12 Aug This week we are reading several passages from the Qur’an. Â

This week we are reading several passages from the Qur’an.  Additionally, Prothero discusses at length that Islam has become almost an obsession in Western culture, although there is a profound lack of understanding concerning Islam among many in the West.  For this week’s discussion, I would like you to choose a reading from The World’s Wisdom Quranic passages to discuss.  What did you learn about Islam from this reading?  Was there anything that surprised you about the reading?  Was there anything about the reading that reminded you of any of the other traditions that we have learned about this semester?Also, we began the semester with Prothero’s ‘Introduction’, in which he says that the great religions of the world are not the same, and we need to keep in mind their differences if we want to understand them correctly and work for greater interfaith relations in the world.  After learning about five of the world’s largest and most influential religions, do you think that they are more different than similar?  Or that they are more similar than different?  In other words, do you agree with Prothero or with the ‘perennial philosophers’ who claim that ultimately, the religions of the world’s are just different paths to the same goal?