Are all religions the same?

In Lifted! (p114, emphasis added), Sam Allberry writes:

It has always struck me as a lazy way to think. It implies a certain distance being kept from each of the religions being discussed – an ignorance, even. It is hard to study the beliefs of Islam and Christianity, say, without realizing that they involve radically diff erent ways of looking at reality. What similarities they share are really only on the surface. At heart they are totally distinct. Saying all religions are the same is just like saying all Chinese people look the same: it just shows that you’ve never properly got to know any. Spend a decent amount of time with a group of people from any racial background and you won’t think they look the same for very long. The insistence that ‘they’re all the same’ may sound tolerant, but in many cases it is little more than laziness.

Holy What?

I just heard President Obama and the presenter on Radio 4's World at One refer to the "Holy" Koran. Obama also spoke of the "Holy Bible" but in what sense does he think the Koran is holy? He also spoke of Islam being revealed. Isn't he supposed to be a Christian?

Also, it turns out the University has a Professor of Islamic Studies. Perhaps it should have a Professor of Christian Studies. Or Professors of Christian Mathematics, Music, English and so on. Or perhaps the very idea of a University is a Christian vision for the integration of all knowledge, in its various branches, under the authority of Christ. Is Oxford no longer a Christian institution in which "God is my light", I wonder? Perhaps we need Christian Universities once again.

Where to put your Koran

I noticed today that the Korans in the Oak Hill library are not on the highest shelf: they were next to Stanley Fish's Is There A Text In This Class? for some reason, which for some reason seemed kinda appropriate.