Why? For trying give their incoming freshmen a college level education? In any case, the reading assignment is not mandatory. This is from the UNC Summer Reading Program page:
This year's reading is Approaching the Qur'án: The Early Revelations, translated and introduced by Michael Sells. Although the summer reading is required, if any students or their families are opposed to reading parts of the Qur'án because to do so is offensive to their own faith, they may choose not to read the book. These students should instead complete their one-page response on why they chose not to read the book.My take is that the students are intellectually lazy -- to lazy to read the book and too lazy to write an essay.
As for the book itself, here's an excerpted description:
Approaching the Qur'án: The Early Revelations, translated and introduced by Michael Sells, consists of thirty-five suras, or short passages from the chief holy book of Islam, that largely focus on the experience of the divine in the natural world and the principle of moral accountability in human life. Easily accessible to any college-level reader, these suras are poetic and intensely evocative, beautiful meditations, comparable in many ways to the Psalms of David and other classics of world literature. This book includes a CD with recitations in Arabic from the reading.Easy reading and informative: sounds to me like it would be pretty much apropos for freshman level humanities. In fact, it sounds downright interesting; I may try to find a copy for myself.Michael Sells, the editor and translator of Approaching the Qur'án, is a distinguished professor of religion at Haverford College. A widely published author and highly regarded expert on Islamic literature, Sells provides clear translations of the original Arabic, brief commentaries on each sura, and a concise introduction to the Qur'án's literary and historical context. Relying on this material, students and discussion leaders from all backgrounds will need no additional preparation for discussing this edition.
Amazon often does deals where you can get too similar items at a discounted price. Maybe they have "Approaching Mein Kampf" as a twofer with this book. Knock yourself out.
But more to the point, you are woefully uninformed. "Approaching the Qur'án: The Early Revelations, translated and introduced by Michael Sells, consists of thirty-five suras, or short passages from the chief holy book of Islam, . . ." What the UNC pointy heads are NOT telling you is that these are NOT the suras that teach Muslims that Christians are their enemies and that you should beat your wife if she needs it. This is the equivolent of being forced to read a book titled "Approaching the Bible: the Book of Revelations" by Jerry Falwell and being told that this will help you to understand Christians. It's complete and utter BS and a blatant attempt to brainwash students!!!