President Obama, speaking at mosque, refers to Prof. Prothero’s work.
On February 3, President Obama spoke at the Islamic Society of Baltimore to recognize the contributions of Muslim Americans to their country, to speak out for religious liberty, and to condemn hateful rhetoric against Muslims.
He also made a passing reference to Prof. Stephen Prothero’s recent work on the culture wars. In a classic Obama aside, the president said, “By the way, Thomas Jefferson’s opponents tried to stir things up by suggesting he was a Muslim–so I am not the first.” After some laughter he went on, “No, it’s true, it’s true. Look it up. I’m in good company.”
The president and his speechwriters almost certainly got this factoid from an op-ed Prothero wrote for the Washington Post a few days before the speech.
“Claims that President Obama is a closet Muslim are not novel, either,” Prothero wrote in the Post. “In the nasty election of 1800, now being staged in the Broadway hit “Hamilton,” Thomas Jefferson’s Federalist opponents accused him of believing in “the alcoran.”
In a CNN op-ed published the day before the speech, Prothero again referred to this incident: “During the rough-and-tumble election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson was accused of being a secret Muslim. ‘No one knows,’ wrote the Connecticut Courant, ‘whether Mr. Jefferson believes in the heathen mythology or in the alcoran (Quran).”
The president also referred to other themes in Prothero’s new book, Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections), including the fraught history of anti-Mormonism and anti-Catholicism here.
The full text of the president’s speech is here.