Inspired by this post
I would guess it would be present in secular but 90+% Muslim countries like Turkey, and maybe in some of the former Communist 'Stans where both Christianity and Islam will be compared negatively to Atheism.
Inspired by this post
I would guess it would be present in secular but 90+% Muslim countries like Turkey, and maybe in some of the former Communist 'Stans where both Christianity and Islam will be compared negatively to Atheism.
Why would one need such a class? Islam is both final and complete, remember
At the AUC (American University in Cairo) you can get a minor in Comparative Religions:
http://catalog.aucegypt.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=15&poid=1692&returnto=475
Despite it’s name, the vast majority of students at the AUC are Egyptian nationals who chose to go there instead of another Egyptian University.
Islam certainly has different sects, as we have heard so often about in the news - not only Sunni and Shia, but Alloite (sp?) and the one the Saudi royal family follows, and dervishes, and whatnot. I suppose there would be academic studies comparing these sects to each other, even if they thought that non-Islamic religions were not worth studying.
But seriously, it’s hard to imagine that there would be no opportunity for scholars in primarily Islamic countries and/or universities to study all world religions. Why not? Every religion thinks that it is “the one”, and they all allow for study of other religions, where “study” refers to learning about them rather than following them. I don’t think Islam is different in this respect.
Roddy
I’ll share two stories:
My father told me once that about 50 years ago he was talking to a friend in Egypt about Jesus, and his friend said, “who’s Jesus”? His friend wasn’t someone who attended University though, and he may not have even attended secondary school.
At the same time, all my relatives are Egyptian Muslims, and I can tell you that they have a (very high-level) understanding of Christianity & Judaism. About what you might learn and remember from an “intro” course. For those who do study Islam, the virgin Mary is a revered figure in Islam, and Jesus (as well as Moses) is one of the main prophets, so even by studying Islam there is some exposure to the prophets of the other monotheistic religions.
I didn’t spend a lot of time searching, but even the state Islamic University in Jakarta, Indonesia has a Comparative Religion program.