2018 Articles

Plural Voices in the Teaching of Islam

Rashid, Hussein

The site where knowledge of Islam is authorized is in institutions of higher learning. This authorized knowledge then determines what is taught in secondary education curriculum, creating limited frames for thinking about Islam, which then limits what is possible in higher education. This feedback loop continues to narrow the ways in which we perceive Islam and Muslims. Edward Said is interested in the political dimensions of this discourse, and he does not eschew the educational impact. In particular, he notes that American media relies on educational systems for the knowledge it reproduces. As Muslims outside the United States consume American media, the Muslim definition of what “Islam” means is conditioned by American understandings of what “Islam” means. My particular interest is in the ways in which US education curtails the breadth of Muslim experience, and why it does so. Using a case study of Shi’ism, I argue that there is a strongly normative bent to the teaching of Islam in higher education that is more befitting of Theology than Study of Religion. That methodological shift is necessary for the control of what “Islam” means and is a logical outgrowth of the origins of the Study of Religion from Comparative Theology.