ISLAM
The photo to the left is of the minaret a
short distance from the hotel in East Jerusalem where my wife and I
stayed in 2008. Five times a day, beginning before dawn and
continuing into the early evening, we could hear the call to prayer
from the loudspeakers mounted on the tower. It became for us a
reminder that for the observant Muslim the sacred and the secular are
interlocked, that the recognition of God as supreme as well as the
acceptance of Muhammad as the last and greatest of God's prophets is
meant to permeate all aspects of life.Islam, like Christianity in the Americas, spread in large part through military conquest, as when the Mongol forces of Genghiz Khan swept through Asia, but, unlike the European conquistadores, Muslim rulers often accepted the wisdom of allowing a good measure of religious freedom. Although much of the political history of the Middle Ages is about the conflict between Christians and Muslims, who at one point occupied most of Spain and a good part of Eastern Europe, there is also the story of how Muslim intellectuals not only kept alive Greek learning when it had been lost in the West but also built on it, especially in science and mathematics.
Much of the history of the twentieth century revolves on decisions in or about the Mideast. The Turkish Empire, which had been allied with Germany on the First World War, lost control of strategically valuable areas whose importance increased with large-scale production of oil. Britain and France had occupied much of the region until after the Second World War, and the image of a repressive colonialism has played a major role in shaping the attitudes of Arabic-speaking peoples.
Issues centering on the place of religion in establishing a sense of national identity for Arabs became even stronger after the establishment of Israel as an independent country, but the violence associated first with Palestinian Arabs and then with the followers of Osama bin Laden has tended to a guilt by association for all Muslims. Understandably, overcoming stereotypes of Islam may be more difficult than would be the case with the other traditions discussed in this course, but now that Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions within the United States doing so is especially important. It is also why in the sources below I am putting considerable stress on Islam in America.
In some ways Islam is the easiest of our major traditions to understand. There are five major principles (what are called the Five Pillars) that the Muslim is to accept, and all an individual needs to do to become a convert is to pronounce his acceptance of them. The specific teachings of Islam are found in the Qur'an, dictated by Muhammad during his lifetime, and in the Hadith, the oral tradition reporting Muhammad's own sayings. Key divisions in Islam, such as those that divide Sunnis and Shiites, center less on theology as such than they do on political quarrels from early in Arab history. Islam is, of course, like Judaism and Christanity in having a rich mythology, and supposed events such as Muhammad's ride into heaven from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (my photo to the right) need to be understood in order to make sense of why Muslims as well as Jews and Christians make claim to Jerusalem as a sacred city.
As you go through your material, whether in the text or on my web pages with their additional links, make every effort to get past any initial prejudices. Pay attention to what ordinary Muslims say about themselves, and, if you have the opportunity, do visit a Muslim center and ask questions.