AMST 237
Islam in the United States: From Black Muslims to the War on Terror Spring 2021
Division II
Cross-listed REL 237 / AFR 237
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

Malcolm X is likely the most prominent and influential Muslim figure in the history of the United States. His story represents two fundamental themes in the history of Islam in America: conflict between Muslims over what is “authentic” or “orthodox” Islam; and the ways that American history, politics, and culture determine the contours of “American Islam”. This course will explore these two themes through an array of topics in the history of American Islam. In so doing, we will examine the complex relation between religion, politics, and culture in the United States. Beginning with the story of Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam, and other African-American Muslim movements, we will try to understand: What made Islam so appealing to millions of African-Americans throughout the 20th century? And were these genuinely “religious” and “Islamic” movements, or just racial/political “black nationalist” movements in the guise of religion? What counts as legitimately “Islamic”, and who gets to decide? We will then move into the latter half of the 20th century and the post-9/11 debates over authentic Islam. What happened to American Muslim communities and organizations after the waves of post-1965 immigration from Muslim countries? How have debates about Muslim identity shifted over time, from being configured in terms of black separatism, to transnational/diasporic identity, to the attempts at articulating an indigenous “American-Muslim” identity? How have national narratives around 9/11 and the “War on Terror” impacted these debates over identity and “true Islam”? And how have these debates intersected with gender, racial, and ethnic politics? Throughout the course, we will be studying historical and anthropological material, autobiographies, novels, documentaries, films, and social media. The course fosters critical thinking about diversity by challenging assumptions of who Muslims are, what being American means, and what Islam is. It also focuses on the complex interaction of different dimensions of diversity, from religion to race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, gender, language, and age.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: none
Expected: 12
Class#: 5566
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: in-class participation and presentations; 3 short essays; final project
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: none
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
REL 237 Division II AMST 237 Division II AFR 237 Division II
Attributes: AMST Comp Studies in Race, Ethnicity, Diaspora

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