Rezai Syllabus Muslims in Europe (original) (raw)
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Does Islam hinder democracy? This question has become especially pressing in the wake of the Third Wave of democratization, the September 11 attacks, the Arab Spring, and the mix of recent elections and political instability in the African Sahel. This course gives students the opportunity to evaluate the growing body of research on Islam's (in)compatibility with democracy. They will learn how to design independent research projects on Islam in politics, critically appraise leading scholarship on the issue, and develop country-specific knowledge of cases central to this debate. More broadly, students will assess the roles that Islam plays in the domestic politics, social policy, and international relations of both Muslim-majority and Muslimminority countries.
Rezai Syllabus Contentious Politics
COURSE DESCRIPTION Why, how, and when do people protest? Why do some collective protests last just one or a couple of days while others continue for months or even years? Why do some episodes of contention turn into social movements or even into tragic civil war (Syria), while others disappear? Why and how do some protest events transform into radical revolutionary movements with the aim to topple the existing political order in their respective countries? Why are there social movements, but no revolutions, in functioning democracies? These are among the questions we will be exploring, studying, and discussing comparatively this semester. We will examine different forms of coordinated collective actions of students, women, youth, ethnic minorities, and poor people in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa to see whether there are common causes for the emergence of these movements across time and locations. Furthermore, we will unearth the ideological, demographic, economic and cultural origins of these movements and the tactics and strategies employed by the actors involved to understand why some powerful movement succeed while other fail.
Islam in the United States RLGS 2108 – Spring 2017
Office: Sturm Hall 272 ~ Phone: 303.871.3503 ~ Email: andrea.stanton@du.edu Sturm Hall – W/F 10:00-11:50am Office Hours: Thurs 10:30-11:30am and 1:15-2:15pm This course offers students a historical introduction to the presence of Islam and Muslims in the United States. Starting with an overview of the early history and basic theology of Islam, it traces the experiences of the first Muslims in North America, Africans enslaved and transported across the Atlantic Ocean. It turns to consider the role played by Islam and Muslims in early American political thought, including 18 th century debates on whether a Muslim could be elected President and how (and why) Thomas Jefferson might have used his copy of the Qur'an. Advancing to the 19 th century, it considers the relatively minimal role played by Arab Muslims and the much more substantive influence of the minority Indian evangelical Ahmadiyya movement. It continues tracing the history of Islam in African-American communities, focusing on the formation of the Nation of Islam but also considering the Moorish Temple movement and the Five Percenters. Moving into the 20 th century, this class considers the increasing role of immigrant Muslims, first from Ottoman lands and then, after 1960s immigration reform, from other parts of the Muslim world. It ends by examining contemporary Muslim communities in the US and how ritual and faith are today developing with " American " accents. By completing the reading and writing assignments, and listening and participating during class sessions, students will achieve the following goals: • Understand the basic principles and early history of Islam • Understand Islam's long and multi-faceted history in colonial North America • Connect this history to the minority and evangelical Islamic movements of the late 19 th through mid 20 th centuries • Understand the continuities and discontinuities between these histories and today's American Muslim communities • Develop an understanding of American Muslim communities' diverse approaches to Islam, majoritarian and minoritarian • Understand and be able to discuss some of the critical issues that American Muslim communities face today, in Denver and/or students' home towns as well as nationally • Think critically about how the United States as a cultural and political space influences understandings of what 'being Muslim' entails in terms of language, ritual practice, etc. By completing the reading and writing assignments, and listening and participating during class sessions, students will improve in the following skill areas: • Develop skills for critically reading and assessing scholarly works across multiple disciplines • Develop an understanding of the diverse opinions within scholarship on Islam in the United States
Islamic Empires (undergraduate course, History / Religious Studies, Spring 2019)
2019
This course offers students a historical introduction to the major empires of the Muslim world. Starting with an overview of the major empires of the late antique Mediterranean (Roman and Sasanid Persian), it provides students with a primer on the rise and major principles of Islam, turning to the Umayyad and Abbasid empires and their roles in supporting the institutionalization and sectarian developments of classical and early-medieval era Islam. Students then review the history of the Fatimid, Buyid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk empires, in the context of the Crusades. They examine the emergence of the great Andalusi and North African empires, noting their long-lasting influence on Spain. The course culminates in a multi-week study of the three major early modern and modern-era empires: the Ottoman, Mughal, and Safavid. Throughout the course, students examine primary sources from each empire, and consider the political, social, religious, and economic aspects of each. The course concludes with a look at contemporary attempts to remember or revive the notion of " Islamic empire " , connecting past to present. By completing the reading and writing assignments, and listening and participating during class sessions, students will achieve the following goals: • Understand the imperial context of the late antique Mediterranean • Understand the basic principles of Islam and its early history • Understand the basic achievements and historical trajectory of the Umayyad and Abbasid empires, including their influence on the rise and institutionalization of Islam • Understand the basic achievements and historical trajectory of the Crusader-era Fatimid and Ayyubid empires • Understand the basic achievements and historical trajectory of the Andalusian empires, including their influence on the history of Spain and North Africa • Understand the basic achievements and historical trajectory of the Ottoman, Mughal, and Safavid empires, including their influence on the history of the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia
On conceptualising Islamophobia, anti-Muslim sentiment and cultural racism
2008
One of the issues that has bedevilled an informed discussion of anti-Muslim discourse of late has surrounded the correct use of terminology (Richardson, 2006). Perhaps the best illustration of this can be found in the term Islamophobia which, and while―emerging as a neologism in the 1970s‖(Rana, 2007: 148), became increasingly salient during the 1980s and 1990s, and arguably received its public policy prominence with the Runneymede Trust's Commission on British Muslims and
This writing-intensive, upper-level course introduces students to the two key texts of Islam, including their origins, content, and meanings as well as the science of their interpretations. The Qur'an is the central text of Islam; its title is taken from a verb that originally meant "to recite" and later evolved to mean "to read". It contains 114 suras (chapters), arranged by length, which contain the revelations that Muhammad received from the Angel Gabriel. As a result, Muslims consider the Qur'an the direct, unmediated word of God. Like God, the Qur'an is eternal and unchanging; it entered the earth at a particular point in human time but is itself uncreated. (Scholars note that the Qur'an is in many ways equivalent for Muslims to Jesus Christ for Christians -both are considered the logos of God.) While many translations of the Qur'an have been made, its text is considered authentic and authoritative only in Arabic; translations are considered human interpretations.