RELG 054. Power and Authority in Modern Islam


This course examines some of the salient issues of concern for Muslims thinkers during the modern period (defined for the purposes of this course as the colonial and post-colonial periods). Beginning with discussion of the impact of colonialism on Islamic discourses, the course moves on to address a number of recurrent themes that have characterized Muslim engagement with modernity. Readings and/or films will include religious, political, and literary works by Muslims in variety of cultural and linguistic settings. Topics to be discussed will include: nationalism and the rise of the modern nation-state, questions of religion and gender, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, developments in Islam in the United States and Canada, and case studies of reformist and revivalist movements in the modern nation-states of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Special attention will be paid to contemporary Muslim responses to feminist critiques, democracy, pluralism, religious violence, extremism, and authoritarianism.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for ISLM.
Catalog chapter: Religion  
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/religion


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