Excerpt:
Secretary of State John Kerry is reading up, learning that Islam is "not represented by a lot of jihadists and others," but is, rather, "a beautiful religion." He said this a few days ago in Berlin:
And unfortunately, in too many parts of the world, some religions – not – and I'm not just speaking of one religion or another. You have intolerance in a number of different kinds of religions or points of view in different things. I know that Islam is not represented by a lot of jihadists and others. I know it's a beautiful religion. I've read more and more about it.
I've been reading a book recently called No god but God, which is the history of the Prophet and where he came from and how it developed as a religion. It's fascinating. If I went back to college today, I'd probably go back and be a comparative religion major and a comparative literature major, because those are the things that help you understand what makes people tick and how they're working and how they think. But the important thing is to have the tolerance to say you can have a different point of view.