This course is not currently offered, please contact the school or faculty of your program.

Course description

Examines debates within the Islamic world over the last two centuries about how to respond to the forces of modernization and Western economic and military dominance. Studies how the debate has been expressed in different forms, including anti-colonial movements, radical modern visions of the relationship between religion and the state, as well as struggles to adapt Muslim societies to the dominant secular model of democracy and human rights. Examines and question of how Islamic societies should come to terms with modernity: capitalism, democracy, religious and ethnic pluralism, social and gender equality, the processes of rationalization and desacralization, individualism, and secularism. The course will cover the entire Islamic world, from its centre in the Middle East, to Africa, Central Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and Islamic Southeast Asia.