{"id":37794,"date":"2017-02-09T12:27:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T20:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37794"},"modified":"2017-02-09T12:27:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T20:27:59","slug":"study-islam-us-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/study-islam-us-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The study of Islam in the US: now what?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/studyofislam.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/studyofislam.png\" alt=\"studyofislam\" width=\"680\" height=\"346\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37795\" srcset=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/studyofislam.png 680w, https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/studyofislam-250x127.png 250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the week after President Trump\u2019s executive order banning arrivals from the seven Muslim-majority countries, global audiences have watched heart-breaking scenes at US airports where thousands of people have been denied entry and turned back. Meanwhile, huge crowds across the world have demonstrated their support for Muslims, and public figures and institutions have condemned the bigotry of the new administration.<\/p>\n<p ?As a lecturer in religious studies with a particular interest in Islam, I think that it is important to reflect on the prospects for Islam-related academic subjects while Trump is in office. So I have asked my American colleagues about their views on this issue. I asked them: given the history of deep suspicion of Islam in the US that transformed into hysterical Islamophobia post-9\/11, can it really get any worse?<\/p>\n<p>Maria Curtis, associate professor of anthropology and cross-cultural studies and programme director at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, in Texas, is guardedly optimistic. \u201cAs far as I can tell, anytime there seems to be a political shift like this, it only seems to drive up student interest in Islam and Middle East courses,\u201d she told me. \u201cI am currently teaching a class called Islam in America, and I have 22 students enrolled. They are very engaged, sincere and interested students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are hoping to really learn more about Islam\u2019s roots in America and they are thrilled to know just how deep those roots are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This trend is confirmed by Charles Kurzman and Carl W. Ernst from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who, in their 2012 paper <em>Islamic Studies in U.S. Universities<\/em>,\u00a0noted a nationwide spike of interest in Islam in US academia since 2001.\u00a0The numbers of dissertations and academic articles about Islam, and faculty members specialising in Islam, has grown exponentially, they find. This has been paralleled by an increased and sensationalised media focus on the Muslim community.<\/p>\n<p>As the authors observe, somewhat resignedly: \u201cthis attention derives in large part from overblown fears of security threats. The field seems to benefit both from Muslims committing atrocities and also from the ignorance and paranoia of non-Muslims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Islam-related subjects face serious ideological opposition from some evangelical Christian organisations, who oppose the teaching of Islam that does not show it as a terrorist religion. In 2002, an organisation called the Family Policy Network (FPN) filed a suit against the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to prevent an academic text about the Koran from being taught as part of a summer induction programme, citing an alleged breach of the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>FPN also argued that the book presented an idealised view of Islam that did not explain the terrorist acts of 9\/11, and therefore did not provide a suitable educational resource for American students. FPN lost the case, and several subsequent appeals, but in doing so highlighted a prominent narrative: that teaching Islam is only justifiable as part of the securitisation agenda. This idea unsettlingly dovetails with the Trump administration\u2019s course of action.<\/p>\n<p>As\u00a0Kecia Ali, associate professor of religion at Boston University, says: \u201cThe administration\u2019s [executive] order has far-reaching, chilling, potentially devastating effects on the study of Islam and Muslims.\u201d She is joined by a chorus of voices from the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and religious and Islamic studies departments across America.\u00a0The AAR\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aarweb.org\/\">statement of protest<\/a>\u00a0says that Trump\u2019s ban \u201cpoisons the public\u2019s understanding of Islam in particular and religion in general\u201d, and is an \u201cexample of religious bigotry rooted in ignorance and as an attack on the American principle of religious liberty\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Curtis concludes that although we tend to blame a lot on Trump, Islam \u201chas always challenged American pluralism\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been there as a benchmark of sorts, asking the question \u2018what are the limits of American pluralism?\u2019. And we find all sorts of examples and responses, some very forward-thinking and tolerant, and some quite ready to cast all \u2018Mohammedans\u2019 into the fire along with witches, criminals, pagans, and anyone else outside the realm of evangelical Protestants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Author Bio: <\/strong>Anna Piela is a lecturer in religious studies at Leeds Trinity University. Her\u00a0research interests are focused on gender and Muslim identities in the West.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the week after President Trump\u2019s executive order banning arrivals from the seven Muslim-majority countries, global audiences have watched heart-breaking scenes at US airports where thousands of people have been denied entry and turned back. Meanwhile, huge crowds across the world have demonstrated their support for Muslims, and public figures and institutions have condemned the [&hellip;]\n&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/study-islam-us-now\/\" class=\"more\">learn more&rarr;<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":37795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[42639],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-37794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-teaching-of-islam"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The study of Islam in the US: now what? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/study-islam-us-now\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The study of Islam in the US: now what? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the week after President Trump\u2019s executive order banning arrivals from the seven Muslim-majority countries, global audiences have watched heart-breaking scenes at US airports where thousands of people have been denied entry and turned back. 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