Moses Mendelssohn Quotes
Let every man who does not disturb the public welfare, who obeys the law, acts righteously towards you and his fellow man, be allowed to speak as he thinks, to pray to God after his own fashion …, and to seek eternal salvation where he thinks he may find it.
Moses Mendelssohn, 1729-1786, German Jewish Philosopher, Jerusalem: Upon Religious Power and Judaism, 1783
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In 2005 Rose published a number of cartoons some of which depicted the Muslim Prophet, Muhammad which offended many fundamentalist Muslims who had a tradition who had a tradition of never depicting the visage of the Prophet. A delegation of clerics demanded an apology from Rose and the country of Denmark, claiming that they and Islam, like other religions, were entitled to respect.
Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
Cuomo was addressing fellow Roman Catholics, but the principle applies to all groups.
This was a remarkable public statement for its time. No other political leader of an Islamic country would dare claim that people have a right to be atheists. Very few would even suggest that people should be free to choose their own religion.
Constantine the Great. Roman Emperors saw Christians as their most dangerous foes. However, Constantine, with this edict, enabled Christianity to thrive and grow legally in the Western world. Later Constantine himself converted to Christianity. This edict ceased the vicious Roman persecution that Christians had endured.
Incredibly enough the same statement was issued as a Cabinet order by Frederick The Great {602503} in June 22 of the same year. It was unlikely that Frederick followed American politics so closely that he would have learned of Franklin’s statement, but Franklin was attuned to all the events of Europe, and this official act of the Emperor was big new for religious toleration enthusiasts. Therefore we suspect that Franklin was quoting Frederick without attribution.
This is a very Jeffersonian type statement.
Anne Hutchinson was tried by the Puritan religious and civil court for heresy. She started with Bible Study classes in her home and drew a substantial following. The clergy at the time were threatened and outraged. It was one thing for a woman to teach Bible Study to other women, but to also have men with the women was too much. The decision of the court was that she was banished from the colony. See {584753}.
Moses Mendelssohn was a German-Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the Haskalah, the 'Jewish Enlightenment' of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is indebted.
