In week 3 of my Religious Studies class, we read chapter 1 of Divided by Faith by Benjamin J. Kaplan and chapter 2 of Jihad and the Struggle for Islam by John Esposito. After class on Wednesday, September 10, our University was shut down and classes were cancelled as tragedy struck and a life was taken too soon.
The fact that we had been talking about religious intolerance and violence just 25 minutes earlier was surreal and heartbreaking to me. There was no assignment for this week, and no other readings were assigned until the middle of next week to give faculty, staff, and students time to grieve and process what happened on our campus, where safety had now been shattered.
References:
Esposito, J. L. (1996). Jihad and the struggle for Islam. In The religion factor. Westminster John Knox Press.
Kaplan, B. J. (2007). Divided by faith: Religious conflict and the practice of toleration in early modern Europe. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[Written for PHIL 366R class UVU Fall 2025]
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