2024/2025

Global Islam

Type: Minor

Delivered by: Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

Where: Faculty of Humanities

When: 3, 4 module

Open to: students of all HSE University campuses

Language: English

ECTS credits: 5

Contact hours: 80

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Islam is often thought to be the religion of the Middle East and North Africa, but the majority of the Muslim population, which is 1.8 billion people in total, lives elsewhere. Muslims are described in the Qur’an as a single ummah – the community of believers without any ethnic boundaries united by their faith in God, and obliged to follow the rules of the Divine Law. Nowadays some of the Muslim leaders still appeal to this concept, but is there something that really unites all the Muslims in the world except for the articles of faith? Most of the contemporary Muslims do not speak Arabic, using only memorised ritual formulas, nor do they live in single or certain neighbouring states anymore. Throughout its history, Islam has grown into the global phenomenon expressed in the plethora of practices, languages, and cultures.The module emphasises the ways in which Muslims construct their identities in global context while interacting with the different social, political and religious actors and institutions. How do they see the place of Islam in the different dimensions of their everyday life? What role should Islamic principles play in contemporary politics, ethics, and education? How do those principles interrelate with the “western” notions of religion, gender, or democracy and how does the “West” construct the images of “Islam”? Who can speak on behalf of Muslims and how does the question of authority transform in the digital age? This course will give the students valuable insights into the Islam as a complex and varied lived tradition and offer them an array of tools for the critical perception and analysis of contemporary Islamic discourses.