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01:790:367:01 (01:685:357:01) Islam and Democracy in the Middle East

Spring 2011 Instructor: Dalia F. Fahmy Location: Regina B. Heldrich Science Building (HSB), 201 Email: daliaf@rci.rutgers.edu Time: M & TH 10:55 AM - 12:15 PM Office Hours: Monday 12:30-2:30 Hickman Hall, Room 305, and by appointment Course Overview: Since 2001 moderate Islamist oriented politicians have come to power in traditional US allies like Egypt, Kuwait and Turkey. While political Islam is a diverse phenomenon, including radical militants within the mix, the majority of Islamists today speak with moderate voices. They support social and political freedoms, free market economic principles, civil and human rights, and democracy. This course examines the patterns of interaction between Islamic movements and democratization in different Muslim societies. In contemporary societies, notions of the sacred continue to be vital yet ever changing. Across the globe in places such as India, Poland, Brazil, Israel, Iran, and not least the United States, religious traditions and the norms derived from them continue to play a prominent and contentious role in their respective societies. One of the major forces of the 21st century has been the socio-political Islamic movement based upon a religious understanding of the public sphere and political reasoning. It may be that reconstruction is a better word than rediscovery or revival to understand these religious ideas, organizations, and processes in a given polity. This course will examine attempts by Islamic groups, movements, and networks to influence political processes. I. Questions This course aims to address the following questions: Are Islam and Democracy compatible? How is religious interest defined? How are Islamic images and institutions used? What is the historical relationship between Islam and politics? When and under what conditions is Islam publicized and politicized? Is Islam compatible with modernity? Is it possible to be modern and Muslim at the same time? How do Islamic scholars deal with the questions of "difference", democracy, and science? The major task of this course will be to assess how religion makes an impact on politics, state and society and in turn is impacted upon and potentially transformed by society, politics and the state. II. Objectives The goal of this course is to provide students with an improved conceptual and theoretical understanding of the study of Islam and democracy. There will be a great emphasis on the conceptual origins as well as how they are applied/utilized/manipulated by different groups, movements, and/or states. We will also examine several leading theoretical approaches to questions such as those posed above and draw upon a range of past and present examples, events and case studies in order to evaluate the claims and explanatory power of various theories. Given the course's theoretical orientation, it will not be possible to discuss many current events in an in-depth, comprehensive or systematic fashion. We will, however, relate the concepts discussed in the course to a range of recent events, developments and ongoing trends in the political world. Thus, students who read the world politics/international affairs section of a leading newspaper (New York Times or the Washington Post) on a regular basis are likely to get more out of the course and be better prepared for course discussions, assignments and examinations. As such, reading a major newspaper on a regular basis is strongly recommended. The New York Times and the Washington Post are available for free, on-line. Course Requirements: 1) Participation is very important for understanding the complex themes and ideas in this course.

Remember this is a forum for the free exchange of ideas, so participation is key to your learning experience.

2) Map Exam—this will occur early in the semester. This is meant to familiarize you with the region we are

studying. The map exam is worth 10% of your grade. The map exam will be on, February 24, 2010.

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3) Exams – There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. The final exam will cover the post-midterm material. The midterm is worth 40% of your grade, and the final is worth 40% of your grade. You must take each test to pass the course.

4) Reading Quizzes – I will give 6 short reading quizzes at the start of class throughout the course, you

must pass 5 out of 6 to get the full 10%. There is no schedule for these; they will be given randomly. The purpose of these is to make sure you are keeping up with the readings.

** You must do all of the work, you cannot decide not to take an exam and loose points. Loss of points

is on performance, not on lack of handing in work or missing and exam. Grading Breakdown:

Map Exam 10% 1 Midterm 40% Final Exam 40% Reading quizzes 10% Total 100%

Performance:

Doing well in this course requires keeping up with reading assignments, attending class regularly and taking quality notes on class lectures, discussions and readings. Please note that students should take notes on more than the instructor's lectures. The reading load is substantial, but warranted. Reading assignments should be completed BEFORE class on the date listed. Please note that it is the student's responsibility to remain informed about any changes in the syllabus, assignments and requirements as well as to obtain handouts distributed in class. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get notes from a classmate, I will not be providing lecture notes to students. Make-ups will not be offered for the exams or quizzes.

If you know that you will be unable to take an exam or quiz, see the professor in advance. If you miss class the day of an exam or quiz, you will not receive credit for the assignment. Unless a dean's excuse is provided in a timely fashion, you will receive a temporary failing grade for any missed exam or assignment until you complete the work. Reading Requirements: 1) Textbooks: - Al-Khamsi, Khaled. Taxi (Aflame Books) - Aslan, Reza, No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and the Future of Islam (Random House) - Hefner, Richard, ed, Rethinking Muslim Politics (Princeton University Press) - Fatima Mernissi, Islam and Democracy, 2nd ed. (Perseus Books) - Riverbend, Baghdad Burning (Feminist Press) - Arberry, A.J., The Holy Qur’an (Simon and Schuster) can also be found at

http://arthursclassicnovels.com/arthurs/koran/koran-arberry10.html 2) All readings not in the textbook will be on the Sakai website for this class. Academic Integrity

Violations of Rutgers University’s Academic Integrity code will not be tolerated. Those students whose actions appear to be in violation of the code will be referred to the appropriate dean for disciplinary action. The Rutgers University official policy on academic integrity is available online at http://teachx.rutgers.edu/integrity/policy.html; ignorance of any of these policies is not an excuse for violations.

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Week 1 Thursday, 1/20 Welcome Introduction and course overview Islam and Democracy? Concepts, questions and stereotypes. Week 2 Monday, 1/24 What is Islam? & What is Democracy?

Aslan, No God but God, Chronology of key events, xxxi-xxxii, 3-106. Philippe C. Schmitter & Terry Lynn Karl “WHAT DEMOCRACY IS...AND IS NOT,” Journal of

Democracy. Vol.2, No.3 Summer 1991 Thursday, 1/27 Film: “Islam, Empire of Faith” Week 3 Monday, 1/31 Film: “Islam, Empire of Faith” Conclusion and Discussion Thursday, 2/3 Basic Concepts to the study of Islam and Democracy

Cleveland, William, A History of the Modern Middle East, 3rd. ed., 1-35 Esposito, John L. and John O. Voll. Islam and Democracy. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996. E. Davis, “Reflections on Religion and Politics in Post- Bacthist Iraq,” Newsletter of the American

Academic Research Institute in Iraq, Spring 2007 http:fas-polisci.rutgers.edu/davis Week 4 Monday, 2/7 Islam and democracy: compatible or incompatible concepts? Part I

Hypothesis 1: Islam is incompatible with democracy Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, 207-218, 254-265 Norris, Pippa, and Ronald Inglehart. 2002. "Islamic Culture and Democracy: Testing the 'Clash

of Civilizations' Thesis," Comparative Sociology 1: 3/4: 235. Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong?, 3-17, 151-160

Thursday 2/10 Islam and democracy: compatible or incompatible concepts? Part II

Hypothesis 2: Islam is compatible with democratic governance Fareed Zakaria, “The Islamic Exception,” in The Future of Freedom, 119-159 Aslan, No God but God, 249-266 Tessler, Mark, “Do Islamic Orientations Influence Attitudes Towards Democracy in the Arab

World?,” in R. Ingelhart, ed, Islam, Gender, Culture and Democracy, 6-22 Khaled Abou El Fadl. “Islam and the Challenge of Democracy.” Boston Review 28, no. 2

(April/May 2003). Azizah Y. al-Hibri "Islamic Constitutionalism and the Concept of Democracy," Case W. Res.

Journal of International Law. 24 (1992) 1-27. Week 5 Monday, 2/14 Islam and democracy: compatible or incompatible concepts? Part III

Hypothesis 3: thinking about Islam and democracy in more complex ways Sachedina, Abdulaziz. The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism. New York: Oxford University

Press, 2001. Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press)

1996, chapters 1-2. Yahya Sadowsky, "The New Orientalism and the Democracy Debate," in Joel Beinin and Joe

Stork, eds., Political Islam, pp. 33-50 (originally in MERIP Jan-Feb (special issue: Democracy in the Arab World) 1992.

Thursday, 2/17 Language Lab # 1

Intro to alphabet, history of language through a map

Week 6 Monday, 2/21 Pan-Islamism & Pan-Arabism

James L. Gelvin. “Arab Nationalism: Has a New Framework Emerged?” (question posed by James L. Gelvin) International Journal of Middle East Studies. Volume 41, Issue 01, 2009. pp

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10-12. (Sakai) Youssef M. Choueiri. “PensÈe 2: Theorizing Arab Nationalism.” International Journal of Middle

East Studies. Volume 41, Issue 01, 2009. pp 13-15. (Sakai) Fred Halliday “PensÈe 3: The Modernity of the Arabs.” International Journal of Middle East

Studies. Volume 41, Issue 01, 2009. pp 16-18 (Sakai) Fred H. Lawson “PensÈe 4: Out with the Old, In with the New” International Journal of Middle

East Studies. Volume 41, Issue 01, 2009. (Sakai) Mellon, James G. “Pan-Arabism, Pan-Islamism and Inter-State Relations in the Arab World.”

Nationalism & Ethnic Politics; Winter2002, Vol. 8 Issue 4, p1-15 (Sakai) Muhammad Khalid Masud. “The Construction and Deconstruction of Secularism as an Ideology in

Contemporary Muslim Thought.” A.J.S.S. 2005, Vol. 33 Issue 3, 363–383 (Sakai) Thursday, 2/24 MAP EXAM

Islam and Democracy in EGYPT I Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, xxx-xxx (Sakai) E. Davis, “Ideology. Social Class and Islamic Radicalism in Modern Egypt,” in S. Arjomand, ed., From

Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam, 134-157 (Sakai) Aslan, No God but God, 171-193.

Week 7 Monday, 2/28 Islam and Democracy in EGYPT II Film: “A veiled revolution”

Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 119-143, 234-237, 301-344 (Sakai) E. Davis, “The Concept of Revival and the Study of Islam and Politics,” in B. Stowasser,

The Islamic Impulse, 37-58 (Sakai) Bergesen, A.J., The Sayyid Qutb Reader, 3-13 (Sakai)

Thursday, 3/3 Islam and Democracy in EGYPT - Today

Olivier Roy, “The Impasses of Islamist Ideology,” in The Failure of Political Islam, 60-74 (Sakai) Augustus Richard Norton, “Thwarted Politics: The Case of Egypt’s Hizb al-Wasat,” in R. Hefner,

Remaking Muslim Politics, 133-160. Khalid Al-Khamsi. Taxi. Week 8 Monday, 3/7 MIDTERM EXAM Thursday 3/10 Language Lab # 2 3-word roots Week 9 Monday, 3/14 SPRING BREAK Thursday, 3/17 SPRING BREAK Week 10 Monday, 3/21 Iran, theocracy, and a history of the Sunni/Shia divide

Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East,185-192, 423-450 (Sakai) Thursday 3/24 The Islamic Revolution in IRAN

Abrahamian, Ervand, Khomeimism Essays on the Islamic Republic, 1-59 (Sakai) Baktiari, Bahman, “Dilemmas of Reform and Democracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” in Hefner,

Remaking Muslim Politics, 112-132 Week 11 Monday, 3/28 Islamism in TURKEY- a history

Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 175-185 (Sakai) Lee, Robert D., Religion and Politics in the Middle East, 167-211 (Sakai)

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Thursday, 3/31 Islamism in TURKEY - today White, Jenny, “The Ends of Islamism: Turkey’s Muslimhood Model,” in Hefner, Remaking Muslim

Politics, 87-112. Week 12 Monday 4/4 Language Lab # 3 Lost in translation Thursday 4/7 Iraq – a modern day democratization project (?)

al-Ruhaimi, Abdul-Halim, “The Dacwa Islamic Party: Origins, Actors and Ideology,” in Ayatollahs, Sufis and Ideologues: State, Religion and Social Movements in Iraq, 149-161 (Sakai)

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, 7-178 Davis, E., “Rebuilding a Non-Sectarian Iraq,” Strategic Insights, VI/6 (Dec. 2007) (Sakai)

Week 13 Monday, 4/11 Iraq – sectarianism?

Film: Bagdad High Thursday, 4/14 Islam & Gender I

Mernissi, Fatima, The Forgotten Queens of Islam, 9-25, 71-114, 179-189 (Sakai) Mernissi, Islam and Democracy, 149-171. Fish, Steven, “Islam and Authoritarianism,” World Politics, 55/1 (Oct. 2002): 4-37 (Sakai)

Lila Abu-Lughod. “Dialects of Women’s Empowerment.” International Journal of Middle East Studies. 41 (2009), 83–103. (Sakai)

Week 14 Monday, 4/18 Islam & Gender II

Baghdad Burning, 187-195. Whitaker, Brian, “Should I kill myself?,” in Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East,

143-176. (Sakai) Singerman, Diane, “Rewriting Divorce in Egypt: Reclaiming Islam, Legal Activism and Coalition Politics,”

in Hefner, Remaking Muslim Politics, 161-188. Film: “They Call Me Muslim”

Thursday, 4/21 Film: “Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think” * Reaction paper due 4/28 Week 15 Monday, 4/25 Language Lab # 4 Media in ME

Thursday 4/28 New Directions: The role of the media

Dale Eikelman, “New Directions in Arab Media,” in Hefner, Remaking Muslim Politics, 37-59. Samantha Shapiro, “Revolution, Face-Book Style,” The New York Times, Jan. 22, 2009. (Sakai) Marc Lynch, “Young Brothers in Cyberspace,” Middle East Report, MER 245 —

Winter 2007 http://www.merip.org/mer/mer245/lynch.html Augustus Richard Norton, ‘Associational Life: Civil Society in Authoritarian Political Systems,’ in

Mark Tessler (ed.) Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle East Politics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press) 1999, pp. 30-47. Sadiki, Larbi. “Popular uprisings and Arab democratization” IJMES. February 2000.

Week 16 Monday, 5/2 A look towards the Future…

Conclusion, Final Thoughts, Evaluations FINAL EXAM: Friday, May 6, 2010. 8:00 am – 11:00 am

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