Islamism, Islamophobia, and Muslim Popular Culture

Catalog description

As state apparatuses everywhere attempt to control their citizenry either directly (though force) or hegemonically (via consent of the governed), popular youth cultures become the ideological terrain on which battles for freedom of expression are fought. In the case of Muslim cultures, the contest is sometimes framed in terms of secular liberalism of thought and behavior, at others, in support of stricter religious orthodoxy even as the language and forms deployed are those of pop culture viz. "Islamic" fashion, music, comic books, film, theater, etc. This course will explore such tensions and the ethical challenges they pose in an increasingly global society through a variety of pop culture forms and subcultures from around the Muslim world. The challenge the course presents-one that requires students to synthesize materials from many disciplines-is to think through the ongoing battle for hearts and minds of Muslim youth around the world. This battle can be summed up through the competing ideologies of Islamism at one extreme and Islamophobia at the other. How do we steer a course between this contemporary Scylla and Charybdis? Herein lies the task.