ISLAM IN GLOBAL POLITICS
Instructor: Juan Cole
Office Hours: Tuesday 3-4, 1029 F, Tisch Hall
Tel. 734 764 6350
Course Description:
Islam in Global Politics
will examine the world-wide salience of the Islamic religion in contemporary
world politics. The course will give the students a grounding in Islam and
Islamic movements, and will examine the impact of Islam on politics in select
countries with major Muslim populations. It will cover both mainstream
political Islam and Islamic radicalism. It will also, however, consider the
policies toward Islam and Muslims adopted by major international players,
including Russia and Japan. The course will require carrying out weekly
readings, attendance at lectures and participation in class discussions, and
the taking of a midterm and a final.
Readings
Kepel book at Shaman Drum Book Store. Coursepack will be available later in January at Dollar Bill..
Syllabus:
Unit I: HISTORICAL SURVEY
January 5
Orientation: The Scope of the Islamic World
January 12
Islamist Politics in the Twentieth Century: The Muslim Brotherhood and
Khomeini
Guest Speaker: Mansoor
Moaddel (Eastern Michigan University)
Kepel,
27-32, 106-135
January 19 The Jihadi Movements and al-Qaeda
Guest Speaker: Scott Atran
(Depts. of Anthropology and Psychology, School of Natural Resources &
Environment, and Research Center for Group
Dynamics, University of Michigan; and Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, Paris)
Readings:
· Kepel, 61-80, 299-322
· “Tuning Out Hell’s Harpists: A Last Great Hope for the Middle East?” (Atran)
· “Mishandling Suicide Terrorism” (Atran)
Unit 2: ISLAM AND POLITICS IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
January 26 Pakistan
Guest Speaker: David Gilmartin (Dept. of History, North Carolina State University)
Kepel, 81-105
February 2 Middle East – Iraq
Speaker: Juan Cole
Readings:
· “The United States and Shi‘ite Religious Factions in Post-Ba‘thist Iraq” (Cole)
· “The Iraqi Shiites: On the history of America’s would-be allies” (Cole)
· “The Three-State Solution” (Cole)
February 9 West Africa
Guest Speaker: Mamadou Diouf (Dept. of History, University of Michigan)
Readings:
· “Pilgrimage and Exile, Transcendence and Prosperity”
· “The Senegalese Murid Trade Diaspora and the Making of a Vernacular Cosmopolitan” (Diouf, translated by Steven Rendall)
February 16 Europe
Guest Speaker: Berta Álvarez-Miranda Navarro (Dept. of Sociology, Complutense University, Madrid)
Readings:
· “Why Islam is like Spanish: Cultural Incorporation in Europe and the United States" (Zolberg and Woon)
· “Race, Culture and Society: The French Experience with Muslims” (Wievorka)
Kepel, pp. 185-202
February 23 MIDTERM
March
9 Russia, Chechnya, and the Caucasus
Guest Speaker: Georgi Derluguian (Dept. of Sociology, Northwestern
University)
Readings :
· “Che Guevaras in Turbans” (Derluguian)
· “Another ‘Just’ War” (Derluguian)
March 16 Middle East – The Arabian Peninsula
Guest Speaker: Flagg Miller
March 23 Japan and the Muslim World
Guest Speaker: Kazuhiro
Arai (Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
Readings:
· Japan’s Cautious New Activism in the Middle East: A Qualitative Change or More of the Same?” (Rynhold)
· “Tribulations in the Middle East: The War of Jenkins’ Ear, Iraq, and Japan’s Foreign Policy” (Yamauchi)
March
30 Central Asia
Guest Speaker: Adeeb Khalid (Dept. of History, Carleton College)
Readings :
· “A Secular Islam: Nation, State, and Religion in Uzbekistan” (Khalid)
· “Muhammadjan Hindustani (1892-1989) and the Beginning of the “Great Schism” among the Muslims of Uzbekistan” (Babadjanov and Kamilov)
April 6 Indonesia / Southeast Asia
Guest Speaker: Lawrence Pintak (Marsh Lecturer in Journalism, Communications Program, Gerald Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan)
Readings:
· “The Varieties of Islam in Southeast Asia” (Rabasa, Chapter 1)
· “Indonesia: the Jihad Project” (Rabasa, Chapter 2)
· “Muslim Separatism in the Philippines and Thailand” (Rabasa, Chapter 4)
April 13 South Asia – Indo-Pak Conflict and Hindu-Muslim Relations
Guest Speaker: Ayesha Siddiqa (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC)
Readings:
· “Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism” (Sharpe, pp. 16-31)
· “Idea of Pakistan” (Cohen, pp.45-56, 67-73, 194-200)
· “Pakistan’s Security: Problem of Linearity” (Siddiqa-Agha)
· “Idea of India” (Khilnani, pp. 1-14)