In the Qur’an, tolerance of other religions is an undeniable theme: Allah instills in His followers the belief that all faiths should be respected. In 60:8, it is clearly stated that “Allah does not forbid that you be kind and just to those who did not fight against you on account of religion, nor drove you out of your homes.” In other words, you should not persecute those who practice different faiths and have not harmed or attacked you. Furthermore, elsewhere in the Qur’an, it explicitly states “there shall be no coercion in matters of faith” (2:256). There are countless more examples of phrases such as these sprinkled throughout the Qur’an, and together they have the effect of associating belief in Allah with religious tolerance. 

My calligram showcases this association by superimposing the Om symbol from Hinduism on the calligraphy of Allah. Viewed as it is oriented above, the Allah calligraphy in green is the right-way up, but when the image is rotated 90 degrees to the left, the red Om symbol is the right-way up. It is meant to represent the coexistence of the two religions as two different perspectives, and which have historically been the root of many violent conflicts. Religious tolerance, as is associated with Allah in Islam, is a necessity for coexistence in a peaceful way. The flowers/vines around these symbols in the center are supposed to indicate the peaceful harmony of these religions, because gardens are often associated with peace. The green vines represent Islam and the red flowers represent Hinduism.






Final Exam Section B: Letter to the Board of Education of the Westport Public School District

Board of Education - Westport Public Schools
110 Myrtle Avenue
Westport, CT 06880

Dear President and Members of the Board of Education,

I am writing to you to voice my support for a new mandatory class on religion in Westport’s elementary and middle schools. As it currently stands, there is no required curriculum on religion in this school district outside of that necessary to understand U.S. History. This is an incredibly self-serving, narrow way of teaching our students about the world. What’s more, if a student were to desire a more extensive education on religion, there is no class they could take in order to do so. This is a major issue with the curriculum of our school district that must be addressed as soon as possible.

Religious illiteracy is endemic in the United States today, and it has tangible adverse effects in our society. Without a proper education on religion, our children will grow up to be improperly equipped to understand others’ perspectives, motivations, and values. This lack of understanding fosters prejudice, discrimination, and hostility towards groups of people that believe in different ideas, for it is when we do not understand that we judge. These sentiments that are a direct result of religious illiteracy have been the underlying factors for many of the world’s most violent conflicts, include the Holocaust and the present-day Israel-Palestine war.

The resolution to this problem is simple: we must teach our children how to think about other cultures and religions when they are young. The more they are exposed to different value systems and beliefs, the more tolerant they will be when they grow up. This would be the goal of a mandatory class on religion: to expose our students to a variety of religious perspectives and analyses, and also to teach them what religious illiteracy is, so that when they enter the world as an adult, they can recognize it and combat it.

The importance of such an exposure to diverse ideas and beliefs cannot be understated, especially in this town. Demographically, Westport is 95% white, and more than 99% of people who are religious in Westport are either Christian or Jewish. This is to say that our community is incredibly homogeneous; opportunities for our children to experience and discover new value systems and perspectives are few and far between. A mandatory class on world religions would rectify this issue, and would help us raise open-minded, unprejudiced young adults to move our country forward.

As a graduate of the Westport Public School system myself, I can tell you how much I would have appreciated such a class. As one of the few Hindus in this town, not only was there no one who understood my religion that I could talk to, but also, I barely understood the religions of my peers.  This put an unspoken barrier between us: we never discussed our religions or values, even though such things are an integral part of our identities and personalities.

Only when I got to college did I realize that for most people, religion is not such an internal phenomenon. People from all walks of life were so knowledgeable about others’ religions, making it enjoyable to compare and debate our different values. This is something I never got to experience while living in Westport, and I am quite sure that the lack of religion in our curriculum played no small part.

I implore you to consider mandating a curriculum that places more of an emphasis on fostering religious literacy and tolerance. The consequences of raising a generation that is religiously illiterate, as we have seen in the past, are dire. You have the power to change this, and I ask that you do.

Yours sincerely,
Sirina Prasad
Staples High School Class of 2019


Final Exam Section C

I wrote a letter to the Board of Education in my hometown, the school district where I went to high school, to share my first main takeaway in Section A: that religious illiteracy is everywhere and dangerous.

I chose to write a letter as opposed to giving a speech because that is the best way to enact change within our school system, based on my previous experiences there. Furthermore, a letter can be read by anyone who wants to: parents, students, board members, teachers. It has the potential to reach many more people than a speech or presentation. I also felt that the ideas I wished to convey were better suited for a letter—as a previous student of the school system, I felt that a letter was more powerful.

My audience was the people who were in charge of deciding what I learned throughout elementary, middle, and high school—the members of the Board of Education. Only after taking this class, GenEd 1134, did I realize how poor the education on religion is in my hometown, and how my town’s Board of Education is doing its students a disservice by not including comprehensive education on religion in the curriculum. As a result, I came to Harvard unprepared and religiously illiterate. In writing this letter, it would be my hope that future generations of students who graduate from the Westport Public School district do not suffer from the same ignorance. That is why I chose the Board of Education as my audience: they are the ones who decide the curriculum and therefore have the power to enact change.

This letter conveys the message of my first takeaway from Section A because it is a call to action to rectify the problem. In my justification for asking for better religious education, I explain religious illiteracy and the adverse effects it has on our society today. This was a key point of our class; it is closely tied to the cultural studies approach to religion. Like any type of illiteracy, religious illiteracy can be addressed by changing our school systems. In other words, the idea I highlighted in section A is the warning that warrants the change I ask for in section B.