Islam and the Idea of America explores how Islamic thought helped shape the moral and intellectual foundations of the modern West — from Jefferson’s Qur’an to Emerson’s Sufi writings, from Newton’s theology to Locke’s idea of tolerance. This project challenges the tired “clash of civilizations” story that insists the West and Islam stand worlds apart. In truth, modernity was never born in isolation. It emerged through centuries of exchange — through translation, curiosity, and a shared pursuit of divine truth and human dignity.

Here, I trace those hidden connections: how ideas once carried across deserts and seas found new life in the American experiment, and how the moral imagination of Islam helped inspire a vision of liberty, reason, and unity that still defines the best of the Western tradition.