ARAB 108
Global Islamophobia: Crisis of the State and Reconfiguration of Global Power Fall 2024
Division I Quantitative/Formal Reasoning Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed GBST 106 / REL 113 / AMST 109

Given the fact that Islamophobia is a global issue, this course focuses on the socio-geopolitical global dynamics of Islamophobia by examining the historical roots of Islamophobia on a global scale and its manifestation in current events in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North and South America. Therefore, the course will follow a two-part line of inquiry that sheds light on two key aspects of global Islamophobia: the genealogy of political islam and the racialization of Islam (In French there is a distinction between islam and Islam. We will discuss this distinction more in class). The first part of the course will explore the racialization of islam in the contexts of migration, minoritization, and indigeneity across different geographies For example, we will compare the social and economic transformation of Arab immigrants and their descendants from Arabs to Muslims in France and the U.S. and identify similarities and differences between the construction of race and anti-Muslim racism in both countries. As for the contexts of minoritization and indigeneity, we will discuss the cases of Muslims in Myanmar, China, India, Palestine/Israel, and Southern Mexico, among other places. The second part of the course will examine political Islam by addressing the following questions: What is political Islam? Why did contemporary political Islam appear, and how was it received globally, from Western countries, namely the U.S., France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, for instance, to Asian countries like Turkey, India, and Pakistan, to Arab countries like Algeria, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq? How does the rise of political Islam challenge the global order of the Pax Americana, and what does it express from a geopolitical and sociopolitical point of view, both in the domestic and international scenes? By answering these questions, we will not only obtain a better understanding of global Islamophobia but will also gain a critical insight into how Islamophobia is integrated (or not) within societies and geopolitical order, whether it is the West, Asia (including non Arab countries), or Africa like in Algeria or Nigeria. Moreover, we will comprehend more fully the global crisis of the state and the global structure of power that shaped the reception (and rejection) of political Islam. Overall, by using a global framework of analysis and an interdisciplinary approach that draws on a variety of resources from political economy, anthropology, sociology, critical race theory, and comparative ethnic studies, we will examine the articulation of the racialization of Muslims and political Islam and how they reinforce each other, thus feeding global Islamophobia.