Christianity and Islam...I think?

Tonight, I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by Charles Amjad-Ali, a professor at Luther Seminary. Before deciding which lecture I wanted to attend for this course, I read the description of this lecture and found the topic of the interconnectedness of Islam and Christianity to be an interesting topic. All I can say is that this lecture was not all that I expected it to be.
After arriving over twenty minutes, Amjad-Ali was given a dry introduction by a man who simply listed off his credentials like it was the only thing he had to do that night. Then Amjad-Ali proceeded to rush through his main points with such speed that he never came up for air. Not only were his points too broad and about information that I had no background too, but he also spoke with an accent that made it almost impossible to understand anything when he spoke at such a fast rate. He ended his lecture after forty minutes and upon which he opened the floor for questioning. The only question I had for him was what just happened in the last forty minutes.
Although most of the lecture was hard to understand, one point I did learn from Amjad-Ali was that the seperation of church and state never meant the seperation of religion and politics. This statement struck me because I feel that it can be directly related to the unintentional inclusion of religion within the school system. Looking back at my schooling, church and religion was always discussed because we were such a close knit community. My friends from church were generally my friends at school because we recognized that similarity between us. As we grew older, the inclusion of religion only deepened as we were introduce to the political system and began developing our own identities as citizens. Another example of religion and politics can be seen in the tension surrounding this election. Not only are certain religions often associated with certain parties, but for the first time, race and politics collided. When I look at our political system and many of the issues included, I believe that it doesnt have to be about religion because many of the issues need to be solved in ways that respect the rights of all individuals.