Special Topics in Political Science (390-0-20)
Topic
Muslim Politics
Instructors
Zekeria Ahmed Salem Denna
620 Library Place, Room 204
Meeting Info
Scott Hall 319 ExperimentalLab: Mon 1:00PM - 3:50PM
Overview of class
The emergence of Muslim politics is arguably one of the defining transformations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This course explores the diversity of the contemporary political experiences of Muslims in multiple and shifting contexts to address questions such as: what is the role of ideology and faith in Muslim politics? Where does political Islam come from? How does politics play out in the lives of Muslims? How diverse are contemporary political experiences of Muslims? How did immigration, globalization, Islamic revival and violent extremism and securitization policies reshape the political and religious landscape of Muslim-majority nations as well as in non-Muslim countries? What does the study of political Islam teach us about the relationship between religious and politics in the modern world?
The course is divided in three parts. In Part 1, we focus on the politics of Islamic revival through the trajectories of various Islamic political movements in the Middle East, Asia and Africa to understand the origins of the rise of political Islam and its national, regional and global impact. In Part 2, we turn to transnational Muslim networks and connections to explore the main issues around global political Islam in its various forms including violent Islamic extremism, Sufism, piety movements, economic networks. We discuss also anti-Muslim violence and its origins. In Part 3, we examine the social, political and historical dynamics shaping the politics of Muslim minorities in Europe and the USA, including the war on terror, identity politics, racialization and islamophobia.
Our cross-cutting themes include state in the Muslim world, party politics, secularism, democracy, social movements, political violence, the politics of religion, security policies, globalization, citizenship, social and economic development.
Class descriptions from the past two years can be viewed on the class descriptions page. https://class-descriptions.northwestern.edu/
Class descriptions prior to that can be viewed in CAESAR in the Class Search and Catalogs sections.
Registration Requirements
Political Science Juniors and Seniors only
Learning Objectives
Over the course of this quarter, students will:
• Develop ideas about the kinds of conservative, right-wing, and far-right movements that exist in the Americas, as well as their relative prevalence among populations and their social, political, economic, and coercive power.
• Evaluate scholarly and popular theories about where and why far-right movements originate, and develop a preferred intellectual framework for explaining these movements together with supporting evidence.
• Hone the scholarly habit of engaging with ideas from diverse perspectives and life experiences in an analytic frame of mind — practicing the approach of analyzing questions related to what, when, how, and why, rather than focusing on asking whether an idea or actor is good or bad.
• Communicate with others about diverse far-right movements in ways that share information and explanations and invite constructive intellectual and political dialogue.
Teaching Method
seminar; student led discussion
Class Attributes
Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl