A Christian and a Muslim have joined forces to produce a new version of the Qur'an with a special addition.

"The Qur'an With References to the Bible" is an English translation of the seventh century Islamic holy book that comes with parallel verses with the Bible. Dr Safi Kaskas, a Muslim businessman, and Dr David Hungerford, a Christian orthopedic surgeon, said they hoped their work will ease tensions between the two faiths.

The pair discovered there were more than 3,000 Qur'anic verses that had similar meanings to ones in the Bible. The text is set out with Bible verses at the bottom of each page in reference to the Qur'anic verses above.

They told The Church Boys podcast they hoped the book would dispel "ignorance" and spark an "open discussion".

Hungerford said: "What our hope is is that Christians will read it and the eyes of their misunderstanding and the depth of their ignorance will be dispelled so they can now look upon Muslims as part of the Abrahamic tradition."

He added: "If you look at religion, there has never been a time in mankind where somebody who professes religion has not taken aspects of it out of context and distorted its meaning," he said. "If we look at Christianity, Christianity was used to justify the Inquisition, burning witches, slavery."

For Kaskas the project is an opportunity for people to read the Qur'an as well as see the similarities between it and the Bible.

"When I first came to the United States, if it wasn't for my American neighbors opening their hearts and their homes for me, I wouldn't have made it," Kaskas said. "I feel a debt to this country."

He continued, "I hate to see that the same Americans are feeling bad about Muslims now. I want to repair this relationship."

"The best way to do this is from our holy books," he added.