Harvard Divinity School Launches Online Religious Literacy Course with Professor Ali Asani

Excerpt:

Faculty of Arts and Sciences professor Ali S. Asani ’77, who will be teaching the Islam module of the course, said the lack of religious literacy is both an international and national issue.

“The whole project of democracy is threatened,” Asani said. “When you pick on a minority group and you seek to exclude it from the national discourse, you think about it as the ‘other’.”

Asani said educating people about the complexities of religions and cultures not only improves religious literacy, but also overcomes stereotypes and fosters trust among citizens despite their religious differences.

“We’re seeing growing polarizations in the world, due to all kinds of difference, but particularly religious difference,” Asani said.

Religious illiteracy in the United States has specifically contributed to feelings of anti-Muslim prejudice, Asani said.

“They very often focus on the Quran, and they call the Quran a text of terrorism,” Asani said. “That’s because they’re uneducated about really how scriptures work, how religions traditions work, and how people interpret scriptures in many different ways.”

Source: The Harvard Crimson

Earlier:

Harvard EdX Online Course: “Islam Through Its Scriptures” with Professor Ali Asani