POLITICAL ISLAM PRESENT AND PAST - 508:110 - Rutgers History Department
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DRAFT SYLLABI SPRING 2021
POLITICAL ISLAM
PRESENT AND PAST
508:110
Instructor: Julia Stephens
(julia.stephens@rutgers.edu)
Note on Mode of Instruction, Spring 2021:
The lecture content for this course will available
online, in an asynchronous format which students
can complete on their own schedule. Students will
be required to attend an online, synchronous
section meeting every other week via Zoom.
Students will attend sections according to the
days/times for which they registered for the
course.
THIS COURSE FULFILLS CORE REQUIREMENTS HST AND CCO
This course is an introduction to Islamic political thought and practice, which focuses on how history
can inform our understanding of contemporary Political Islam. Since the attack on the Twin Towers on
September 11, 2001, political debates about the role of Islam in the modern world have arguably been
the single defining issue of the twenty-first century. The manifestations of Political Islam are diverse:
they range from al-Qaeda and ISIS, to Muslim political parties who participate in electoral politics in
Turkey and Indonesia. Nor is Political Islam limited to Muslim-majority countries. Debates about
Islam have also emerged as key political questions in the United States and Europe, influencing
policies in areas ranging from surveillance to immigration and education.
The course traces the longer history of a range of flashpoints in these debates, including the
relationship between sharia and the state, the role of new media technologies in shaping Muslim
politics, veiling, and censorship of religiously offensive materials. In the process the course surveys the
life of the Prophet, the early Caliphates, early-modern Muslim empires, European colonialism, and
nationalist movements. But a focus on themes of contemporary relevance provides the guiding thread
through this whirl-wind tour of Islamic history.
The course assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. Lectures and discussions will guide students
through the analysis of a variety of historical and contemporary sources, including Ottoman fatwas on
drinking coffee, nineteenth-century debates about the compatibility of Islam and modern science, Sufi
rock videos, and Twitter feeds. Class preparation will likewise involve engagement with a variety of
different forms of media, including texts, films, and podcasts—all of which students will be expected
to critically analyze using techniques covered in class.
1
Course Materials: All assigned materials will be available via Canvas.
Content warning: Our discussions will regularly address emotionally and intellectually challenging
materials, including religious, racial, and gender discrimination, prejudice, and violence. I will do my
best to make our classroom a place where all students can engage thoughtfully and empathetically with
this material. If, based on the topic listed in the syllabus, you feel that an entire class period might be
upsetting, please communicate with me by email in advance, and I will excuse you from lecture and
discuss alternative ways that you might engage with the material. Finally, I am always available to
meet during office hours or by appointment to discuss course materials or dynamics in the
classroom. I also recommend that students use the wellness resources listed at the end of the syllabus.
Requirements & Grading
1. Section Attendance and Participation (6 x 2 = 12%). The course includes six, bi-weekly section
meetings. These sections provide students with a crucial opportunity to discuss the material with their
peers. To receive full credit for this portion of the course, students must both attend their section and
participate. Students who cannot attend a section due to illness, religious observances, or extramural
athletics should discuss accommodations with the professor.
2. Discussion Activities (3 x 4 = 12%). Students must complete all three discussion activities on
Canvas, which are detailed in the syllabus, including posting and commenting. Both the original post
and comment must be completed by the date assigned. Individual posts/comments will not receive
letter grades; your grade on this assignment will be based on whether or not you complete the 3
original postings and 3 comments on time. Don’t miss these easy points!
While you are encouraged to voice your opinions in these posts, you must always be respectful of
others views and beliefs. If you have any questions or concerns about whether your own post, or
something that appears in the discussions, is appropriate, please reach out to the professor.
3. Weekly Quizzes (8 x 7 = 56%). During most weeks of the course, students will be responsible for
completing a short quiz after reviewing the asynchronous lectures and readings. These quizzes will be
open book and administered via Canvas.
4. Past-and-Present Final Project (20%). The final project will ask students to draw on historical
material from the course to craft a policy proposal for an NGO providing support for Muslim youth.
The written portion of the project should be approximately 1000-1200 words, and students are
encouraged to also incorporate visual or multi-media materials.
Policy on Late Assignments: From past experience, we know that student success in this
course is closely tied to keeping to the course schedule. We therefore expect you to turn in
assignment on time and will deduct one point for each day that an assignment is late. For
example, if you turn in a discussion activity one day late, you will only receive three out of four
points for that assignment. We also understand that students’ lives are complicated, and you
may encounter unexpected difficulties during the semester. In these cases, we will happily
work with you to make alternative arrangements that allow you to complete course work in a
timely manner.
Additional policies and resources are listed at the end of the syllabus.
COURSE SCHEDULE
2I. INTRODUCTION
Week 1 (Jan. 19-22): Introduction
Session 1: Reoccurring Themes, Political Islam, Present and Past
Prep work: Listen to the BBC Podcast, “The Battle Within Islam” (43 minutes).
Session 2: Politics in the Life of Muhammad
Prep work: Listen to the BBC Podcast History of Islam, “Origins” (29 minutes) and “After
Muhammad” (28 minutes).
** QUIZ 1
Week 2 (Jan. 25-29): Core Concepts: What is sharia?
Session 1: Basic Definitions – Sharia and Islamic Law
Prep work: Read Noah Feldman, “Why Sharia?,” The New York Times (March 16, 2008).
** QUIZ 2
Session 2 (SECTION MEETING): Inside an Islamic court in contemporary Tehran
Week 3 (Feb. 1-Feb 5): Present and Past Case Study I – Political Islam and New Media
Technologies
Session 1: Technologies of Communication and New Muslim Publics
Prep work: Reading Francis Robinson, “Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the
Impact of Print,” Modern Asian Studies 27.1 (Feb 1993): 229-251.
Session 2: The Arab Spring and Multi-Media Revolutions
Prep work: Reading John Pollock, “How Egyptian and Tunisian Youth Hacked the Arab
Spring,” Technology Review (September/October 2011), 70-82.
** Discussion Assignment 1: Reflections on “New Media” and Political Islam
Pick a current example of how Muslims are using new media technologies to advance different political causes.
Your example could be a conventional news story, website, or YouTube video. Post your example to the course
blog and include a 3-4 sentence reflection on how it relates to the themes we have covered this week. You
should also post a comment on at least one entry by another student. Both your post and comment should be up
before midnight on Friday, but if you post earlier, you are more likely to get comments!
II. ISLAM AND POLITICS – A DEEPER HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Week 4 (Feb 8-12): Islamic Empires
Session 1: From the Classical Caliphate to Early-Modern Empire
Prep work: Listen to the BBC Podcast History of Islam, “Islam’s Golden Age” (27 minutes)
and “The Mid-13th Century Massacres” (27 Minutes).
** QUIZ 3
Session 2 (SECTION MEETING): The Great Ottoman Coffee Debate
Prep work: Read Katib Chelebi, “Tobacco” and “Coffee,” in The Balance of Truth, trans. G.L.
Lewis (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1957), 50-62.
Week 5 (Feb. 15-19): Islam and Europe
Session 1: The Crusades, Then and Now
Prep work: Read AbuKhalil, “The Legacy of the Crusades in Contemporary Muslim World,”
Al Jazeera, December 28 2016 and Listen to Nicholas Paul, “Rethinking the crusades,” History
Extra Podcast.
3Session 2: European Colonialism and Islam
** QUIZ 4
Week 6 (Feb. 22-26): Orientalism
Session 1: Orientalism: An Introduction
Prep work: Read Edward Said, Introduction to Orientalism, pp. 1-30.
Session 2 (SECTION MEETING): Critiquing Orientalism, Then and Now
Week 7: Pushing Back: Muslims Responses to European Dominance
Session 1: Revival and Reform
Prep work: Read primary-source on ijtihad and taqlid.
Session 2: Anti-Colonial Resistance and Nationalism
Prep work: Read James Gelvin, “Islamism and Nationalism: Common Roots, Common
Destiny,” Vorträge (2002-2003): 82-89.
** QUIZ 5
Week 8: Present and Past Case Study II “The Politics of the Veil”
Session 1: Gender and Veiling -- Colonial Past and the Post-Colonial Present
Prep work: Reading: Qasim Amin, “Women and the Veil,” from The Liberation of Women, 35-
61; and Pamela Taylor, “I Just Want to Be Me,” pp. 119-128.
** Discussion Assignment 2 Due Tuesday Mar. 10
Reflections on “The Politics of the Veil”
In lectures this week we have seen that the practice and meaning of Islamic veiling has varied historically and
geographically. Pick a contemporary example of how debates over veiling continue to play out today and post it
to the blog with a 3-4 sentence reflection. Also post one comment on someone else’s post.
Session 2 (SECTION MEETING): Discussion of They Call Me Muslim.
SPRING BREAK
III. POLITICAL ISLAM – HISTORY OF THE PRESENT
Week 9: Islamism
Session 1: What is Islamism?
Prep work: Read Selections form Qutb and Mawdudi, from Princeton Readings in Islamic
Thought, 79-107, and 129-35, 145-54; and Listen to NPR Podcast All Things Considered,
“Sayyid Qutb’s America” (22 minutes).
Session 2: Islamism and the State in Egypt and Pakistan
Prep work: Read Kepel, Jihad: The Trial of Political Islam, 80-118.
** QUIZ 6
Week 10: Islamic Revolutions
Session 1: The Iranian Revolution
Prep work: Read Khomeini from Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought, 155-180, and Watch
the documentary film, The Square (2013).
** QUIZ 7
Session 2 (SECTION MEETING): The Arab Spring and the Iranian Revolution, A Useful
Comparison?
4Week 11: Diverging Trajectories of Islamism: Democratization and Global Terror
Session 1: Democratization and Post-Islamism
Session 2: Global Terror
Prep work: Read Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, 119-164.
** QUIZ 8
Week 12:
Session 1: Why do people become terrorists?: Jihadis and White Nationalists
Prep work: Watch Deeyah Khan’s documentaries, Jihad: A Story of Others and White Right:
Meeting the Enemy
Session 2: (SECTION MEETING): Discussion of Radicalization and its Alternatives
Week 13: Religious Offense vs. Creative Expression
Session 1: Religious Offence or Free Speech? – The Satanic Verses Controversy
Prep work: Reading: Shabbir Akhtar, “Art or Literary Terrorism?,” in Be Careful with
Muhammad! The Salman Rushdie Affair!, 13-36; and Salman Rushdie, “In Good Faith,” in
Imaginary Homelands: Essay and Criticism, 1981-1991, 393—414.
Session 2: Alternative Visions of Political Islam from Muslim Democracy to Sufi Rock
** Discussion Assignment: Art as Political Islam?
Find an example of art, music, or other forms of creative expression that reflects on themes related to
contemporary Islam. In what ways do you think that your example does or does not function as a form of
“Political Islam”? As usual you should include a 3-4 sentence reflection on the material you post and comment
on a classmate’s post.
Week 14: Paper Writing Workshops
In lieu of class this week, the professor and TAs will be holding individual meetings to help students
with their final papers.
Final Projects Due
5Additional Policies and Resources.
Grade Cut-offs.
A = 90 - 100 C = 70 -74
B+ = 85 - 89 D = 60 - 69
B = 80 - 84 F = 0 - 59
C+ = 75 - 79
Classroom etiquette and electronic devices. I seek to cultivate an active learning environment. This
means that you are expected not only to attend class but to participate. This includes active individual
participation (commenting, asking questions, etc.) and collaborative participation, which includes
listening respectively to the opinions of others. You may use electronic devices to take notes, but non-
academic use of phones, laptops, etc. disturbs your own and others’ learning. I reserve the right to ask
students to leave class if their use of devices is disruptive and will mark you absent for the day if such
a case arises.
Academic Integrity. Our common learning environment requires that we all respect principals of
academic integrity. Violations include cheating, plagiarism, and or sabotaging the academic work of
other. I will give clear instructions about what forms of collaboration are or are not allowed with
respect to papers and exams. If you have any questions about these requirements, you must ask me for
clarification—do not guess whether or not something constitute plagiarism or cheating! For full details
about the universities policies, see http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/academic-integrity-at-
rutgers/
Student Disabilities. All disabilities will be accommodated according to recommendations issued by
the Rutgers Office of Disability Services. Please let me know about any needs at the beginning of the
semester so we can work together to facilitate the logistics.
Student Wellness Resources. There is a list of important on-campus resources below. I strongly
encourage you to use these resources, and I am happy to discuss academic accommodations when
needed.
Just In Case Web App
http://codu.co/cee05e
Access helpful mental health information and resources for yourself or a friend in a mental
health crisis on your smartphone or tablet and easily contact CAPS or RUPD.
Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services (CAPS)
(848) 932-7884 / 17 Senior Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901/
http://health.rutgers.edu/medical-counseling-services/counseling/
CAPS is a University mental health support service that includes counseling, alcohol and other
drug assistance, and psychiatric services staffed by a team of professional within Rutgers
Health services to support students’ efforts to succeed at Rutgers University. CAPS offers a
variety of services that include: individual therapy, group therapy and workshops, crisis
6intervention, referral to specialists in the community and consultation and collaboration with
campus partners.
Violence Prevention & Victim Assistance (VPVA)
(848) 932-1181 / 3 Bartlett Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 / www.vpva.rutgers.edu/
The Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance provides confidential crisis
intervention, counseling and advocacy for victims of sexual and relationship violence and
stalking to students, staff and faculty. To reach staff during office hours when the university is
open or to reach an advocate after hours, call 848-932-1181.
Disability Services
(848) 445-6800 / Lucy Stone Hall, Suite A145, Livingston Campus, 54 Joyce Kilmer
Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854 / https://ods.rutgers.edu/
Rutgers University welcomes students with disabilities into all of the University's educational
programs. In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, a student with a
disability must contact the appropriate disability services office at the campus where you are
officially enrolled, participate in an intake interview, and provide documentation:
https://ods.rutgers.edu/students/documentation-guidelines. If the documentation supports your
request for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will provide
you with a Letter of Accommodations. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss
the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. To begin this process,
please complete the Registration form on the ODS web site at:
https://ods.rutgers.edu/students/registration-form.
Scarlet Listeners
(732) 247-5555 / https://rutgers.campuslabs.com/engage/organization/scarletlisteners
Free and confidential peer counseling and referral hotline, providing a comforting and
supportive safe space.
Report a Concern: http://health.rutgers.edu/do-something-to-help/
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