Wonderful.. wide smiles and gratitude for having been part of that journey! Your reflections are so full of wit and sharp insights. I just love how you take on the islamophobia within yourself. At a larger level, it's about all those stories inside ourselves we have been telling about the other... Thank you for being such a light worker :) As for the Qur'an, I would like to add a few points: If read - particularly in translation - it's likely to be an odd experience. There are several points that can add to our understanding of this book: a) according to Muslim tradition, it was revealed to Muhammad piecemeal at different stages of his life; also addressing certain political and private challenges he had to face as he was shaping an early Muslim community of devote and surrendered spiritual practitioners who faced a lot of hostility from the tribal Arab establishment. Many of the more "tough" verses have to be understood in this context - b) the Qur'an has a long history of interpretation - Sufis speak of three or even seven levels of interpretation. Man nowadays has largely lost his ability to think and understand in symbols - seeing the deeper reality that words are pointing to (e.g. killing the unbelievers = fighting the egoic tendencies that sabotage our faith and trust in the divine). Sufis - who have made up the mainstream of Islam for many centuries - have taken a slow approach to knowing the Qur'an.. meditating on words, not making too quick judgements. But in modern times many Muslims tend to read their holy book like the manual of a vacuum cleaner: linear and with a simplistic grasp of cause and effect. - c) traditionally, the Qur'an is meant to be recited and listened to, very similar to the Vedas or Buddhis mantras. Its original Arabic is highly poetic, mathematic and contains sounds and syllables that produce an effect on the human body and mind (similar to Sanskrit). Thus it has a transformative effect on the listener that goes beyond the meaning of the words which the mind could grasp.