The Politics of Modern Islam

Instead of defining Islam simply, abstracted from history and politics, recent scholarship calls for an approach that makes every-day practical interpretations, practices and living social relationships central towards understanding the religion as an integral part of modern life. This course explores how Islam was profoundly influenced by colonial rule and post-colonial nation state building with its modernist socio-political arrangements in schools, court systems, government administration and heritage. These institutional foundations shaped life in the modern Muslim World whilst also generating revolutionary Islamist movements in turn.