The U.S. treaty with Tripoli 1796

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

It is used but most fundies claim it isn't true.

That is because they are stuffwits or bare faced liars. The treaty of Tripoli is on public record and available to anyone who cares to look. It was ratified by the US senate on June 17 1797 and signed into law by president John Adams June 10 1797.


Article 11 is unambiguous. The arguments against it are spurious and disingenuous (to be polite) in my opinion..

Article 11 has been a point of contention in disputes on the doctrine of separation of church and state as it applies to the founding principles of the United States. Some religious spokesmen such as David Barton claim variously that — despite unanimous ratification by the U.S. Senate in English — the text which appears as Article 11 in the English translation does not appear in the Arabic text of the treaty,[12] that though the English phrase is not an untrue statement since it is referring to the federal government, a number of the founders described America as a Christian nation,[7] or that the quotation is based on an incomplete reading of Article 11.[14]
Article 11

Article 11 reads:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli