February 17, 2013

Finalizing Topic Ideas:

Make the topic broader
Public Prayer
A day in the life?

secularism's effect on community/prayer or social life?
social life.

How Muslims apply shari'a law to their everyday lives in countries that don't govern using Shari'a.

Is Islam compatible with democracy?

Islam paralleled with Christianity...

Islam's acceptance with other religions...

Pro-religious debates and secular debates. different religions united to combat as godlessness... or giving up on religion. Islam's respect for other religions. We had jihads and holy wars and then modernity kicked into place and then it became fights over science and politics rather than religion. NOt necessarily against it, but ignoring it. Religion becoming unpopular and unattractive to upper class/materialist/people in power/"new" bourgeoise.

Religious piety is no longer associated with modern values of high social status. High education. Lots of money. not associated with success. There's no material end to it anymore.

With the loss of material wealth religion became an activity to do in the spare time because there was no material gain to it. You can't become more powerful from it. --> People now are trying to rectify religion and reason.

unifying theme: reason vs. religion... becoming reason WITH religion...

*How has secularism affected Islam's relation to Judaism and Christianity over time?*

religion: a way of life... ethical point of view, culture, community... so secularism is like a religion...
secularism vs. religion... the fact that we can't see secularism as a religion, makes secularism a mystery. It's like an alien force.

use this as a thought process...

*the religion as we know it is a construction of secularism...*

separation of church and state becomes a construction as well...

"religion" is a modern construction...

we create these worship spaces where religion happens, then we have the rest of this space...

secularism is more of a way of life than religion is these days.
"the formation of the secular" -anthropologist
lays out the anthropological way of seeing secularism...

when you look at religion, what do you believe in? belief takes precedence, not way of life. being religious is "believing" or "following the law"...

how do you bring enlightenment into all of this? bringing secularism into this as a religion.
see how it has unfolded itself in relation to other religions. Islam Christianity and Secularism...

social construct of "religion"...

each project of how the enlightenment has had a relationship with 'religion'...

enlightenment myth about religion: they are static.

how the different "religions" create one another

It's not a blind faith anymore. People need facts/proof and a factual religion that they can see. tangible.

Feb 26, 2013

How an individual has related to a religoin over time... which is more sociological.
(hillary's idea)...

There are some books, which are about this issue, but they all get written in the west. Indigenous discourses.

Get a range of opinions of muslim responses to other religious traditions, and plurality.

2 Context: pick india. muslims have been in india since the 8th century. buddhists, hindus...
dealing with jews and christians, (turkey?)...
Indonesia, malasia.

Pick 1 context. HOw did they deal with this. Contemporary discourse.. what are they saying about plurality now? You can be a little more global when dealing with modernity.

India, premodern era and how the pluralist society functioned. Islamic thinkers of that time, and now in the modern age there's more of an acceptance. Can even narrow it further on a given religion.

issue of religious tolerance.

The way secular argues for pluralism... "different points of view, each point of view is fine..." compared to "how muslims have dealt with plurality"... have this element in the project somehow. don't treat secularism as a religion, but as a perspective on plurality.

muslim perspectives on pluralism.

Could stay broad, and theorize, but could also get specific with regions...

but it all needs to be contrasted with secular pluralism. no matter which you choose.

some references: (contemporary readings)...
1. "The other in the light of the Qu'ran."
2. "Islamic roots of democratic pluralism."
3. Nasr - he has written more books on pluralism than anybody.

find a way to connect it somehow... in relation to.... "what?"

Islamic perspectives on pluralism are good.. just make sure you tie it to something.. what are we comparing to.. example: secular views, christian views... etc.

All religions are bad
all religious traditions are fine...

multiculturalism is taken out of different religions. why should we celebrate diversity. where is that argument made? why do we think like that?

muslim argument and secular arguments for plurality. pre-modern and modern.

Formations of the secular, christianity, islam, modernity.  by: tasal asad..

Brainstorming session--topic idea?

Brainstorming Session Feb 3 with Julia and Hillary

possible topic ideas:

-arranged marriage and polygamy

-public prayer practices

     -in modern age: stigmatization of public religious expression in secular nations like France; popular acceptance of public expression of Christianity but not Islam in the United States; praying in schools; separation of church and state 

     -in pre-modern Islamic societies: prayer which structured day completely; social/community function of prayer

     -in contemporary Islamic thought: modern Islamic societies like Dubai where public prayer is announced to entire city 5 times a day; interpretations of how daily prayer should function based on individual agency