MESA Banner
Teaching Religion in a Political Science Classroom
Abstract
Issues related to Middle East are now being covered in many political science courses. However, because Middle East is almost synonymous with Islam for many students, no matter what the scheduled topic is, the discussion quickly gets centered on Islam. Students’ common misconceptions concerning Islam can be summarized in three main groups: 1) Muslims are fundamentally different from other faith-based communities; 2) Muslims do not change, evolve or progress; and 3) there exists no diversity among Muslim societies. The specific strategy proposed by this paper may be helpful in targeting these misconceptions. The strategy involves in a two-fold comparative analysis that both examines at a case over time and compares various cases at a given time. As such, specific readings, assignments, and in-class exercises that include not only academic writings, but also literary, music and art are assigned and discussed. Based on the experience from an upper division political science course, this paper also includes students’ responses to the objective of illustrating that Muslims are neither unique, nor unchanging, nor uniform.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Islamic World
Sub Area
None