America-Mehomitan

Juan Cole posted a solid response yesterday - nay, a refudiation - to a bit of mindless tweeting of which you have surely heard. I think I've previously posted the passage below at some point, but it's worth posting again (and it's worth reading Juan's entire post). This from the Treaty of Tripoli of 1797 signed by the John Adams administration and a Congress that was at the time, as Juan says, full of founding fathers. (International treaties, once signed and ratified by the US [usually by the Executive and two-thirds of the Legislative], are considered domestic law according to US Civil Code).

"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 tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan 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."