Professor J. Progler, School of Education

February 1999, jprogler@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Islam is an increasingly visible religion in the United States, and Muslims are gradually becoming prominent members of American society. At the same time, Islam and Muslims very often continue to be misunderstood and misrepresented in American public and private life. By way of critical reading, writing, surfing, viewing, listening, and discussing, this course will introduce the history, literature, politics, and sociology of Islam in America. Students will discover Islamic beliefs and practices historically and across cultures, and survey the enormous social, political, and economic diversity of Muslim peoples worldwide and in America. Along the way, they will encounter pre-Columbian Muslim voyagers, the Muslim presence among African slaves in the Americas, the modern Black Muslim movement, and contemporary Muslim communities in New York City. The course will also explore the interactions between immigrant and indigenous Muslims, and examine the relations between the United States and various Muslim nations.

An introduction to the History, Literature, and Sociology of Islam in the United States, 'American Islam' will utilize a variety of disciplinary perspectives to consider important issues centering around Islam and Muslims in America. By rigorous reading, writing, surfing, viewing, listening, and discussing, and through conducting fieldwork in New York City, students will be acquainted with key and central concepts, and will acquire the tools so as to formulate their own research.

Josef Prögler has a Ph.D. in American Studies and an M.A. in the Humanities from SUNY Buffalo, and an M.Phil. in Middle East Studies and Ethnomusicology from Columbia University. In addition to teaching in public and private schools, he has taught at SUNY Buffalo and Columbia, and currently teaches in the School of Education. Professor Prögler has worked as a journalist covering Middle East issues for international publications, and his research articles have appeared in Al-Tawhid: A Quarterly Journal of Islamic Thought and Culture, The Journal of Islamic History, and Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. His forthcoming book treats education and colonization in the context of encounters between Islam and Western civilization.

'American Islam' is distinctive in that there are currently no courses at Brooklyn College dealing with Islam and Muslims in America. Students who wish to learn about the peoples, places, and issues associated with this increasingly visible but perpetually misunderstood religion, and especially those students who are interested in going beyond the media hype, will benefit most from such a course. While study in the Social Sciences and the Core might traverse the terrain of Islam in the World, the connection of America with that terrain needs consideration. New York City provides a rich arena for exploring Islam in Diaspora and the relationships between immigrant and indigenous Muslims. A fieldwork experience will provide a practical counterbalance to the course readings, and encourage students to pursue and develop their interests and concerns.

Organization

The course is arranged both chronologically and thematically. Students may be surprised to learn that Muslims have been in the Americas for many centuries. In addition to stories of pre-Columbia explorers, there is solid evidence of a strong Muslim presence among Africans in American slavery, including slave narratives in Arabic (which we will read in translation). Immigration in the early and mid 20th century brought African Americans into contact with Muslims from the Mideast, with interesting American hybrids forming. More recently, one can find Muslims of virtually every nationality and persuasion living in America. After surveying the history and literature of Muslim communities, we will then turn to consideration of contemporary social issues. The early part of the course will be organized around a series of readings (see below), and the later part based on fieldwork projects. In addition to the background on Islam and Muslims in America provided by the readings, students will be introduced to basic methods of ethnography. Students will respond to the reading and discussion in a series of essays, and make group presentations to the class on their fieldwork. A final paper will integrate both aspects.

Background

My current scholarly interests are centered around Muslims and Education, and I am invited to speak often on the topic. I am writing a book, Education and Colonization in the Muslim World, which is based on library research in English and Arabic, and on field research in Turkey, Palestine, South Africa, and the United States. While at SUNY Buffalo from 1993-96, I designed and taught a three course sequence in Islamic Studies. 'American Islam' is an updated and revised version of one of those courses. In addition to my ongoing independent research, I trained in Middle East Studies while a graduate student at Columbia University, and I have worked as a journalist covering Middle East issues for international publications. My Master's thesis was on music and cultural identity among Arab Muslim immigrants in New York and Buffalo, and my Ph.D. dissertation, soon to be a book, is about the encounters on various fronts between Islamic and Western civilizations. Most recently, I have an article in press on American Muslim slave narratives in Arabic, including a translation from Arabic.

Prerequisites

Other than being prepared to work hard, read, and do fieldwork, and having a willingness to challenge comfort zones in dealing with new people and ideas, there are no pre-requisites for this course. Students who have taken Core courses on World Civilizations and Modern History, and those majoring in History, Social Sciences, Comparative Literature, and American Studies might find some parallels and tangential trajectories to their studies, but no prior coursework is necessary.

During the first half of the semester, surveying the history and literature of Islam and Muslims in America, students will read a book a week, write short response papers, and initiate discussion with the class. After some priming in ethnographic methodology, students will form groups based on research interests and will proceed to conduct fieldwork in a variety of settings. The instructor will assist with fieldwork placement, and the sites will vary depending upon interests. Classtime during the second half of the semester will be devoted to developing the fieldwork projects and reporting on fieldwork progress. A final paper will be required, which may entail integrating the earlier response papers with the later field based research. Though not limited to this list, course readings in the past have included works like the following: African Muslims in Antebellum America by Allan D. Austin (1984, revised 1997), American Jihad: Islam After Malcolm X by Steven Barboza (1993), The Muslims of America edited Yvonne Haddad (1991), Struggling to Surrender: Some Impressions of an American Convert to Islam by Jeffrey Lang (1994), The Black Muslims in America by C. Eric Lincoln (1961, revised 1996), African American Islam by Aminah Beverly McCloud (1995), Al-Mughtaribun: American Law and the Transformation of Muslim Life in the United States by Kathleen M. Moore (1995), Growth of Islamic Thought in America by Muhammad Shafiq (1994), Muslim Families in North America edited by E.H. Waugh, et al, (1991), Hadj: An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca by Michael Wolfe (1993), and American Islam: Growing Up Muslim in America by Richard Wormser (1994). Current semester readings are given below.

Required Reading

Sylviane A. Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (NYU Pr., 1998)

Fawaz A. Gerges, America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures of Clash of Interests (Cambridge U. Pr., 1999)

Barbara Daly Metcalf (Ed.), Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe (U. Cal. Pr., 1996)

Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African American Experience (Indiana University Press, 1997)

Suggested Reading

Laleh Bakhtiar, Sufi Women of America: Angels in the Making (Kazi Publications, 1997)

Richard H. Curtiss and Janet McMahon (Eds.), Personal Encounters with the Middle East and Islam (American Education Trust, 1997)

Jeffrey Lang, Even Angels Ask: A Journey to Islam in America (Amana Pubs., 1997)

Sulayman S. Nyang, Islam in the United States of America (Kazi Publications, 1999)

Maria Do Ceu Pinto, Political Islam and the United States: A Study of US Policy Toward Islamist Movements of the Middle East (LPC InBook, 1999)

Edward W. Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (Vintage Books, 1997)

Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (Columbia University Press, 1999)

Linda S. Walbridge, Without Forgetting the Ima: Lebanese Shiism in American Community (Wayne St. U. Pr., 1997)

Philip Zelikow and Robert Zoelick (Eds.), America and the Muslim Middle East: Memos to a President (Aspen Institute, 1998)