What's wrong with teaching or discussing the Qur'an?

[Avalonian]

Interesting article in the Washington Post today...

A Timely Subject -- and a Sore One (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52484-2002Aug6.html): UNC Draws Fire, Lawsuit for Assigning Book on Islam

Basically, the University of North Carolina is coming under heavy rhetorical fire for daring to assign students studying comparative religions to read a book about the Islamic Qur'an (or Koran). It's pretty much Christian organizations leading the charge, of course.

"Approaching the Qur'an" is "not a bad book, as far as it goes," Glover said. The real problem, he said, "is not the sin of the author, it's the sin of the university, which knows this book presents nothing controversial about Islam. . . . Anybody who has read this book and this book alone is still going to be ignorant about why people are killing other people in the name of Allah."

You mean that the University is asking students to read a book that presents Islam in a fair light, as the faithful see it, rather than as an outsider/nonbeliever sees it? *gasp* How sinful! </sarcasm>

There are a plethora of books out there that are more than happy to cast aspersions on Islam, many of which have come out since September 11. I suppose that the Christian organizations protesting this would be happier if those were required reading? What's wrong with a book that looks a little more closely at it from within?

Personally, I'm very interested to read a book that is meant, in the words of its editor and translator:

... to say, let's put that vital question aside for a moment and ask, 'What is it in the religion that makes 1.2 billion people see it as meaningful?' And present that just as you would present what it is in the Christian story of the death and resurrection of Jesus that is meaningful to Christians.

The book, by the way, is Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1883991269/qid=1028836603/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-3805504-9987866). It's just gone on my list of things to read in the near future. I think it could be a valuable book to read and learn from.

Has anyone else read it? What did you think? And what do you think of the opposition to its being taught in a University setting?

[Avalonian]

Oooops! Have a look at this thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129727), which is already discussing the same subject.

Shoulda checked. :smack:

[5-HT]

IMHO, there is nothing wrong with teaching about islam and the koran. There should, however, be an appropriate context. You want to teach about the koran in a religious class(comparative religion et al.) fine, that makes sense. Want to teach it in a literature class? great, the bible was required reading in the Great Books class I took at Michigan, so the koran certainly seems appropriate there. Want to teach it in a history class? Sounds fine to me. The approach should obviously be different in History than the other two(true of any religon), but still very appropriate. What troubles me about the UNC thing is that I'm not sure this is a good choice for a required reading that falls outside the scope of a specific course. On the other hand, given the global political climate, something like this does seem appropriate. I think the cause would have been better served by a more broad-based reading selection.

[smiling bandit]

5-HT Right on the nail.

[Lord Ashtar]

Originally said by Jennifer Daum, UNC student body president
At the very least, it starts a dialogue. My feeling is that if you're not prepared to read ideas that are not your own and that you might disagree with, you do not belong at an institution of higher learning.


I completely agree with this statement. Going to college is supposed to expand your mind. You're supposed to learn about new things which you may not have learned about at home. You don't like that? Go to community college and don't take the spot at a great university like UNC of which someone with an open mind could make better use.

[ElJeffe]

For the most part, I agree with 5-HT. I think that there is nothing wrong with teaching the Koran in a well-designed class that explored all sides of an issue. I'm betting that the opposition to the curriculum at UNC stems from concern among conservatives that the classes at UNC will provide a very arab-centric look at the Koran, and neglect to explore such things as how the Koran could lead people to violence. I don't know specifically about UNC, but given the typical liberal bias that exists in universities, it may be a valid concern. Is this class going to be objective? Or is it going to say, "Here, look at this innocuous religious text... there's no way that anything negative could be read into it, so arab hostility must be the fault of US foreign policy." If the classes teach the latter, obviously they're poor classes and shouldn't be part of the curriculum.

One thing I don't know is whether or not UNC currently requires the reading of any other religious texts (particularly the bible)? I can see a valid complaint in requiring that all students read the religious texts of one religion, but not the Bible, particularly when the Bible is arguably more important with regards to the rise of Western civilization. Can anybody answer this for me?

Jeff

[Freudian Slit]

Yeah but when you're reading the Bible in say...a literature class, do you have to understand exactly why Christians committed the Inquisition or the Crusades? Maybe the course isn't focusing on how the Koran could lead people to violence because that's not what the instructors wanted to do in this particular class. I mean, there are a variety of classes on other cultures/religions...why dictate exactly what one has to teach students?

[Fretful Porpentine]

One thing I don't know is whether or not UNC currently requires the reading of any other religious texts (particularly the bible)? I can see a valid complaint in requiring that all students read the religious texts of one religion, but not the Bible, particularly when the Bible is arguably more important with regards to the rise of Western civilization. Can anybody answer this for me?
In specific classes, yes, but not (to date) as part of the summer reading program, which involves only one book each summer. As far as I know, this is the first selection to focus on a particular religion, although it probably won't be the last. Your point about the Bible having a greater impact on Western civilization is well taken, but one of the goals of the program is to expand students' horizons and expose them to ideas they may not know much about. Most freshmen at UNC are already very familiar with Christianity but know nothing about Islam beyond what they've heard on the news; for this reason, they can probably learn more from this book than they would from a similar work about the Bible.

Then again, this isn't the Quran, it's a book about the Quran, and many of these students could benefit from learning a bit about the historical contexts and translation issues surrounding the Bible. Personally, I think a fine compromise would be assigning a summer reading list with a dozen or so works about world religions instead of a single book -- but then I am a cranky old grad student who thinks anything that forces These Kids Today to spend less time watching music videos is a good thing.