Garry Wills: Learn about Islam before you criticize its followers

Those who oppose the followers of Islam need to “shut up until they learn something about the people they’re attacking,” Garry Wills told a UIC audience Wednesday.

He began his lecture by asking how many in the crowd at Hull-House Museum had read the Quran. Six hands went up.

“A year ago, a friend asked if I had read it,” said Wills, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian and Northwestern University emeritus professor. “I was ashamed to admit I hadn’t.”

But now he has, and he’s learned, among other things, that the Quran mentions Jesus, Noah, Moses and Solomon among the prophets.

Wills’ lecture was presented by UIC’s political science department. “In light of Paris, his talk is all the more pertinent,” said associate professor Alba Alexander, coordinator of the lecture series. ...