Secularism and Islam - Comparative Perspectives and Case Studies
Level:
Master's CEU credits:
2 ECTS credits:
4 Academic year:
2009/2010 Semester:
Winter Start and end dates:
8 Aug 2009 Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]:
CEU Instructor(s):
Nadia Al-Bagdadi Additional information:
The aim of the seminar is a) to readdress classical concepts of the secular, secularization and secularism and b) to examine critically new theoretical approaches (mainly from the fields of Sociology and Anthropology, Religious Studies, History, Islamic Studies and other related disciplines). As the problem of secularism in general and of secularism and Islam in particular entangles the question of the place of European history and theory making in a global context, questions of center and de-centering, of comparability and contingency will determine the structure of the seminar. To this end, the seminar will draw in both its theoretical approaches and empirical material on studies from the Muslim World (mainly the Middle East, including Turkey and Iran), India, and Europe, East and West. Learning Outcomes:
The course is conceived in a manner as to achieve the following learning outcomes and goals. The students will:
a) be introduced to major theories regarding modernity and secularism in general and in Islam in particular
b) offered an overview to recent debates questioning the validity of these theories
c) develop at once an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective on these questions
d) learn to evaluate critically theories and case studies deriving from different disciplines (the class is cross-listed with Sociology and History departments). Assessment :
The grade is composed by a) a class presentations 30%, b) the Final Paper (40%) and c) participation in class discussion (30%). The Final paper will be either a research paper and be assigned between professor and student three weeks before the end of the term on one of the issues arising from the seminar or an Essay examination. Full description:
1. Week: Introduction to the theme and seminar
2. Week: The secular, secularization, and secularism: Definitions
• 1. José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World, Chicago, London 1994 (chap.1 ‘Secularization, Enlightenment, and Modern Religion’) [
pdf]
• 2. Charles Taylor, ‘Modes of Secularism’, in Secularism and its Critics, ed. by Rajeev Bhargava, Delhi et al, 1998, pp. 31-53. [pdf]
• 3. Charles Taylor, The Age of the Secular, New York 2007 (selection). [pdf]
• 4. Niyazi Berkes, The Development of Secularism in Turkey. London 1998, p. 3-19. [pdf]
3. Week: Classical concepts of state and religion in Muslim societies
• 5. Albert Hourani, Arab Thought in the Liberal Age 1798-1939, Cambridge 1983, (chap. 1, ‘The Islamic State’) [pdf]
• 6. Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought, Austin 1982, p. 104-65. [pdf]
• 7. Said A. Arjomand, ‘Religion and the Diversity of Normative Orders’, in S.A. Arjomand (ed.), The Political Dimensions of Religion. New York 1993, pp. 43-69. [pdf]
4. Week: Reconsidering religion, the state, and the secular, 1
• 8. Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular in Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford 2003 (‘Introduction: Thinking about Secularism’). [pdf]
• 9. Jose Casanova, ‘Secularization Revisited: A Reply to Talal Asad’, in Powers of the Secular Modern – Talal Asad and his Interlocutors, ed. by David Scott and Charles Hirschkind, Stanford 2006, 12-30. [pdf]
5. Week: Reconsidering religion, the state and the secular, 2
• 10. Daniele Hervieu-Léger, ‘The Social Process of Secularization’ and ‘Individualism, the Validation of Faith and the Social Nature of Religion in Modernity’, in The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Religion, Oxford 2001, pp. 249-64 and 161-64 [pdf]
• 11. Nicki Keddie, ‘Secularism and its Discontents’, Daedalus 2003, pp. 16-31. [pdf]
• 12. Elisabeth Hurd, The Politics of Secularism in international Relations. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2008. (selection) [pdf]
6. Week: Colonial history and secularization – the case of India
• 13. Akeel Bilgrami, ‘Secularism, Nationalism, and Modernity’, in Rajeev Bhargava (ed), Secularism and its Critics. New Delhi, 1998, pp. 380-418. [pdf]
• 14. Asim Roy, Thinking over “Popular Islam’ in South Asia: Search for a Paradigm, in Mushirul Hasan and Asim Roy (eds.), Living Together Separately. Cultural India in History and Politics. Oxford 2005, pp. 29-61. [pdf]
7. Week: Secularism and Islam - the case of the Middle East
• 15. Aziz Al-Azmeh, ‘The Religious and the Secular in Contemporary Arab Life’, in Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islams and Modernities, 2nd, edition, 1996, 41-58. [pdf]
• 16. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, Islam and Secularism, Kuala Lumpur 1978, 97-132. [pdf]
8. Week: Islam in Europe: Assimilation, Integration, Rebellion, 1
• 17. Grace Davie, ‘Europe: The Exception that proves the rule?’, in The Desecularisation of the World: resurgent Religion and World Politics, ed. by Peter Berger, Washington, 1999, p. 65-84. [pdf]
• 19. Talal Asad, ‘Muslims as a “Religious Minority” in Europe’, in T. Asad, Formation of the Secular. [pdf]
• 20. Tariq Ramadan, Western Muslims and the Future of Islam, (selection) [not in the reader]
9. Week: Islam in Europe: Assimilation, Integration, Rebellion, 2
• Case studies and further material (to be decided during the first week)
• 21. Jytte Klausen, The Islamic Challenge - Politics and Religion in Western Societies, Oxford 2005. [not in the reader]
10. Week: Concept of the Public Sphere in Muslim Societies
• 22. Baber Johansen, ‘Apostasy as Objective and Depersonalized Fact: Two recent Egyptian Court Judgements’, in Social Research 70, 3 (2003) 687-710 (Special issue: Islam, Public and Private Spheres) [pdf]
• 23. Oliver Roy, Globalised Islam. The search for a new Ummah. London 2004. (selection) [pdf]
11. Week: Globalisation, secular norms and Islam in contemporary debates
• 24. Bryan Turner, ‘Politics and Culture in Islamic Globalism’, in Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology, ed. by Bryan Turner (vol. 4: Islam and Social Movements, London, NY, pp. 84-101. [pdf]
• 25. Ernest Gellner, Reason, Modernity and Religion. London 1992. [reserve shelf]
• 26. Shmuel Eisenstadt, ‘The Reconstruction of Religious Arenas in the Framework of “Multiple Modernities’’, in Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology, ed. by Bryan Turner (vol. 4: Islam and Social Movements, London, NY, pp. 1-22. [not in the reader]
12. Week: Final Discussion