Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders. 

Listen as she speaks with NPR.

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Hugh Fitzgerald: Denise Spellberg on Jefferson’s “Marked Interest” In Islam (Part One)

Hugh Fitzgerald: Denise Spellberg on Jefferson’s “Marked Interest” In Islam (Part One)

Whenever there is the swearing-in of a Muslim on Jefferson’s Qur’an, or whenever there is an Iftar Dinner held at the White House, Denise Spellberg uses the occasion to trot out the same article she’s been republishing for the last five years, as here or here, the one entitled “Jefferson’s Quran” or “Jefferson’s Iftar Dinner,” or “Why Jefferson’s Vision Of American Islam Matters Today.” She is…