Islam and Democracy

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course explores the interaction of religion and politics in majority Muslim countries. From this course, students will attain a general understanding of this interaction as well as relatively specialized knowledge about various aspects of the topic. The course provides knowledge about Islam, political Islam (the politicization of Islam by Islamist movements and groups, activists, and intellectuals) and democracy and democratization in countries with strong Islamist social movements and political parties. Our perspective will be historical, doctrinal, ideological, and based in contemporary political analysis. The first half of the course provides historical context for the case studies we will compare and contrast in the second half of the course.