Part I of "A Common Word"

I've made my way through Part I of the letter from Muslim scholars called "A Common Word." The topic of Part I is "Love of God," and consists of long quotes from and discussion of koranic passages that deal with the duty of loving God with total devotion, then a brief discussion of Biblical passages that echo this sentiment. They make a big deal of the following saying of Muhammad:

"The best that I have said - myself, and the prophets that came before me -
is: 'there is no god but God, He Alone, He hath no associate, His is the
sovereignty and His is the praise and He hath power over all things."

The letter then makes the following points:

1. This "blessed saying" of Muhammad is very similar to several passages from the Bible, as in the Shema' and as in Jesus's discussion with the young lawyer of the greatest commandment.

2. In both the Koran and in the Bible, this statement of ultimate love for God is restated in several ways and in several passages. The letter states:

Moreover, we also do know...that both formulas have another remarkable
parallel: the way they arise in a number of slightly differing versions and
forms in different contexts, all of which, nevertheless, emphasize the primacy
of total love and devotion to God.

Some observations:

1. They spend much more time on the Koranic passages than on the Bible. I guess this is to be expected, since they are Muslims. I began to wonder though if this whole letter is an attempt to expose as many Christians as possible to passages from the Koran that sound very "Biblical." The end result would be that many uninformed Christians will come away from reading the letter thinking that perhaps there is not all that much difference between the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Islamic tradition. I'm no Islamic scholar, but that doesn't sound right to me. I suspect Muhammad said a lot more than "Love God."

2. When they quote from the Bible, their discussion is pretty accurate. They make mention of Hebrew words and Greek words. I did not feel that they had misrepresented what Scripture says.

3. They seem to acknowledge that perhaps Muhammad got a lot of what he said from the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. What they say is this:

That is to say, in other words, that the Prophet Muhammad was perhaps,
through inspiration, restating and alluding to the Bible's First
Commandment.

Some reaction.

1. So far, I don't understand why what they are saying is significant. Is this simply an attempt to downplay the great differences between Muslims and Christians? Is it a surprise to anyone that both Christianity and Islam call on their followers to love God?

2. I'm suspicious. What is the agenda here?

3. I'm much more concerned about what they did NOT say that about what they did say. In other words, I realize there is some surface overlap between what Christianity and Islam teach, but I also know that there are huge differences.

Well, I need to go for now, but I'll keep working on this.