This project studies the impact of discourse surrounding the Israeli occupation of Palestine on American Jewish-Muslim solidarity efforts. The author uses a Muslim-Jewish dialogue that took place between 2001 and 2014, the Muslim-Jewish Bridge Building Group (MJBBG), as a case study, conducting interviews with former participants and facilitators. The data demonstrates that the entanglement of Jewish and Muslim religious identities with the political Palestinian is an impediment to addressing the root cause of Jewish-Muslim tension in the United States. The author suggests that this problematic reframing be addressed at the beginning of American Muslim-Jewish solidarity efforts in order to dispel misplaced tension and dismantle the xenophobic project of equating Islam and Palestinians, Jews and Zionists.
Ramon Llull in his Book of the Gentile and the Three Wise Men demonstrates prevailing attitudes towards Jews and Muslims in Christian-ruled Europe in the thirteenth century.
This thesis will consider the work and actions of Egyptian and American Muslim women in order to inform a conversation regarding the scope of Western Feminist discourse. These two case studies will serve as examples of distinct Muslim feminist actors who engage with their unique cultures and values in order to reshape gender norms. Using the theoretical framework supplied by Foucault, I will demonstrate how conceptions of power and agency employed in the Western feminist discourse are not adequate for representing all manifestations of Islamic feminism. It will become evident that understanding the forms of Islamic feminism represented in this study is a crucial step for reframing the terms and values which comprise feminist thought.
The historical roots of Islam in Granada provide crucial context for understanding the contemporary situation of Muslims living there today. Granada, in southern Spain, possesses immense symbolic power as the final Muslim state in Western Europe. Founded by Muslims a millennium ago, it drew Muslim refugees during the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages. After its fall in 1492, it stood as a reminder of Christianity’s supposed triumph over Islam. Only with the transition to liberal democracy in the 1970s has Muslim-founded Granada truly begun to represent the new, multiethnic reality gripping contemporary Spain. The city stands at a historical and political crossroads: founded by Islam, conquered by Christians, peopled by descendants of both and, in the present day, site of a mass migration of Muslims northward into Europe. This paper asserts that the population of Muslim converts in contemporary Granada embody and elucidate this cosmopolitan legacy, overcoming divisions between Islam and the West.
This thesis explores the Chinese Muslim intellectual movement that lasted from roughly 1630-1730 CE and how those in the movement constructed an Islamic school of Confucian thought and a Chinese Muslim intellectual Identity. In the process, Chinese Muslim intellectuals, including the scholar Liu Zhi, made the case that the Prophet Muhammad was a Confucian sage and his teachings belonged in the Confucian canon. This thesis also explores the relationship between Chinese Muslims and the Qing state in an effort to explain why their teachings did not spread to the rest of Chinese society.
Robert Shedinger, author of "Was Jesus a Muslim?" focuses on countering Islamophobia with authentic dialogue. Shedinger, an associate religion professor and chair of the department at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, teaches courses on Islam and has lectured on Western perceptions of Islam. He also is the author of "Tatian and the Jewish Scriptures" and co-editor of "Who Killed Goliath? Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind." Part of Notable Lectures & Performances series, Colorado College. Recorded September 24, 2010.
