Wiesel has read the Koran, which he notes has been used by terrorists and suicide bombers as "an appeal to violence."
"But it can also have marvelous things said about humanity and morality; it depends how it is being used," he says.
Wiesel's seminal work, "Night," originally written in Yiddish and first published in Paris in 1956, is found on many required reading lists in U.S. schools.
It's the book that ended Wiesel's decade-long, self-imposed silence about the horror he left behind when he was liberated at 16 by the U.S. Army in April 1945.
Before he was freed, Wiesel responded to a questionnaire issued by the American military to every inmate asking, among other things, why he was arrested and imprisoned.
For "being a Jew" was his response, like so many others.
In "Night," he describes his youthful disgust with humanity.
"Here there are no fathers, no brothers, no friends," a prisoner supervising others in exchange for survival tells the teenage Wiesel. "Everyone lives and dies for himself alone."
And yet, in the end, Wiesel says he believes in human redemption, to be explained in the next of his more than 50 books. He won't reveal more details of the novel, titled "Redemption"; he never does, till it's done.
On most days, he writes for four hours, starting at about 5 a.m., when he rises after only four hours of sleep.
His goal "for the last 20 years of my life" has been to fight racism and hatred by organizing global gatherings with high-power participants.
Obama's inauguration was "one of the most joyous days of my life, because my people, the American people, showed they could overcome a disease — hatred because of color."
The two have shared private lunches at the White House, says Wiesel, who first met Obama when the president was an undergraduate at California's Occidental College, where Wiesel gave a talk.
Wiesel didn't remember meeting Obama then, but says the president reminded him more recently of their first encounter.
Someday, Wiesel says he believes his grandchildren will "applaud the first Jewish president in America."
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Associated Press writer Randy Herschaft contributed to this report.
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Elie Wiesel Foundation: http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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