Government vs Islam: Treaty of Tripoli
at 11:58 am on Tuesday, 24 August 2010
In 1797 the US Senate unanimously approved (only the third unanimous vote out of 339), a treaty with the Barbary pirate state (Treaty of Tripoli). The Treaty was signed by President John Adams and Sec. of State Timothy Pickering. It was published in the Philadelphia Gazette and in two New York papers, and never raised even a letter to the editor in protest. Our nation seems to have been pretty comfortable with it, including Article 11:
“Article 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
What do you reckon would happen if the Senate made bold to vote on such a statement today? (“senate make bold” is a joke)