A Christian leader in Indonesia says a Florida church’s plans to burn Qurans on 9/11 could endanger Christian minorities in predominantly Muslim countries. More →

August 31, 2010

During the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan, these two teenage boys led prayers and recited the entire Qur’an from memory. More →

October 6, 2006

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. “Fasting, for me, is a constant prayer that you’re engaged in throughout the day. For 12 hours or more, you’re praying,” says Zuleqa Husain, a young American Muslim. More →

October 14, 2005

Due to the Qur’an’s ban on all forms of idolatry, Islamic artists have specialized in beautiful writing, intricate designs, and rich materials and colors. More →

November 5, 2004

Read more of Bob Abernethy’s interview with Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and the author most recently of THE HEART OF ISLAM: ENDURING VALUES FOR HUMANITY and ISLAM: RELIGION, HISTORY, AND CIVILIZATION. More →

February 7, 2003

Ever since September 11, Americans have been trying to understand Islam. Is there something about the religion itself that drove the terrorists? Or had a small, violent minority that despised the modern West hijacked Islam to justify its politics? More →

December 20, 2002

Read a special Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly interview with scholar and author Karen Armstrong. She has written many books on religion, including THE BATTLE FOR GOD and ISLAM: A SHORT HISTORY. More →

September 13, 2002

Read some of the responses UNC freshmen wrote on their required reading assignment this summer, APPROACHING THE QUR’AN: THE EARLY REVELATIONS by Michael Sells. The book is a collection of translations and commentaries on the short chapters or suras of the Qur’an. It includes a compact disc recording of reciters chanting some of the suras. More →

August 23, 2002

Every year the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assigns a summer reading book for its incoming freshmen. This year that book was called APPROACHING THE QUR’AN: THE EARLY REVELATIONS, and it’s generated a lot of controversy both within the state and outside of it. More →

August 23, 2002

In the aftermath of 9/11, as many Americans tried to learn more about Islam, much was said about “madrasahs.” They are the Islamic schools, some of which, in Pakistan, taught young men not just the Qur’an but terrorism. Madrasahs, it turns out, have a long and distinguished history in the Islamic world and may hold the key to whether Muslim scholars can once again welcome the ideas of others. More →

June 21, 2002