I cautiously advise reading at least some about the Koran and Islam. If Americans had understood this religion a lot better we would not be in as many messes as we are in now. I suggest a person be cautious though, the Koran was inspired by demonic spirits.You should not have to read too far in the Koran to see that it is evil. Don't let Muslims teach you anything about the Koran and Islam, Muslims lie about the deceptions and evil that Islam teaches, they can be are very skillful at it but they depend on your lack of knowledge more than anything to deceive you. In studying about Islam I suggest reading authors who are pro Islam, authors who cast Islam in a negative light and authors that use an accurate Biblical base to judge the Koran by. You should give them all a fair hearing. A problem would be though if you can't find the right sources for reading you may be fooled, a lot of writings about Islam are quite devious. To get your interest going on this subject I provide a quote from the Koran here and show how it totally contradicts the Bible and Christianity.This quote from the Koran totally rejects 100% that God has a Son and that God is 3 persons in 1. The Koran says "..believe therefore in Allah and His apostles, and say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only one God; far be It from His glory that He should have a SON, whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His, and Allah is sufficient for a Protector."(The Koran,The Women, 4.171) The Bible says " Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is AntiChrist that denieth the Father and the SON." (1John 2:22) So God says Muhammed is liar & AntiChrist.If God wrote both, Koran & Bible then God would be a liar totally contradicting Himself but thank God that He didn't write the Koran and "God is not of confusion but of peace (harmony)" (1Cor.14:33) The God of the Bible & Allah of the Koran are not the same God. Allah is not God,he is a myth

". . .but that gets in the way of our zealotry and xenophobic hatred of everything outside of our little world!!"

I believe that if you are familiar with scripture, you can read any other book of religion you want to and still you're going to know what's truth. On the other hand, for someone totally new to The Word, it could pose a problem. I've read lots of this book. The thing I find most interesting about it is there are so many different versions. How could anyone put their trust into it when different versions say different things? I've seen some that say the world is held upon the backs of elephants, some that claim it's hung upon something else, some that claim the virgin birth of Christ and some that claim He never was born at all. I tried to find a version as close to original as possible but each one claims theirs is exactly that. Even with all the controversy over this book, I would suggest strong believers to read it. Just for the record, I have Muslim friends and my friends are all peacefull people. I don't think it's so much the religion but the culture they grow up in.

I have read it and parts of it are not pretty.

Well me being a Christian, I wouldn't go as far as to say you should read this book and you are a hypocrite if you rate this book without even reading it. Christians are meant to purify themselves from that kind of stuff. Read Exod 23:13 'Take heed, do not let the names of other gods be heard mentioned on your lips.' Well there is more to that commandment then that and that command actually meant that you shouldn't talk about other gods as if they were your god. But the point is that we shouldn't encourage people to dabble in this sort of stuff. But I do think it is a good idea to teach more mature Christians what the enemy is teaching. Ie we shouldn't read the Koran for interest sake and for entertainment, we should allow more mature Christians to read it so they know what Islam is all about and for the purpose of being a more effective witness to the world and so they know what the enemy is brainwashing the Muslims to believe. Even if I had read the Koran, I would still have the exact same opinion. Christians should not be compromising like that.