Yesterday we posted our new Jihad Watch Send Us Your Syllabus project, in which we will explore the biases, whitewashes, and propaganda of courses in Islamic studies offered in our nation’s universities.
But the situation in those universities, despite the dominance of the Middle East Studies Association (or, as Hugh Fitzgerald calls it, MESA Nostra), is not uniformly bleak. Here, from Rice University, is Professor David Cook’s excellent course “Jihad and the End of the World.” Cook is the author of the superb book Understanding Jihad, and this course has everything that Carl Ernst’s propaganda farrago at UNC lacks: academic rigor, a realistic sampling of Islamic texts and teachings, and a goal of equipping the student to understand the subject well enough to make his own judgments, rather than to coerce him to accept the teacher’s point of view.
1. Violence and Apocalyptic Beliefs
Daniel (Daniel 7-12), Matthew 24; Revelation (Rev. 4-20)
Qur’an 3, 8-9, 33, 61, 74-75
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/bukhari/ #52 “Jihad”
Reuven Firestone, “Disparity and Resolution in the Qur’anic Teachings on War: A Reconsideration,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 56 (1997), pp. 1-20.
James Turner Johnson, The Holy War Idea in Western and Islamic Traditions, chapters 2, 4-5.
William Chittick, “The Theological Roots of Peace and War according to Islam,” Islamic Quarterly 34 (1990), pp. 145-63.
2. The Classical Muslim Apocalyptic Scenario
Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic, chapters 1-3, Appendix 1
Cook, “Muslim apocalyptic and jihad,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 20 (1997), pp. 66-104.
F. Martinez (trans), Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius; also see translation in Andrew Palmer (ed), The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles, pp. 222-42 (trans. S. Brock).
3. Conquests, Crusades and Interpretations of Jihad
Cook, Understanding Jihad, chapter 2.
Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives, chapter 4.
John Renard, “Al-Jihad al-Akbar: Notes on a Theme in Islamic Spirituality,” Muslim World 78 (1988), pp. 225-42.
Denis MacEoin, “The Babi Concept of Holy War,” Religion 12 (1982), pp. 93-129.
Joel Kraemer, “The jihad of the falasifa,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 10 (1987), pp. 372-90.
Yohannan Friedmann, Prophecy Continuous, chapter 8 “Ahmadi Jihad.”
4. The Conquest and Islamization of India and Muslim Reactions to Colonialism
Cook, Understanding Jihad, chapter 4.
Simon Digby, Sufis and Soldiers in Auwrangzeb’s Deccan, chapters 4-5.
Sayyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, Revivalist Movements in India in the Sixteenth Century, 2-3.
Louis Fenech, Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition: Playing the ‘Game of Love’, chapters 4, 7.
Stephen Dale, “Religious Suicide in Islamic Asia: Anti-Colonial Terrorism in India, Indonesia and the Philippines,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 32 (1988), pp. 37-59.
5. Jihad and Apocalyptism in Africa
`Arabfaqih, Futuh al-Habasha: The Ethiopian Conquests, trans. Paul Stenhouse, pp. 1-43.
John Willis, “Jihad fi sabil Allah—Its Doctrinal Basis in Islam and some Aspects of its Evolution in Nineteenth Century West Africa,” Journal of African History 3 (1967), pp. 395-415.
Mervyn Hiskett, The Sword of Truth, introduction, chapters 5-7.
Haim Shaked, A Life of the Mahdi, pp. 62-4, 76-80, 180-96.
Abdi Sheik-Abdi, Divine Madness: Mohammed `Abdulle Hassan (1856-1920), chapters 3-4, 6.
6. Wahhabism and Salafism
Netana Delong-Bas, Wahhabism, chapters 1-2, 5-6.
William Shepard, “What is ‘Islamic fundamentalism’?” Studies in Religion 17 (1988), pp. 5-26.
Hamid Algar, Wahhabism: A Critical Essay, pp. 1-66.
Cook, Understanding Jihad, chapter 5.
7. Sayyid Qutb and Egyptian Radical Islam
Sayyid Qutb, Milestones, pp. 44-52, 107-44, 172-92;
at http://www.youngmuslims.ca/online_library/books/milestones/hold/index_2.asp (intro, chapters 4, 7)
Johannes Jansen (trans), The Neglected Duty (al-Farida al-gha’iba).
Ayman al-Zawahiri (probably), “7 Misconceptions in Fighting the Apostate Regime,” at http://tibyaan.atspace.com/tibyaan/article006f.html?id=1046
“Al-Gama`a al-Islamiyya versus al-Qaeda” at memri.org, special dispatch no. 1301 (Sept. 27, 2006).
MIDTERM: in class March 2, 2007.
8. The Arab-Israeli and the Indo-Pakistani Conflicts
“The Hamas Covenant” in Journal of Palestine Studies 22 (1993), pp. 122-34; or at http://www.palestine-info.net/hamas/ (also Hroub, pp. 267-91)
Shaul Mishal and Reuben Aharoni, Speaking Stones, pp. 201-20.
Khaled Hroub, Hamas: Political Thought and Practice, chapters 1-3.
Amir Rana, A to Z of Pakistani Jehadi Organizations, chapters 1-2, 9-10
Yoginder Sikand, “The Changing Course of the Kashmiri Struggle: from National Liberation to Islamic Jihad,” Muslim World 91 (2001), pp. 229-56.
9. The Developing Muslim Apocalyptic Scenario
Cook, Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature, chapters 2-3, 6-7, 9.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion at fordham.edu/halsall/modsbook
Samuel Huntington, “A Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72 (1993), pp. 22-49.
10. `Abdallah `Azzam in Afghanistan: Genesis of al-Qa`ida and Usama b. Ladin
Oliver Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, chapters 4-5.
`Abdallah `Azzam, “Martyrs: the Building Blocks of Nations” at http://www.religioscope.com/info/doc/jihad/azzam_martyrs.htm
ibid, “The Islamic Ruling on Defending Muslim Land under Attack,” at azzam.com
Bruce Lawrence, Messages to the World, pp. 23-64, 106-32, 212-76.
Muhammad Saeed al-Qahtani, al-Wala’ wa-l-bara’, part 1, pp. 97-110; part 2, chapter 7, part 3, chapters 2-3, 7.
11. The Afghan Arabs Graduate: Algeria, Bosnia—Herzegovina and Chechnya
Luis Martinez, The Algerian Civil War, chapters 3-5, 7-9.
Hugh Roberts, The Battlefield: Algeria 1988-2002, chapter 15.
Cook, Understanding Jihad, appendix 1: “GIA Communique of Sept. 8, 1995.”
“The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Martyrdom Operations,” at azzam.com
Evan Kolhmann, al-Qaida’s Jihad in Europe, chapters 4-8.
“In the Hearts of Green Birds,” at almansurah.com/jihad/2003/050103i.htm
C.A.O van Nieuwenhuijze, “Islamism—a defiant utopianism,” Die Welt des Islams 35 (1995), pp. 1-36.
ROUGH DRAFT OF PAPER DUE:
12. Iran and Hizbullah
E. Kohlberg, “The Development of the Imami Shi`i doctrine of jihad,” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 126 (1976), pp. 64-86.
Hamid Algar (trans.), Islam and Revolution: the Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini, “Islamic Government”, “Jihad.”
Ahmed Hamzeh, In the Path of Hizbullah, chapters 3, 5.
Internet research: President Ahmadinajad of Iran and his messianic beliefs
Immanuel Wallerstein, “Islam, the West and the World,” Journal of Islamic Studies 10 (1999), pp. 109-25
13. Radical Muslim Organizations in Central Asia and Southeast Asia
Vitaly Naumkin, Radical Islam in Central Asia: Between Pen and Rifle, chapters 2-3.
Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, chapters 5-7.
Rizal Sukma, “Indonesia and the Challenge of Radical Islam after October 12,” in Ramakrishna and Tan (eds), After Bali, pp. 341-56.
Andrew Tan, “The Indigenous Roots of Conflict in Southeast Asia: The Case of Mindinao,” in idem, pp. 97-116.
Abu Bakr Bashir, “It is not Democracy we want, but Allah-ocracy,” at memri.org, special dispatch no. 1285 (Sept. 8, 2006).
Gunaratna, Acharya and Chua, Conflict and Terrorism in Southern Thailand, “Berjihad di Pattani,” pp. 118-45.
14. Sept. 11, the United States—Afghanistan and Iraq
Cook, Understanding Jihad, “The Last Night,” appendix 1.
Robert Pape, Dying to Win, chapters 3-8, 10, 12.
Abu `Ubeid al-Qurashi, “Comparing the Munich (Attack) in 1972 to September 11,” at memri.org, special dispatch no. 353 (March 12, 2002).
Salih al-Sawi, “A Commentary upon the Fatwa Issued Concerning the Permissibility of Muslims participating in Military Operations against the Muslims of Afghanistan,” at http://www.robert-fisk.com/refutation_of_fatwa_november2001.htm (Nov. 2001)
Mohammed Hafez, “Suicide Terrorism in Iraq: A Preliminary Assessment of the Quantitative Data and Documentary Evidence,” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 29 (2006), pp. 591-619.
Mohammed Hafez, “Martyrdom Mythology in Iraq: How Jihadists Frame suicide terrorism in videos and Biographies,” Terrorism and Political Violence 19 (2007), pp. 95-115.
PAPER DUE: April 25, 2007
FINAL EXAM: take home (due May 7, 2007)
