By Anonymous, Jun 15, 2009 in Pedagogy and Teaching
In teaching philosophy, religion, and the history of ideas, or even alluding to current events as examples of the power of ideas in action, professors are often expected by administrators and faculty colleagues to walk on eggshells when it comes to the subject of radical Islam. At my home university in Israel, a politically correct silence with respect to the evils of radical Islam prevails throughout the campus. I had hoped for an atmosphere of free discussion of this critical issue in the United States, but have found, to my disappointment, that the same silence appears to prevail on U.S. university campuses as well.
Considering the centrality of radical Islam in motivating terrorism in the world today, it is a crime to remain silent and leave it immune to critical analysis—or, even worse, to broach the subject in a spirit of moral relativism. Does anyone have a viable strategy for raising this issue in lecture, and engage students in a frank discussion of it, without losing one's job?
3 Responses to "Discussing Radical Islam in the Classroom"
John von Heyking on Jun 16, 2009
I stress two things:
1) radical Islam kills more Muslims than non-Muslims, and so is a greater threat to them than to the latter;
2) Islam is simply too big to characterize with a single paint stroke. As with other world religions, Islam is made up of numerous voices - moderate, radical, etc., and it's helpful to point out the spectrum of those voices in the larger tradition.
Richard Avramenko on Jun 17, 2009
I use vague references: "It's not hard to imagine people who, religiously inspired, fly planes into buildings."
William F, Cobb on Jul 16, 2009
In teaching Western Civ, we spend a class on Islam. For every civ we study, I provide excerpts from source documents. Every belief system has varying levels of adherents and practice, so we evaluate the system as written, to see how it could cause a civ to advance or decline. I provide excerpts from the Qu'ran that reflect Islam's persepctive on jihad, women, freedom on conscience/ethical autonomy, and free-will vs pre-destination. We let the text speak for itself. We always look at factors that cause the rise and fall of ideologies. Understanding how Islam spread is also instructive. If you contact me, I can send you the handout I use