Teaching the Politics of Islamic Fundamentalism

Kazemzadeh, Masoud

doi:10.1017/s1049096500048289

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A point of interest across the continuum is that the commonly held belief in the West, that of Islamic 'exceptionalism', which is that fundamentalists reject the three defining political characteristics of modernity, namely democracy, secularism and nationalism, 32 does not hold across the continuum. This again reinforces the distinction between political Islamism, where this rejection exists and apolitical fundamentalists, who subscribe to one or more of these characteristics.…”

Section: [Table 1 Here]mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Muslim Continuum: An Analytical Model of Religiosity and Socio-Political Diversity in Muslim Minority Environments

Randeree¹

2016

Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examines the challenges facing Muslim societies in the early part of the twentyfirst century. The paper examines tensions between 'liberal' interpretations of Islam and extreme views within a globalisation paradigm and how these are changing. Specifically, the work investigates how the spotlight on Islam and its adherents in a post 9/11 world has manifest among Muslim individuals, groups and societies and how these may change to accommodate or react to the shifting global frame of mind towards Islam and the Muslims. Analysis is provided within the context of Muslim minority dwellers, with focus on Muslims living in Britain. The paper further proposes a fundamentalism continuum based on Dekmejian's 1 model and analyses its impact on the Muslim Diaspora.

show abstract

Section: [Table 1 Here]mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Muslim Continuum: An Analytical Model of Religiosity and Socio-Political Diversity in Muslim Minority Environments

Randeree¹

2016

Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Student imagination is ridden with stereotypes and distorted beliefs about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This imagination and its effects are the object of inquiry in a few works that also evaluate strategies to deal with the interference of prejudice about Middle Easterners in the classroom (Abboud, 2015; Caplan et al, 2012; Çavdar et al, 2019; Kazemzadeh, 1998; Stover, 2007; Tétrault, 1996). This stream of work shares the concern that the learning process does not fall prey to simple opinion in lieu of evidence-based argumentation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Analytical pluralism is the principle that guides Kazemzadeh’s (1998) teaching of Islamic fundamentalism. This scholar defends paradigmatic pluralism as guarantee of nuanced academic discussion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orientalism is not my opinion: Decolonial teaching and the problem of credibility in IR courses with a MENA focus

Sanz

Prado

2021

Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Teaching about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in politics or international studies courses in ‘the West’ is challenging due to the many stereotypes that inform students’ imagination. A common pedagogical purpose is to help students recognise their biases and work through them. This often renders the classroom a controversial place and the teacher suspect of lack of objectivity. The specialised literature points at ‘cognitive dissonance’ as an intervening factor. On occasions, cognitive dissonance leads to harm on teachers’ credibility. This article evaluates the question of credibility in two activities developed in International Relations (IR) undergraduate courses with a MENA focus, where students had to identify the impact of ‘Orientalism’ in the film Argo and in analyses of the ‘Arab Spring’. The article argues that to fully grasp episodes of cognitive dissonance and attending problems of teacher credibility, the disciplinary context in which learners are socialised into needs to be considered – in this case, IR. The article advocates the articulation of a student-centred decolonial teaching pedagogy that renders subjectivity an object of learning and, at the same time, prepares students to understand the potentialities and weaknesses of different IR paradigms.

show abstract

“…Those who teach gender within the MENA context have written about further challenges in teaching MENA-related issues in American colleges (Abu Lughod 2020; Caplan et al 2012; El-Shakry 2020; Haddad and Schwedler 2013; Kazemzadeh 1998; Stover 2007; Tetrault 1996). Scholars have offered a variety of approaches to the study of gender in the MENA.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching about Gender and Politics of the MENA: Undermining Bias and Introducing a Framework

Çavdar

2023

Pol & Gen

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As instructors, we are quite familiar with students coming to our classes loaded with preconceived notions. For instance, some believe that male instructors are better at math, while others think that markets, if left on their own, will produce wealth for everyone. Teaching about gender and politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region at an American college is no different. Students come to class rarely knowing the basic facts, history, or culture of the region, mostly because the K–12 educational curriculum in the United States does not typically cover the MENA region. However, students’ lack of formal education on the MENA region does not mean they are unexposed to its issues, which are frequent topics in American media. Unfortunately, students often hold misconceptions and deep biases about women, culture, and politics in the region, and these misconceptions impair the learning process by acting as a “psychological block” for the students. As Haddad and Schwedler (2013, 211) put it, “our years of teaching undergraduates have taught us how images of harems, pyramids, and desert warriors wielding sabers on camelback still shape many Americans’ perceptions of the region.” This essay discusses some of the challenges that instructors teaching gender and politics in the MENA region face in an American college classroom. No single course can eradicate old paradigms and prejudices. However, this piece proposes some strategies for effective teaching about gender and politics of the MENA region.

show abstract

Teaching the Politics of Islamic Fundamentalism

Cited by 7 publications

References 21 publications

The Muslim Continuum: An Analytical Model of Religiosity and Socio-Political Diversity in Muslim Minority Environments

The Muslim Continuum: An Analytical Model of Religiosity and Socio-Political Diversity in Muslim Minority Environments

Orientalism is not my opinion: Decolonial teaching and the problem of credibility in IR courses with a MENA focus

Teaching about Gender and Politics of the MENA: Undermining Bias and Introducing a Framework

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About