Good NY Times opinion, free registration required, about the stupid fuss being made over requiring incoming freshman to read about the Koran.
Writer points out his daughter had required English reading on sections of the Bible this summer.

"A monolithic framework does not create a critical mind," remarked the religious philosopher David Hartman. "Where there is only one self-evident truth, nothing ever gets challenged and no sparks of creativity ever get generated. The strength of America has always been its ability to challenge its own truths by presenting alternative possibilities. That forces you to justify your own ideas, and that competition of ideas is what creates excellence."