People and Politics Worldwide
Lecture on
Islam
Once Jews,
blacks and other minorities were subjected to similar degradation; today only
Arabs and homosexuals are still fair game for media bashing. The Arabs, I
think, are singled out primarily because, unlike most other peoples of the
developing world, they have resisted assimilating Western ways or capitulating
to Western values. Thus, they are seen as a threat and, armed with oil
and the ability to make war or peace with Israel, are thought to be in a
position to translate that threat into actions that affect the industrialized
world.
Joseph Lamb, The Arabs: Journeys Beyond the Mirage (New York:
Random House, 1988) p.15.
Do you agree
with Lamb?
How are Arabs
and Arab-Americans portrayed in American media?
What Arab or
Arab-American characters can you think of?
What did you
learn from this week’s readings?
What things
surprised you about Islam and its teachings?
Debunking misconceptions
about Islam and Muslims
_Most
of the Muslims in the world are not Arabs
_Many
Arabs are Christians
_The
countries with the largest Muslim populations are: Indonesia, Malaysia,
Pakistan, and India
_Islam has
strongly influenced the development of Europe and “Western” civilization
What
commonalities do you note between Islam and Christianity?
How does the
monotheism of Islam differ from Christianity?
What are the
Five Pillars of the Islamic faith?
Are there
corollaries to these in Christianity and/or Judaism?
Religion in the
Middle East
Magstadt and
Weatherby make a lot of sweeping statements about religion in the Middle Eastern
and about the purported “uniqueness” of Islam.
Examples from
Magstadt:
Judaism
and Christianity have even deeper roots in the Middle East than Islam (450).
Is this a fair
statement? How long has each really been present? How long have the
various peoples been there? How long is long enough? Does this kind
of thinking reify inter-faith/inter-cultural conflict?
Islam is more
that a religion; it is a way of life. Its scripture, the Koran, covers
politics, law, and social behavior and even sets forth procedures for divorce,
loans, and wills (452).
Do other
religions aspire to be _more than a religion_? Is it possible for a
religion not to affect politics, law, social behavior? What other
religions set forth procedures for divorce, loans, etc.?
Muhammad
mixed politics and religion and created a kind of theocracy_a pattern still
discernible in some parts of the Middle East (especially Iran) (453).
Other examples
of theocracy in the world/history? What is the mix between politics and
religion in our society? In Europe?
The Political
Effects of Islam in the ME/NA
Sectarian
differences within and between countries with Islamic majorities have
definitely contributed to political instability in the region
And worked
against “State-building”
e.g. Conflict
between Islamic nationalists and secularists in Turkey, Egypt, Iran
split between
the Shi’ites (minority of Muslims who believe caliph should be a blood
descendent of Mohammed) and the Sunni (majority of Muslims who believe caliph
should be elected)
Regime Types in
the ME/NA: (note: slightly different from Magstadt's interpretation)
Moderate/traditional
regimes
Jordan, Morocco, Persian Gulf sheikdoms (Qatar, Oman, UAE,
Yemen)
Radical/revolutionary
regimes (NOT religiously based)
Egypt
under Abdel-Nasser, Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Libya
Arab nationalism, non-Marxist socialism, secularism
Religiously Fundamentalist
regimes
Saudi
Arabia, Afghanistan under Taliban, post-revolution Iran