September 28, 2004
Islam Course to be Offered Again

The Wilmette Institute's very popular and successful course "Islam for Deepening and Dialogue" is being offered again, October 15, 2004 through January 15, 2005. The fourth time the course has been available, it is now the most offered course of the Institute.

The need for the course is greater than ever. Shoghi Effendi stressed that American Baha'is needed to know Islam not only to understand the roots of their own Faith, but to be able to defend the validity of the revelation of Muhammad. The latter effort is more important than ever, as forces of fanaticism threaten to hijack Islam or at least its image in the west. The call of the Universal House of Justice for Baha'is to engage in discussion with Muslims also underlines the need for Baha'is to learn more about Muhammad, the Qur'an, and the ongoing tradition that has interpreted both the prophet and His teachings in diverse ways.

Students will need to purchase two books for the course, Mary Pat Fisher's Living Religions and James Feiser John Powers' Scriptures of the World Religions. Both are available via Amazon.com. Other course materials are available at the course's password-protected website.