The Politics of Islamic Resurgence

BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

THE POLITICS OF ISLAMIC RESURGENCE

Spring 2015

Professor Eva Bellin

Office: Lemberg 225

Phone: 781- 736- 5336

Email:

Office Hours: Thursdays 1-3

General Information

This course studies the impact of Islamic resurgence on both international and intra-national politics. It explores competing explanations for Islamic resurgence (cultural, economic, and political), Islamic movements in comparative perspective (with special emphasis on the cases of Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Britain and France), the successes and failures of Islamic revolution, the ideological content of Islamic revival (and debates over its potential conflict with Western notions of democracy, civil liberties, and gender equality), Islamic notions of jihad, terror in the name of Islam, the politics of cultural change, and Islam as a supranational movement.

Course Objectives

In addition to mastering the substantive material described above, this course aims to improve your critical thinking skills by training you in abstract concepts and theories and practicing you in testing those concepts and theories against empirical evidence. The course also aims to build your writing skills and your capacity to make compelling arguments through practice in writing clear thesis statements and the mobilization of persuasive evidence in support of your positions.

Course Requirements

1. Class participation/attendance (5% of final grade). All students are expected to keep up with weekly readings and participate in class discussions and weekly discussion sections. Class and section attendance is mandatory. The methodology for evaluating participation/attendance will be handed out in a separate document.

2. Essay writing (50% of final grade). Students will write two short analytic essays (each one 5 pages, double spaced) based on class materials. Essays are due in class on February 24 and April 14. Each essay will count for 25% of the final grade.

3. Mid-term exam (22.5% of final grade). A mid-term will be held in class

on March 5.

4. Final exam (22.5% of final grade). Date of final exam to be announced.

Course Material

All of the assigned readings for this course will be collected in a reader available for purchase at the Politics Department (Olin-Sang Room 204).

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see Professor Bellin immediately.

Academic Intergrity

You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity (see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai ). Any suspected instances of alleged dishonesty will be referred to the Office of Student Development and Conduct. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in sanctions including but not limited to, failing grades being issued, educational programs, and other consequences.

Cell Phone/Laptops in the Classroom

Use of cell phones in class, for talking, texting or reading/writing email is prohibited. If you wish to leave your cell phone on in “Silent” mode because of an ongoing emergency situation that you may need to respond to, please alert Professor Bellin at the start of class.

Use of laptops in class is prohibited. If you have a documented disability that requires note taking on a laptop, please consult with Professor Bellin at the start of the semester.

Schedule and Readings

Lecture 1 (Tuesday, January 13): Introduction: Islam in the Western Imagination

Edward Said, Covering Islam (New York: Pantheon, 1981): ix-xix; 3-32.

Lecture 2 (Thursday, January 15): Islam and Politics

John Esposito, Islam and Politics (New York: Syracuse Press, 1984):1-29.

Fazlur Rahman, “The Islamic Concept of State,” in Islam In Transition: Muslim Perspectives edited by John Donohue and John Esposito (New York: Oxford, 1982): 261-271.

Bernard Lewis, "The Limits of Obedience" in The Political Language of Islam (University of Chicago, 1988): 91-116 (and Notes: 151-158).

Lecture 3 (Tuesday, January 20): Reform and Revival

Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962): 67-160.

Hassan al-Banna, Majmuat Rasail, trans. Charles Wendell (Berkeley, 1978):1-10; 103-132.

Lecture 4 (Thursday, January 22): The New Revival: Contending Explanations

Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981): 50-75; 137-200.

Ali Shariati, What Is To Be Done? (Institute for Research and Islamic Studies, Texas, 1986): 29-70.

Lecture 5 (Tuesday, January 27): The New Revival: Contending Explanations

Mark Tessler, “The Origins of Popular Support for Islamist Movements: A Political Economy Analysis” in Islam, Democracy, and State in North Africa edited by John Entelis (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,1997): 93-126.

Daniel Pipes, “God and Mammon: Does Poverty Cause Militant Islam?” The National Interest Number 2 (Winter 2001): 14-21.

Lecture 6: (Thursday, January 29): Revivalism in Comparative Perspective: Egypt

Giles Keppel, The Prophet and the Pharaoh ( NY: Zed Books)L 26-102

Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, Mobilizing Islam (New York, Columbia University Press,

2002): 94-175.

Lecture 7: (Tuesday, February 3) Revivalism in Comparative Perspective: Iran

Mohsen Milani, The Making of Iran’s Islamic Revolution (Boulder: Westview, 1994): 23-72; 93-104.

Lecture 8: (Thursday, February 5): Revivalism in Comparative Perspective: Iran

Said Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (NY: Oxford, 1988): 91-133.

Lecture 9: (Tuesday, February, 10): Revivalism in Comparative Perspective: Lebanon

Fouad Ajami, The Vanished Imam (Ithaca, Cornell, 1986): entire.

A. Nizar Hameh, “Lebanon’s Islamists and Local Politics: A New Reality,” Third World Quarterly Volume 21, Number 5 (2000):739-759.

First Essay Handed Out on February 8; Due in Class on February 24

Lecture 10: (Thursday, February 10) Means to Moderation?

Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013): selections

February Break: No class Tuesday February 17; Thursday February 19

Lecture 11: (Tuesday, February 24): Means to Moderation?

Shadi Hamid, Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East ( NY: Oxford University Press, 2014): selections.

Lecture 12: (Thursday, February 26): The Islamic Republic of Iran: Theocratic Democracy?

Said Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (NY: Oxford, 1988):147-174.

Mohsen Milani, The Making of Iran’s Islamic Revolution (Boulder: Westview, 1994):197-203.

Lecture 13: (Tuesday, March 3): The Islamic Republic of Iran: Theocratic Democracy?

Houchang Chehabi, “Religion and Politics in Iran: How Theocratic is the Islamic Republic?” Daedalus Volume 120 Number 3 (Summer 1991):69-91.

Said Arjomand, After Khomeini: Iran Under His Successors (NY:Oxford University Press, 2009): 72-89

Lecture 14: (Thursday, March 5): Midterm

Lecture 15: (Tuesday March 10): Accommodation to Islamic Revival in France and Britain

Giles Kepel, Allah in the West: Islamic Movements in America and Europe, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997): 97-125;149-203; 220-227.

Lecture 16: (Thursday, March 12): Accommodation to Islamic Revival in France and Britain

Anna Korteweg and Gokce Yurdakul, The Headscarf Debates (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2014): 15-56.

Lecture 17: (Tuesday, March 17): Islam and the Position of Women

Nadia Hijab, “The Great Family Law Debate,” in her book Womanpower: The Arab Debate on Women at Work (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988): 9-37.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Woman in Islamic Shariah (New Delhi, The Islamic Center 1995):20-27, 38-48, 79-124, 141-150.

Eleanor Doumato, "Women and the Stability of Saudi Arabia," Middle East Report (July-August 1991):35-37.

Lecture 18: (Thursday, March 19): Class canceled. Free day!

Lecture 19: (Tuesday, March 24) Islam and the Position of Women

Leila Ahmed, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence from the Middle East to America (NY: Yale University Press, 2011): 46-157.

Ziba Mir Hosseini, “Hijab and Choice: Between Politics and Theology,” in Mehran Kamrava (ed.) Innovation in Islam (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2011): 190-212.

Bouthaina Shaaban, Both Right and Left Handed (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991): 218-235.

Lecture 20: (Thursday, March 26): Islam and Democracy

Abdulahai An-Naim, "Shariah and Modern Constitutionalism" in Towards an Islamic Reformation (New York: Syracuse, 1990): 69-100.

Gudrun Kramer, “Islamist Notions of Democracy,” in Middle East Report Issue 183 (July-August 1993):2-8.

Ahmad Moussalli, “Islamic Democracy and Pluralism,” in Omid Safi (ed.) Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism (Oxford, England: One World Publishers, 2003): 286-305

Mumtaz Ahmad, "Parliaments, Parties, Polls, and Islam" in The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences Volume 2 Number 1 (July 1985):15-28.

Lecture 21: (Tuesday, March 31): The Meaning of Jihad

John Esposito, “Jihad and the Struggle for Islam” in Unholy War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002):26-70.

Emmanuel Sivan, “The Holy War Tradition in Islam,” Orbis (Spring1998): 171-194.

David Cook, Understanding Jihad (Berkeley, CA, University of California at Berkeley, 2005): 93-110;136-147.

Second Essay handed out April 2; due in class Tuesday April 14

Lecture 22: (Thursday April 2): Terror in the Name of Islam

Peter Juergenmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000): 3-15; 60-83; 119-144.

Michael Doran, “The Pragmatic Fanaticism of al-Qaeda: An Anatomy of Extremism in Middle Eastern Politics” Political Science Quarterly Summer 2002:177-190.

Manus Ranstorp, “Interpreting the Broader Context and the Meaning of Bin-Laden’s Fatwa” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 21 (1998): 321-330.

Lecture 23: (Tuesday, April 14): Terror in the Name of Islam (FILM)

Frontline: ISIS

Charles Lister, “Profiling the Islamic State,” Brookings Institution December 2014. Accesssible at: http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports2/2014/12/profiling-islamic-state-lister

Lecture 24: (Thursday, April 16) Islam in the International Arena: Theory and Practice

Shireen Hunter, “Islamic Conceptions of International Relations: Theory and Practice” in her book The Future of Islam and the West (Westport: Praeger, 1998): 59-68.

James Piscatori, "Islamic Values and National Interest: The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia" in Adeed Dawisha (ed.) Islam in Foreign Policy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983): 33-53.

Shireen Hunter, “Islam and the Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran” in her book The Future of Islam and the West (Westport: Praeger, 1998):126-174.

Lecture 25: (Tuesday, April 21): The Politics of Cultural Change: Towards an Islamic Reformation?

Muhammad Iqbal, “The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam” in Liberal Islam: A Source Book edited by Charles Kurzman (NY:Oxford, 1998): 255-269.

Bruce Rutherford, “What do Egypt’s Islamists Want? Moderate Islam and the rise of Islamic Constitutionalism,” in Mehrzad Boroujedi (ed.) Mirrror for the Muslim Prince: Islma and the Theory of Statecraft (NY: Syracuse University Press, 2009).

Diane Singerman, “Rewriting Divorce in Egypt: Reclaiming Islam, Legal Activism, and Coalitional Politics,” in Robert Hefner (ed.) Remaking Muslim Politics (Princeton University Press, 2005): 326-346.

John Bowen, “Pluralism and Normativity in French Islamic Reasoning,” in Robert Hefner (ed.) Remaking Muslim Politics (Princeton University Press, 2005): 326-346.

Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (NY: Oxford University Press, 2004): selection to be provided by Professor Bellin

Lecture 26: (Thursday, April 23): Islam and the Clash of Civilizations

Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations" in Foreign Affairs Summer 1993: 22-49.

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