INTL 407/507, Summer 2011 (2 credits)
Professor Anita Weiss
Monday-Friday July 25-29, 3 -6:50 pm
276 Education

Militant Islam

Foundations in Faith and Manifestations Today

Within the Muslim world today, Islamist discourse has come to set a growing number of political agendas. However, as we have seen in response to recent global events, the nature of this discourse -- and in particular, the diversity within it -- is rarely understood. In particular, the concept of jihad (striving, struggle) and its relatin to militancy is both frequently misunderstood and misrepresented.

This seminar seeks to rectify those misrepresentations and misunderstnadings by introducing participants to the historical and theological foundations of militant Islam through exploring how the concept of jihad has been understood in Muslim societies. We study various foundational movements, probe why we are seeing more groups oriented toward militant Islam today, identify the larger goals of some of the militant Islamist groups today, and the distinctions between groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, and the various manifestation of al-Qaeda.

Each participant is encouraged to discuss the various topics we will address in this course in an open, respectful manner so as to promote deeper understanding of these issues which have been heavily sensationalized by the global media and differing political groups.

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Professor Weiss has broad experience as a scholar in this arena for over two decades, going back to the publication of her first book Islamic Reassertion in Pakistan in 1986. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on political Islam, serves as an Advisory Editor on the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, and has lectured extensively both locally and nationally about political Islam in the wake of the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001.