In debates on the Ground Zero proposed mosque on Fox News and Fox Business, Malik Shabazz, head of the New Black Panther Party and a Muslim, stated that Thomas Jefferson, as part of being a member of the Shriners, studied the Koran. Now the Shriners are not an Islamic sect but a Masonic social group that uses some Islamic symbols. The Shriners were founded in 1870.  Since Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, I doubt if he got to go to many Shriner meetings. I believe he did read the Koran years earlier. But Jefferson never got to drive one of those little cars in a Shriners parade while wearing a red fez. Shabazz also mentioned in the Fox Business television debate that "Christians massacred Indians (Native Americans) in New York in the massive Trail of Tears." Now the deaths in the forced march of the Cherokee (ordered by the first Democrat president, Andrew Jackson) started in their territory in the Alabama region and went to Oklahoma, then known as Indian...(Read Full Post)