Sociology of Muslim Societies

SOC......
Instructor: Azeema Faizunnisa

The course is designed to provide a sociological overview on how Islam interacts with culture of its
extremely heterogeneous adherents.

This course intends to provide students with an analytical tool for studying religions and an
understanding of the major issues relating to religions in present day society.

The regions of Islam:

South Asia
Middle East
South East Asia
Central Asia
Africa
Europe and America

Only 15 percent Mulims are Arabs, the largest Muslim ethnic group (450 million) resides in three
South Asian countries, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Indonesia is the largest Islamic country in
the world, with 200 million Muslims.

Islam is not a monolithic

entity immune from changes over time and across
space; Islam, like all religions, evolves as it interacts with
the complex factors of race, ethnicity, nationality, social
class, gender, local cultural mores, and specific historical
(Feldman, 2003)

Although the theological tenets of Islam are universal,

Islam has expressed itself in many diverse ways in different
regions and historical eras (Esposito, 1999). Islam,
like Christianity and Judaism, has splintered into different
sects—Sunnis and Shiities in Iran and Iraq,Wahhabis
in Saudi Arabia, the Druze in Lebanon and Syria—and
Islam, over the course of 14 centuries, has interacted with
indigenous cultures across the Middle East, Africa, and
Asia to produce unique Islamic societies, civilizations,
or empires (Esposito, 1999; Haddad, 1999). Thus, there
is a crucial distinction between Islam (as a religion with
a specific theology, laws, rituals, and requirements) and
Islamic cultures, which exhibit high degrees of political
and socioeconomic diversity.
Furthermore, the diversity within Islam has generated
intense disagreements among scholars over the true nature
of Islam. (cited in Moore 2006)

Grading:
Class quizzes: 15%
Discussion board: 15%
Class presentation: 30%
Class Project: 30%
Attendance and participation: 10%

Students are expected to come to class, have knowledge of assigned readings and participate in
class discussions. Students are expected to be respectful in presenting their views during class
discussions. Students will also be required to select and study a religion based on the tools learnt in
class.

Requirements for Research Paper

Select a religion and study it from a sociological perspective based on the tools learnt in class.
Length: 8 –10 pages (maximum 12 pages), double spaced, 12 font size.
Approach:

Student Presentation:

Required readings:

Week 1: Introduction
First week will be spent to discuss the syllabus and the religion
What is Islam, its history and beliefs, Dr. James Franklin
Demographics of Islamic societies
Documentary: PBS Frontline Muslims
To Think: Western projection of Islam
Reading: Carl Ernst, Following Muhammad. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North
Carolina
Press, 2003, pp. 1-69.

Week 2: Women's Issues

This week we will discuss status of women
Reading: Saba Mehmood, Politics of Piety, amina wadud
Movie: From Iran
http://www.wwhr.org/csbr.php
The Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR) (10 Muslim countries)
Reading: Mark LeVine, Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of
Islam. New
York, New York: Three Rivers Press, 2008
Discussion: Compare the vanning of headscarfs in Turkey and France to enforcing purdah in
Iran and Saudi Arabia

Week 3: Art and Culture

Music, movies, fine and performing arts, architecture
Reading:
Trip: To Shangrila
Guest Lecture: Prof. Tamara Albertini

Week 4: Contentious Issues

The Sufis and the Salafis, The East and the West, Orientalism ?, Is Islam compatible with
Democracy? Terrorism? Dissidents within Islam, collision and co-existance with modernity,
Reading: Asef Bayat, "Revolution without Movement, Movement without Revolution: Comparing
Islamic Activism
in Iran and Egypt," Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 40, No. 1, January, 1998,
pp. 136-
169.
Reading question: Are people more "Islamic" in Iran or Egypt, and why.
In what ways have post-colonial states in Egypt, Malaysia, and Pakistan used Islam to bolster
their own power?
Question:
Reading: The Sufis and the Salafis
Movie:

Week 5: Impact of Globalization

How internet, movies, music, television and capitalism has impacted Muslims world
Readings: Muslim Networks and iMuslims
Movie:
Simpson, Brad 2009 "Indonesia's Accelerated Modernization" and the Global
Discourse of Development 1960-1975” In Diplomatic History Vol 33. No. 3:
467-485

Week 6: Student presentation of case-studies

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130384137
Understanding Pakistan through music

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/muslims/index.html
the meaning of Qur'an

http://store.documentarychannel.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=islam&Submit=Search

The Quran blog from Guardian

Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History

Miriam Cooke and Bruce Lawrence, eds., Muslim Networks From Hajj to Hip Hop

Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

Carl Ernst, Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (Chapel Hill,
North
Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).

Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin R. Barber, The Atlantic Online | March 1992

Bassam Tibbi, Islam between Culture and Politics, New York, NY: Palgrave,
2001.

Charles Kurzman (Ed.), Liberal Islam, New York, NY: Oxford University Press,
1998.

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet 2005 a film by Michael Schwarz

http://www.pbs.org/muhammad/

Pleasantville (1998)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STQE5wCkEjc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasantville_%28film%29

Edward Said’s Covering

Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine
How We See the Rest of the World (1997)

Progressive
Muslims (2003), edited by Omid Safi

You may be able to start with a 495 "Topics" class which would be easiest for you to
develop a class in response to sociology majors reactions. It would give you a chance
to test student reactions to readings, lectures, assignments, "active learning"
simulations etc. Worth checking with Bill about whether they do an 495 "topics"
courses. If there is no flat rejection you would have to get Brit, or me of the others, to
approve that you are ready to teach. That would not be a problem.

Another Soc of Religion" class is Soc 455 which is directly on your topic. It is cross
listed with Religion 452 which may not be any problem but may make it more
bureaucratically complicated. It does describe the class as "with and emphasis on
Hawaii" but those descriptions are often not accurate and are superseded by a
syllabus.

The only other Socc 400 level is 413 Economy and Society which might fit but would
be a reach.

Aloha

It is that time again! Summer Session, believe it or not, is right around the corner and we have to
turn in our scheduling list within the next month or so. As such, I am again asking you to let us
know, no later than Monday, November 15, 2010, what you would like to teach in the Summer of
2011, which term you would prefer to teach in, a copy of the syllabus you propose to use, an
advertisement for your course completed in PowerPoint, and the usual form from your advisor (if
you are a Graduate Student) assuring that a) you are ready to teach a course, b) your progress
towards degree will not be negatively impacted by your teaching, and the recommendation of your
advisor/chair.

Please contact Serina and/or Cherry if you have questions regarding pay rates, and expectations as
well as any forms you may need to complete.

We very much look forward to another successful summer session this year and welcome your
course proposals.

Bill

D. William Wood
Professor and Chair
Department of Sociology
University of Hawaii at Manoa
2424 Maile Way, Saunders Hall 247
Honolulu, HI 96822

Azeema,

I think it would be good to do more than try. Go for it. Even if you put only a couple of
hours into writing up a crude outline it might be accepted and then you would have
several months to refine it. Even if was rejected it would be a good learning
experience.

There are only 2 existing Sociology course numbers that a survey course (1,2 or 3
hundred numbers) would fit under Soc 316 Social Change which I think is the best.
"Social Change in Islamic Societies" Professor Azeema Faizunnisa has a nice ring to it.
It could start with a description/discussion of Islam and its varieties of types of
philosophy and practice. The theory part could focus on your interest in "human
capital" and which features of Islam promotes/inhibits economic growth (something
like Max Weber and the "Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism"). And then move
to a survey of several Islamic societies and an analysis of social changes in each. I
could see students choosing different countries for their papers and an interactive
class in the second half of the semester (either on line or in person in summer school).
Where students present their papers for discussion. You could limit class size to 20 for
your first experience teaching.

The other number could be Soc 214 Race and Ethnic Relations, which I have fewer
ideas (and enthusiasm) about. I suppose you could select a few societies with a large
muslim population and study relations between muslims and other religious/ethnic
groups.

The reason I think you may have to work under existing Soc course numbers is that
getting a brand new course approved takes time and bureaucratic hassle. But you
could check with Bill. They might want an intro to sociology which focusses on muslim
societies.

I'll check the 400 numbers for likely candidates.

Please think about this. It might be professionally important for my vision of your
unique talent and give you something to distract you from those boring time use
descriptions.