Muslims in the West

Contemporary Western Muslims around the world face a number of challenges today. What are some of the major issues that some Western Muslim communities are negotiating? What can we learn from particular narratives of Muslims in the West, including during slavery in the US and at the turn of the twentieth century? How did Islam spread among African Americans in the mid-twentieth century and what does contemporary Muslim American thought look like today? How do the histories, beliefs and practices vary among contemporary diasporic Muslims especially in relationship to their circumstances and their negotiations of questions relating to race, class, and gender? What do some of the major divisions in theology and politics look like among contemporary Muslims along conservative and progressive lines? Who are some of the major voices and movements contesting for authority today and what positions do they take? This course aims to explore these questions and more through close readings and discussions of primary sources coupled with secondary academic works.