I.  A discussion of Huntington’s thesis and some of the responses to it.  This includes Huntington’s famous article [and perhaps some references to his book], the responses of some of his critics, and his reply. 

II.  A discussion of some articles that help us frame the problem:  Wallace, Geertz, Kapferer.

III.  A discussion of a series of articles on terrorism and political violence. 

IV.  Reading and discussion of Lawrence Wright' Looming Tower and Rashid Ahmed’s book Descent into Chaos, plus some additional readings as assigned.. 

V.  A series of articles on conceptual works in anthropology that might help us frame our understanding of how social movements take form. 

VI.  A discussion of a selection of articles on the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

VII. Lectures on the modern history of the Middle East and Central Asia, to remind everyone of how current circumstances took form.

VIII.  A discussion of the latest news on recent crises in Central and South Asia, notably on the Taliban. 

IX.  A discussion of the reports by members of the class on the summaries of books they have read, with a view to preparing each other to write a comparative study of these monographs in the final essay.

Ibn Taymiyyah: 
“There is probably no other theologian, medieval or otherwise, who has had as much influence on the modern radical Islamist movement than Ibn Taymiyyah (1268-1328).” [About.com]

Modernist Islam:  Originator in the 19th century [in Central Asia and other parts of the Middle East whose followers came to be known as Jadidists].
Sayyid Jamal al-Din Muhammad b. Safdar al-Afghani (1838-1897).  Sayyid Jamal al-Din Afghani is considered to be the founding father of Islamic modernism.  …  Afghani’s career as a thinker and activist has had a deep impact on the Islamic world and continues to be a source of inspiration and controversy for many today. Afghani’s project of Islamic modernism that he developed in his lectures, polemics, short essays, and newspaper columns was based on the idea of finding a modus vivendi between traditional Islamic culture and the philosophical and scientific challenges of the modern West. It would not be wrong to say that Afghani took a middle position between blind Westernization and its wholesale rejection by the traditional ‘ulama’. His basic assumption was shared by the whole generation of the 19th century Muslim thinkers and activists: modern Western science and technology are essentially separable from the ethos and manners of European nations and can and should be acquired by the Islamic world without necessarily accepting the theological and philosophical consequences emerging from their application in the Western context. As we shall see below, Afghani’s views on science should be understood in the light of this general program of Islamic ‘reform’ or renewal (islah or tajdid). [http://www.cis-ca.org/voices/a/afghni.htm]

Salafism:  Salafi (Arabic: ?????) is a Sunni Islamic movement that takes the pious ancestors, the Salaf of the patristic period of early Islam, as exemplary models.[1] The word Salaf is an Arabic noun which may be translated as "predecessor" or "ancestor".[2] In Islamic terminology, it is generally used to refer to the first three generations of Muslims: the Sahabah ("The Companions"), the Tabi‘in ("The Followers") and the Taba‘ at-Tabi‘in ("Those after the Followers"). These three generations are looked upon as examples of how Islam should be practiced.

2/5/2010 F 
2/6/2010 S 
2/7/2010 X 
2/8/2010 M 

2/9/2010 TU {Reel Bad Arabs} Looming 81-120; Lect: Symbols as extrinsic … [*Geertz 'Ideology…'] 
Discussed Wallace

2/10/2010 W 
2/11/2010 TH  Looming 121 - 160:  Lect: Regions as a concept
Note for today's discussion:  Hi everyone,

We will spend most of our time together on Thursday talking about what you are getting from L. Wright’s The Looming Tower.  Some questions that might guide you in what to look for:

How do the personal experiences of key figures in this story affect or shape their understandings of the social world they are dealing with?  Note how their experiences effect changes in their thinking.  Note how they change, how their views change over time as they try to make sense of their circumstances.

How do the key figures in the emerging movement – which would eventually become the Al Qaeda organization – define the situations they are in?  How do their definitions of the situation change, and what brings about such changes in their thinking?

These definitions of the situation are “ideological” in the sense that they are attempts to formulate the nature of the social situation in terms that characterize the moral implications of what is taking place in their times.

Note the idioms, symbolic forms, historic images and narratives, etc. that are invoked to real effect among the folks described in this book. 

Behind all our reading there are two kinds of questions: 
• how “culture” [the intersubjective forms that make social life possible] works; 
• and how personal experience [subjectivity] is constituted through the objective forms of social life.
Note the objective forms of communication that gradually enable the range of communication to enlarge, to include a much wider community of “believers”.  You will of course see how experiences of various sorts influence the moral imaginations of each of these individuals.

In a sense all these questions are ways of asking the same thing, or similar things, in various forms, from various points of view.  Let me know what you are learning about the way Al Qaeda took form, the way a “revitalization movement” took form, and what you think you are learning about the relation between private sensibilities and public images. 

2/12/2010 F 
2/13/2010 S 
2/14/2010 X 
2/15/2010 M 
2/16/2010 TU {The Greatest Silence:  Rape in the Congo} Looming 160-200 [*Kapferer 'Sri Lanka' nationalism] 
2/17/2010 W 
2/18/2010 TH  Looming 200-240 [Optional: Geertz: "Ideology as a Cultural System."  I will lecture on this, so everyone should have a copy in front of them.]
2/19/2010 F 
2/20/2010 S 
2/21/2010 X 
2/22/2010 M 
2/23/2010 TU {Power of Nightmares} Looming 240-280 [Sahlins:  Intro "Islands …"] 
2/24/2010 W 
2/25/2010 TH  Looming 280-320 
2/26/2010 F 
2/27/2010 S 
2/28/2010 X 
3/1/2010 M 
3/2/2010 TU {Power of Nightmares II} Looming 320-360 [Sahlins: "Historical Metaphors…"] 
3/3/2010 W 
3/4/2010 TH  Looming 360-400 PAPER DUE 
3/5/2010 F 
3/6/2010 S 
3/7/2010 X 
3/8/2010 M  break 
3/9/2010 TU  break 
3/10/2010 W  break 
3/11/2010 TH  break 
3/12/2010 F  break 
3/13/2010 S  break 
3/14/2010 X 
3/15/2010 M 

3/16/10  Film:  Democracy on Deadline I

3/18/10
Rashid:  Descent:  Discuss the Introduction

3/23/10
Film: Democracy on Deadline II
A. Rashid:  Descent chapter 11, Double-dealing …

3/25/10  A. Rashid: Descent ch 11…
Fox:  Gandhian Utopia

3/30/10
Film:  Tank Man
A. Rashid:  Ch 17, The Taliban Offensive

4/1/10
Fox:  Gandhian Utopia [continued]
Rashid:  Ch 17:  The Taliban Offensive

4/6/10
Film:  All about Darfur
Rashid:  Conclusion

4/8/10
Sahlins / Sewell on “event”
Rashid:  Conclusion.

4/13/10
Film:
Papers Due

4/20/10
Discuss some papers

4/22/2010 TH  Presentations 

4/27/2010 TU  Presentations 

4/29/2010 TH  Presentations LAST CLASS 
4/30/2010 F 
5/1/2010 S 
5/2/2010 X 
5/3/2010 M 
5/4/2010 TU 
5/5/2010 W 
5/6/2010 TH  finals 
5/7/2010   finals 
5/8/2010 
5/9/2010 
5/10/2010   finals 

Compare the society/social system represented in the monograph you read with the Taliban and three other societies represented in the monographic reports of other members of this class.  In your comparison take note of whether any of the conceptual frameworks we examined earlier in the course are of any use to you.