The Center for Spiritual Life hosted religious studies Professor Jeff Kenney on Tuesday night in a presentation on the role of Jesus Christ in the Islamic religion and the Islamic religious text, the Qur'an.
Kenney said he tries to remain a neutral party and present the facts from an academic perspective, avoiding the bias that sometimes accompanies the description of religions.
"I enjoyed that it was from the academic perspective and seeing how he related the different religions together and showing how there is an influence from different religions [in Islam]," said first -year Allison Schultz.
Kenney's presentation consisted of a PowerPoint with direct quotes taken from the Qur'an, with information about Jesus. He then explained the historical background of the incidents in the Qur'an and related them to the same incidents in other religious texts such as the Hebrew Torah and Christian Bible.
"I think it was smart by taking the quotes [from the Qur'an]... and then showing the context behind the quotes," Schultz said.
Students and visitors of many faiths came to the presentation to learn more about the role Jesus has in Islam. The Muslim Student Association was also a co-sponsor for the event.
Kenney stressed that many people do not realize that there are many similarities between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He stated that, in fact, these religions stem from the same stories from God. However, the religions then take different directions.
"The thing that intrigued me most when I first started to study [Islam] was the fact that it is both very familiar in ways but yet also different," Kenney said. "If you read the Qur'an you're going to come across so much that should resonate, if you know your Hebrew bible or New Testament...It's not as foreign as one might think."
The main difference between Christians' and Muslims' view of Jesus is that Christians believe Jesus was the son of God while Muslims believe Jesus was just a prophet like Muhammad. This was new information to some of the 20 attendees, including first year Kainat Akmal.
"I went to a Catholic high school, and when I was in class, I didn't know the similarities between Jesus and Islam," Akmal said.
Akmal, the Muslim representative for the Interfaith Intern program, plans to have Keeney speak at an upcoming literacy event she is working on.
"I wanted to learn more about this because I asked myself so many questions in Catholic school," Akmal said. "I wanted to learn about other religions