Islam and Politics

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2010:

Admission into the fourth-year honours program or any postgraduate program in the Arts Faculty. Admission to the Master of Islamic Studies.

This subject will explore the origins of ‘political Islam’ or ‘Islamism’- a backlash against the economic, political and cultural dominance of the ‘West’. It will survey the gamut of Islamist organisations in the Middle East, South and South East Asia against the backdrop of an increasingly shrinking world. This subject begins with the study of Islamic responses to European imperialism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis upon the emergence of Islamic modernism. It then focuses on the growth of Islamic movements and their response to contending ideologies, including secular nationalism and socialism. This subject will conclude by considering the impact of Islam on international relations.

Students who successfully complete this subject should...

• have gained a critical understanding of Islamic radicalism, in its different manifestations globally, and the political and conceptual forces that extend or hamper its scope
• be able to place political Islam within the context of a shrinking world and offer students a nuanced appreciation of relations between the West and the Muslim world
• have a deeper understanding of the basic ideological tenets and historical roots of Islamic radicalism and the global context within which it has emerged
• have an appreciation of the diversity within Islam in relation to the above
• have a deeper appreciation and improved ability to analyse the literature on Islam and politics –. with reference to the ‘clash of civilisations’.

Shahram Akbarzadeh & Abdullah Saeed (eds), Islam and Political Legitimacy, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003

Gilles Kepel. Jihad, The Trial of Political Islam ( IB Tauris, 2003).
Olivier Roy, The Failure of Political Islam ( Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994).
Shahram Akbarzadeh & Samina Yasmeen: Islam and the West: Reflections from Australia ( Sydney: UNSWPress, 2005).

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students who successfully complete this subject should

• have a deeper understanding of the basic ideological tenets and historical roots of Islamic radicalism and the global context within which it has emerged
• have an appreciation of the diversity within Islam in relation to the above
• have a deeper appreciation and improved ability to analyse the literature on Islam and politics –. with reference to ‘.clash of civilisations’.
• have improved oral skills by participating in seminars
• have improved writing skills by producing a well-documented take-home exam paper