What Were The Founders Thinking? Democratic Perspective welcomes constitutional scholar and author Fergus Bordewich. To understand how we got to where we are, he says it’s important to understand the historical context of the constitutional convention and the First Congress. Bordewich says, at the time, the Articles of Confederation had completely broken down. The Constitution was designed by Federalists like James Madison who wanted a strong central government. But he says, “The Constitution is just a piece of paper. That’s all it is. It isn’t a government. It’s a set of ideas for a government. All of the machinery for government was created by Congress.”
Bordewich notes that context is particularly important to understand what the Founders intended with the 2nd Amendment. “They were debating 10 different kinds of issues all at the same time. And they were debating a militia bill,” he says. “They didn’t want a standing army. So the United States were going to be defended by militia, minutemen so to speak, who could be trained and called up – essentially forerunners of the National Guard. That meant that you needed a system. Who was going to be eligible? How were they going to be trained? How were they going to be called up? There was far more time given to discussing that than to the 2nd Amendment. There was no discussion whatsoever of this as a fundamental human right at all.”
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Juan Cole Interview – Podcast April 29, 2019
Better Understanding Islam And The Qur’an. Democratic Perspective welcomes Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan and founder of Informed Comment, to discuss his new book Muhammad, Prophet of Peace Amid The Clash Of Empires. Contrary to the belief that the scriptures of Islam promote violence, Cole explains that the Qur’an has been very badly translated. “I looked at it with the eyes of an historian,” he says. “I’m reading it in the original Arabic and I’m reading it in context with the Greek and Persian and other works of that time. Context is everything.”
According to Cole, “The clans of the Prophet who were based in Mecca were the custodians of the shrine of God. They kept the peace. The Prophet was a peacemaker. The Qur’an actually says that the God of the Christians and the Jews is the same God that they worship. And it says that righteous Jews and Christians are going to heaven.” Cole says that, though the Qur’an has verses that state “when you are attacked, defend yourselves and fight the unbelievers wherever you encounter them,” it’s not talking about Jews and Christians. It’s talking about a specific group – the militant pagans [polytheists] of Mecca who were attacking Muslims at the time.
Cole further explains, “There is nothing distinctive in the Qur’an about war. The great French student of Islam, Maxime Rodinson told my teacher…’Any religion can be interpreted any way.'” Cole says that’s true of Islam, Judaism, Christianity and other religions.
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