John Locke is a major inspirational philosopher in American history. He influenced the very American Revolution that created the United States. He influenced the authors of the constitution. He is regarded as one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers. His role in American history and thought is so so pivotal that he is perhaps the single most influential thinker in American history. He’s been named the “father of liberalism.”
And this very same thinker wrote explicitly that Muslims (and Jews, and all other religions) should be given full civil rights and the ability to build their own houses of worship. Let’s quote directly from his First Letter on Tolerance for proof and context. Note: The backdrop to Locke’s letter is the French revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, leading to many French protestants fleeing to Holland. Thus he speaks about the plurality of Christian denominations as well as other religions being tolerated in one country.
He raises a concern in another page about Muslims potentially being loyal to a foreign state, such as the Ottoman Empire. He answers that a Muslim living in a Christian-majority country (like England) would readily renounce his allegiance to the foreign government while in England and acknowledge the local authorities. Such a person is entitled to full civil rights.
John Locke’s writings contrasted the well-known tolerance of the Ottoman Empire for other faiths spanning centuries with the intolerance of his own society (like England and France). He supported the rights of Muslims and various persecuted Christian denominations to become citizens with full civil rights before this was even a topic of conversation. Jonathan Edwards saw so much similarity between John Locke and Islamic thought that he accused him of copying from the “Mahometan Bible,” “having the faith of a Turk,” and “confounding Turkey with Christendom” (Socinianism Unmask’d, 1696, p.54). Locke saw that there was no reason that Muslims living in Christian countries like England would not be as “politically submissive” and “law-abiding” as Christians were in the Ottoman Empire where they enjoyed religious toleration.
Arguably, the very concept of religious tolerance in the West originates in Islamic thought via the Ottoman Empire’s example. After all, John Locke was accused of taking from the Qur’an and Turks for promoting it.
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