Reforming Islam

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

What happens when a (seemingly) unstoppable force meets a (seemingly) immovable object? This is the question we seek to answer when thinking about the question of the impact of colonial modernity on the Islamic tradition. How did Muslim societies and the Islamic intellectual tradition receive modernity? What were the responses to the intense disruptions caused by colonialism on Muslim self-imagination and their interaction with their traditions? How did Muslim thinkers around the world reimagine their own traditions in the wake of these cataclysmic encounters? And what were the major intellectual currents that continue to shape the way we understand Islam as both a tradition and lived experience today?