Syllabus
Class Meetings:
218
Instructors:
Professor Charles Kurzman.
Telephone: 962-1241. E-mail: kurzman@unc.edu. Office hours: 227
Teaching assistant: Ijlal Naqvi. E-mail: naqvi@email.unc.edu. Office hours: 254 Hamilton Hall, Monday, 1:00-2:00 p.m., and Wednesday, 3:00-4:00 p.m.; or by appointment.
Graduate research consultant:
Course Goals:
This course is intended to achieve several goals:
1) Inculcate a respectful and critical approach
towards your own and other belief systems.
2) Introduce you to the importance, diversity,
and recent transformations of the Islamic world.
3) Introduce you to a variety of sociological
fields, such as the sociology of religion, international development, the
sociology of gender, and political sociology.
4) Develop research skills, including interviews,
surveys, web research, and applied research.
The course is not intended to:
1) Evangelize for or against any religion.
2) Suggest that one religion or religious
culture is better or worse than any other.
3) Evaluate the Islamic world against divine
standards. For a sociology of Islam that
does attempt to do this, you may wish to examine Ali Shari`ati,
On
the Sociology of Islam, translated by Hamid Algar
(Berkeley, California: Mizan Press, 1979);
or other works by
Course Requirements:
To achieve these goals, the class is composed of the following requirements:
1) Attendance. Not only your body must be
present, but also your mind; not only are you expected to participate in
class discussions, but your participation is expected to be based on an
active (not passive) engagement with the course assignments. Grading: You
are expected to attend 28 of the semester’s
29 classes, and will receive 1 points each, for a total of 28 points in
your final grade (out of a total of 100 points). If you are facing an emergency
and cannot attend class, please contact me by telephone or e-mail before
class, explain the situation, and tell me when you expect to be able to
make up the work. Excused absences are the instructor's
judgment call. Students are responsible for material covered in their absence.
2)
Carl Ernst, Following
Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (
Additional readings are available on
the course website (http://www.unc.edu/~kurzman/Soc119.htm).
You will need a password from the instructor to access these materials.
For each reading assignment, please answer the reading question in a paragraph
or two (giving page references for all quotations and paraphrases). These
notes will encourage you to read actively, rather than passively, and will
help to prepare you for class discussion. Your answers should be turned
in one hour or more prior to class by e-mail (in the body of the message,
not an attachment) to naqvi@email.unc.edu
(include yourself as a "cc" recipient to make sure that the message went
through). Each reading question will receive one point if completed competently,
for a total of 33 points during the semester. Partial and late submissions
will receive partial credit.
3) Research. This course has been selected
by the Office of Undergraduate
Research for special recognition as a research-intensive class. As
a result, we will work together to design research projects on the subject
of Americans' understanding of Islam, and how this might be improved. The
course has a Graduate Research Consultant who will help with this. To prepare for the research, each student will take Basic CITI Course in the Protection of Human Research Subjects (Social and Behavioral Research Modules). The
research will result in a data file, worth 9 points, to be submitted
in Microsoft Excel format by e-mail attachment one hour or more before
class on March 23. In addition, students will write a research paper
approximately
2000 words in length, worth 15 points and due one hour or more before
the
final class session on April 27. This paper should be submitted in a
Microsoft Word file by e-mail attachment to the teaching assistant,
like the reading notes.
4) Final Examination. The final exam is scheduled
for Thursday,
May 4, at
5) Honor Code.
Students are required to submit their own work, not work done by
anybody else. All references to other people's work must be
acknowledged in complete bibliographic format like the format used in
the reading list on this syllabus.
Grading:
Attendance: 28 classes x 1 points/each = 28 points
Reading Question Responses: 32 readings x 1 point/each = 33 points
Research Data File: 9 points
Research Paper: 15 points
Final Exam: 15 points
Total: 100 points. Approximate grade ranges: A range, 90+. B range,
80-89, C range, 70-79, D range: 60-69, F: <60.
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Class #
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Date
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Reading #
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1
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1/12
|
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None
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None
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2
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1/17
Bad News/ Good News |
1
|
Bruce B. Lawrence, ed., Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden. London, England: Verso, 2005, pp. xi-xxiii, 23-30, 160-172. (PDF)
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What does al-Qa`ida
want?
|
| 3 |
1/19 Religion |
2 | Carl Ernst, Following Muhammad. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pages 1-69. | What do you think of the idea of Western psychological "projection" of stereotypes of Islam? |
|
4
|
1/24
Religion |
3
|
Ernst, pages 71-105.
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Why does Ernst begin
his biography of Muhammad with a description of a calligraphic "hilya"?
|
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5
|
1/26
Religion |
4
|
Ernst, pages 107-162.
|
In what ways have
Islamic ethics changed since the first years of Islam?
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6
|
1/31
Religion |
5
|
Ernst, pages 163-213.
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Is Sufism "un-Islamic"?
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7
|
2/2
Research |
6
|
Take the on-line Basic CITI Course in the Protection of Human Research Subjects (Social and Behavioral Research Modules). Print out page indicating successful completion of the course and bring it to class. |
How might we research Americans' understanding of Islam?
|
|
8
|
2/7
Political History |
7
|
Richard M. Eaton, "The Geographic Expansion of Islam," in Clarice Swisher, editor, The Spread of Islam. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 1999, pages 71-77. (PDF)
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In what directions
did Islam NOT expand initially? Speculate why not!
|
|
8
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Richard C. Martin, "Political Growth of the Islamic Empire," in Clarice Swisher, editor, The Spread of Islam. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press, 1999, pages 78-85. (PDF)
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List the major Islamic
dynasties.
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||
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9
|
2/9
Economic History |
9
|
Janet Lippman
Abu Lughod, "The World System in the Thirteenth
Century," in Michael Adas, editor, Islamic and European Expansion. Philadelphia,
|
What role did Islamic
societies play in pre-modern world trade?
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|
10
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Maxime Rodinson, Islam and Capitalism, translated by Brian Pearce. New York, New York: Pantheon Books, 1973, pages 28-45. (PDF)
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How big an obstacle
to trade was the Islamic ban on usury in the medieval period?
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||
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10
|
2/14
Colonial History |
11
|
Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East. London, United Kingdom: Routledge, 1992, pages 8-31. (PDF)
|
In what ways has
colonialism shaped the politics of the
|
|
11
|
2/16
Post-Colonial |
12
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Gregory Starrett,
Putting
Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in
|
In what ways have
post-colonial states in
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13
|
Seyyed Vali
Reza Nasr, Islamic Leviathan: Islam and
the Making of State
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|||
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12
|
2/21
Ideology: Radicalism |
14
|
Bruce B. Lawrence, Defenders
of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age.
|
What does Islamic
radicalism have in common with Christian fundamentalism?
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|
13
|
2/23
Ideology: Radicalism |
15
|
Hasan
al-Banna, "Between Yesterday and Today," http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/books/byat
|
What modern elements
can be discerned in the writings of each of these radical Islamist
leaders?
|
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16
|
Abu'l-Ala Maudoodi,
Islamic
Way of Life, Chapters 3-5, http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/books/islamic_way_of_life/index.htm
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|||
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17
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Ruhollah Khomeini,
"Last Will and Testament," Part 1, http://www.irna.com/occasion/ertehal/english/will/lmnew1.htm
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|||
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14
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2/28
Research preparation |
--
|
--
|
Based on our class
of February 2, submit 5 survey questions.
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15
|
3/2
Ideology: Liberalism |
18
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Charles Kurzman,
"Liberal Islam in its Islamic Context," in Liberal Islam.
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What are three ways
to justify liberal Islamic positions?
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19
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Abdulkarim Soroush,
"Text in Context" (1995), http://www.seraj.org/mcgill.htm.
|
Is Soroush
a relativist? Why or why not?
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||
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16
|
3/7
Religious authority |
20
|
Muhammad Qasim Zaman,
The Ulama
in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change.
|
How have the ulama
responded to threats to their institutional position?
|
|
17
|
3/9
Research preparation |
--
|
--
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Fine tune the survey questions submitted for the previous class.
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| 18 | 3/21 Research follow-up |
-- | -- | Research data file due in Microsoft Excel format. |
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19
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3/23
Civil society |
21
|
Janine A. Clark,
Islam,
Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in
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Are Islamist organizations
mobilizing the poor through welfare organizations in
|
|
22
|
Jenny B. White, Islamist
Mobilization in
|
|||
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20
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3/28
Global flows: Terrorism |
23
|
To be announced.
|
--
|
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21
|
3/30
Global flows: Oil |
24
|
Jahangir Amuzegar,
"Oil Wealth: A Very Mixed Blessing." Foreign Affairs, Volume 60,
Number 4, Spring 1982, pages 814-835. (PDF)
|
What's the downside
of massive oil wealth?
|
| 22 | 4/4 Global flows: Hajj |
-- | -- | -- |
| 23 | 4/6 Global flows: Migration |
25 | Asef Bayat, Street Politics: Poor People's Movements in Iran. New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, pages 75-89. (PDF) |
How has migration within Muslim societies caused new identities to emerge? |
| 26 | Oskar Verkaiik, Migrants and Militants: Fun and Urban Violence in Pakistan. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004, pages 1-19. (PDF) |
|||
| 27 | Victoria Bernal, Migration, "Modernity and Islam in Rural Sudan," Middle East Report, Number 211, Summer 1999, pages 26-28. (PDF) | |||
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24
|
4/11
Global flows: Migration |
28
|
Olivier Roy, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, pages 100-147. (PDF)
|
In what ways do these authors view Muslim migration to Western Europe and North America as a threat?
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| 29 | Daniel Pipes, Militant Islam Reaches America. New York, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, pages 111-125. (PDF) | |||
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25
|
4/13
Gender |
30
|
Lisa Hajjar,
"Domestic Violence and
|
How different is
the problem of domestic violence in these Islamic contexts than in other
contexts you may be familiar with?
|
|
26
|
4/18
Gender |
31
|
Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005, pages 40-78. (PDF)
|
How does Islamist activism liberate and limit women in Cairo?
|
|
27
|
4/20
Gender |
32
|
Locate and summarize
one web source that gives a Qur'anic or hadith
justification for requiring women to veil themselves (and how the source
defines "veil") and another web source that gives a Qur'anic
or hadith justification for women not
to have to veil themselves (and how the source defines "veil").
|
What are the Qur'anic
and hadith sources for requiring or not
requiring women to veil themselves?
|
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28
|
4/25
Conclusions |
33
|
Fariba
Adelkhah,
Being Modern
in
|
In what ways does
the Islamic Republic of Iran sound familiar to residents of the
|
|
29
|
4/27
Conclusions |
--
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Research week: summary
of research papers.
|
Research paper due.
|
|
--
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5/4
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--
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--
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http://www.unc.edu/~kurzman/Soc119.htm,
last updated April 11