Oct 05, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
CARS 3020 - Introduction to Islam
This course introduces Islam as a religious, ethical, and cultural system that has taken various forms across diverse cultures and time periods globally. The course aims to heighten student awareness of ethical dilemmas and the various ways to solve them through an exploration of the debates that Muslims have had about how to live well and act morally. The course also develops awareness of issues related to cross-cultural, religious, racial, and gender diversity. We focus on anti-Muslim stereotypes–where they come from and how we can change them–and we explore how Muslims grapple with pluralism among themselves and in relation to non-Muslims. Dialoging with Muslims and visiting mosques enriches this process of ethical exploration and cross-cultural learning.
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Bridge: Diversity and Practice, Bridge: Ethics and Reasoning
General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 2CP
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to articulate insights about one’s own cultural rules and biases by learning about the history of Orientalism and anti-Muslim prejudice in the West.
- Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of Muslim cultures globally in relation to their unique histories, values, politics, and styles of implementing Islamic beliefs and practices.
- Students will be able to interpret intercultural experience from their own and others’ worldview and apply their knowledge of Muslim cultures through literature and religion to interact supportively with their members.
- Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of cultural differences in verbal and non-verbal communication and to apply a shared understanding of ritual practices (embodied communication) between Muslims and non-Muslim.
- Students will be able to ask complex questions of Muslim cultures and to articulate answers to these questions that reflect multiple Muslim perspectives drawing from Islamic texts, history, and current practices and debates.
- Students will be able to initiate and develop interactions with Muslim cultures by learning to momentarily suspend value judgments and reason from within the premises of Muslim societies.
- Students will be able to recognize one’s own ethical core beliefs and how they shape ethical conduct and thinking through exploration of the Islamic ethical system.
- Students will be able to understand ethical perspectives, theories, and/or concepts through an exploration of Islamic debates concerning “adab” (virtuous education) and shari`a (law).
- Students will be able to recognize, evaluate, and connect ethical issues through examination of key contemporary debates related to war, gender inequality, and LGBTQ+ inclusion in Islam.
- Students will be able to apply Muslim ethical perspectives, theories, or concepts to a decision-making situation concerning the shari`a and analyze current ethical questions in this light.
- Students will be able to evaluate alternative ethical perspectives within a decision-making situation by analyzing the work of Muslim feminists and Muslim LGBTQ+ activists.
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