After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the Rev. Jamie Hamilton had to take a hard look at her view of the Islamic faith.
Hamilton, a rector of All Saints’ Parish in Peterborough, spoke on “Iqra: Reading the Quran,” during the penultimate lecture in the Amos Fortune Forum series at the Jaffrey Meetinghouse on Friday.
It does not take long into an actual study of the Islamic holy book to discover that many of its values line up with Judeo-Christian values, said Hamilton, a lesson she learned herself after beginning to read and study the Quran after 9/11.
Hamilton first recognized her lack of understanding only days after the 9/11 attacks, during a interfaith ceremony honoring the fallen, where a student stood up and read a passage from the Quran, which drew a negative reaction from a man sitting near her. The experience made Hamilton realize that she had little knowledge of the Quran or of Islam.
“I knew nothing about Islam, and I was a teacher of world religions. What was that about?” said Hamilton.
So, she sat down and wrote out a list of everything that she believed she knew of Islam – and was startled at how many negative associations and how few positive sprung into her mind.
“I was shocked at how easily these statements rolled off my pen. my condemnation was so easy,” said Hamilton. “I was a victim of malpractice by my own hand.” So, Hamilton said she began her study of the Quran, starting with reading the book itself.
And there, she said, she found mostly spiritual guidance toward an ongoing and evolving conversation with God.
It is easy to fear that which we don’t know, said Hamilton. In order to fully understand the Islamic faith, everyone should first read its book of founding principals, she said. And you may find that you have more in common than you think.