Even Benjamin Franklin equated apostasy to Islam with following the Devil

Evidence

Even the sober Benjamin Franklin made this association among the maxims penned for Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1741: Turn Turk Tim , and renounce thy Faith in Words as well as Actions: Is it worse to follow Mahomet than the Devil? — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 165

Categorization

• CANDY: A surprising, tweetable fact: even Ben Franklin’s almanack ran the ‘Mohamet is the Devil’ equation.
• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone interested in Franklin or early American orientalism — the sober Enlightenment figure subscribing to the ‘false prophet’ slander.
• XREF: connects to: Americans recurrently embrace religiously framed conspiracy panics about children and the Devil — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 236