Islam Challenges of Modernity

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The decline of the Muslim world and the rise of the Western powers created a crisis for Muslims, leading to a range of types of response to modernity. Starting with some consideration of the historical background and a broad typology of Muslim responses to modernity, this course will then focus on key Muslim thinkers from the 19th century to the present, representative particularly of modernist and Islamist tendencies but also of other schools of thought. Through this primary focus on selected thinkers and texts illustrating their thought, a range of themes will emerge for discussion, including: religious authority, scriptural interpretation, the state, human rights, the status of women, religious pluralism, and Islam as a minority faith in the West. The course seeks to offer an informed, respectful-outsider approach to developments and debates within modern Islam and should be of particular value to students with interests specifically in Islam or more widely in religion in the modern world.