Lessons Learned Teaching Intro. to Islam Online

Like drinking water from a firehose.

That was the warning I gave to 75 students who signed up for the University of Florida's first ever online "Introduction to Islam" course (in conjunction with the Department of Religion, the Center for Global Islamic Studies, the Center for Instructional Technology and Training [CITT], and UF Online). 

For those who remained, they soon found out what it was like to learn the basics of Islamic belief and practices through an examination of Islamic history, law, and an array of theological orientations as articulated in the traditions of teachings of various traditions in just six weeks! 

As they reflected at the end of the course, they not only confirmed the intensity of the course but its value in challenging their stereotypes and enabling them to talk to others about the diversity of Islam and Muslim communities across the globe. 

The course also took time to explore Islamic practices in the contemporary period and expose students to reflect on the realities of religious everyday life and religious change through their readings, lectures, discussion boards, essays, and final class project -- an op-ed, commentary, or news analysis piece that they developed over the course of the semester. Not only did the students learn through this process, but I also gained new perspectives and lessons through the online teaching experience. 

As I walked to work this morning I listened to the news and heard three references to the place of Islam and Muslims in various contexts: about whether Islam is a part of Germany amidst their current asylum discussions; the SCOTUS decision on the "Muslim ban" in the U.S.; and the role of Islam in the peace process between Palestine and Israel. The news only impressed upon me the importance of giving students the ability to critically analyze the impacts of Islamic beliefs and values on social and cultural practices, and the formation of institutions, communities, and identities. Furthermore, I hoped to challenge students to grasp the complex relationship between the discursive traditions of a major world religion as well as the ambiguities of some key terms of Muslim religious thinking.

We were aware that this summer course could not amply cover the full extent of Muslim traditions across the ages and around the globe, but the expectation was that students would come away with a fuller appreciation for the richness and variety of Islam while also possessing a foundational understanding of its core concepts and practices.

On their final exam, I asked them to write regarding, "one thing you would like to tell someone about Islam and Muslims that you did not know before this course and you think is important for others to know." Overwhelmingly, students highlighted their learning about the diversity of Islam. 

One student wrote:

“I was led to believe that Islam was one monolithic religion and everyone followed it as is, save for the extremists. However, after learning more about the faith and its history over the last few centuries, I realize that Islam can manifest in different ways among various cultures, and that while set apart from other forms of Islam, the same core tenets remain. There are Muslims who visit shrines of saints, who use talismans with Quranic verses on them, and who push for either reform and/or maintaining current tradition as is. It goes to show [that] Muslims worldwide are an international community that cannot be defined in just one, overly general way.”

Another student learned about the various motivations that Muslim women have for choosing to veil in public. They wrote, "I think it is important for others to know this because the stereotypes of an oppressive Islam cause people to dislike Islam and cause them to create a largely negative image of Islam...I think if people knew the reasons that Muslim women chose to veil and how these women felt about it, some of this negativity surrounding Islam would disappear. I think it is important for people to be knowledgeable of ["women in Islam"] because it helps them create their own opinions of Islam based off of more than what they hear in the news."

There was some humor as well as one student quipped, "if you thought the name Muhammad was not popular before, think again!"

Lightness aside, other students discussed how their stereotypes about women in Islam, violence and jihad, and the modernization and Westernization of Islam were flipped on their heads or given new context and meaning. Overwhelmingly, students identified 9/11 as the key prism through which they had previously known Islam and Muslims and also set it aside as the centrifugal moment in contemporary global history. They recognized that the way the world sees Islam and Muslims -- while certainly influenced by historical perspectives and stereotypes -- is largely shaped by 9/11 and the subsequent "War on Terror." Not only that, but students appreciated how the media, government policies, and cultural tropes have seriously warped our understanding of what Islam is and is not and how Muslims live, act, and think across the globe. 

Reflecting on the current cultural and political climate one student said, "we shouldn’t treat Muslims as foreigners or people following an evil, alien culture. They aren’t so different from the average person you might meet on the street." 

These gleanings were also reflected in their final projects. Students shared their opinions and analyses on a variety of topics including the #MosqueMeToo movement, Islam and Muslim communities in Africa, and the parallels and dissimilarities between Zen Buddhist traditions and Sufi mystic beliefs and practices. We took the semester to help students develop their project from idea to thesis, outline to draft, and draft to final copy and were rewarded with fine-tuned arguments, clear perspectives, and in-depth analyses. 

In the coming weeks, I hope to publish a couple of these pieces and to share with you some of the things that students passed on to me. These projects reflect the ongoing need for individuals, teachers, and students in educational institutions and in the public sphere to commit themselves to learning about religion -- Islam or otherwise. These projects also reflect how even in the course of six weeks a student's understanding of the world can not only change but come to be expressed eloquently and shared widely with others. 

Indeed, in a time of increasingly negative rhetoric around the topic of Islam and Muslims, it is heartening to know that education -- whether in-person, experiential, or via online portals -- can help counter stereotypes and reverse negative opinions.

My experience with this course reinforces something I recently read in the article, “Muslims Love Jesus, Too? Corrective Information Alters Prejudices Against Islam.” In this article, researchers in Germany found that "opinions towards Islam were largely negative at baseline but improved significantly after [the] presentation of the correct answers." Furthermore, they wrote that this "suggests that prejudices against Islam are partially fueled by knowledge gaps."

As a lifelong learner and educator, it is my passion to fill knowledge gaps -- those of my own and those of others. It was an honor to work with these students over the last month-and-a-half to fill gaps and enhance their knowledge about Islam and Muslims across the globe. I learned a lot as well and benefitted from their messages, corrections, challenges, questions, and one-on-one conversations about their projects, their struggles, and their inquiries. 

Educators concerned with religious literacy should take heart that their instruction can, and does, work. It can have a positive impact. It can -- in small and large ways -- change the world. 

Systems are unjust, broader forces may be malevolent, and the world may be chaotic; but teaching others, filling knowledge gaps, and engaging in important conversations about Islam and Muslims can play a crucial role in bringing justice, goodness, and kindness to bear in our world. 

At least that's what I learned this summer teaching "Introduction to Islam" online. 

The virtual significance of Boko Haram's pledge of allegiance to ISIS

*This post is republished under a Creative Commons Attribution agreement with The Conversation. The post was originally written for The Conversation by Dr. Terje Østebø, Assistant Professor of Religion and African Studies and Director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies at University of Florida. 

The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram’s recent pledge of allegiance to ISIS has generated a wave of speculation about its significance.

ISIS’s response was to release an audio tape purporting to welcome the pledge. In the rest of the world one dominant view is that ISIS and the jihadi front is spreading and becoming more organized, which, in turn, has spurred the US government to consider expanding its military actions to include ISIS affiliates.

There are, however, good reasons not to read too much into the Boko Haram pledge. It is probable that it will have little or no real practical significance, beyond the initial public relations bump.

Boko Haram under pressure

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Dr. Terje Østebø is the author of this post. He serves as Assistant Professor of Religion and African Studies at University of Florida where he also directs the Center for Global Islamic Studies. 

The pledge of allegiance (Arabic: bayat) by Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau on March 7 was made in an audio-message, in which the organization expresses its support for ISIS.

The announcement was hardly surprising; Boko Haram had been for some time praising ISIS’s actions. Also, the pledge comes at the time when Boko Haram is under much pressure. The recent coordinated offensive by the Chadian, Cameroonian and Nigerian armies has taken its toll on the organization. The pledge could possibly be seen as an act of desperation.

It is, however, doubtful if the pledge will turn any tide, and it is unlikely that the announced cooperation between Boko Haram and ISIS would mean much – in practical terms – to either party.

The Somali organization al-Shabaab made a similar pledge to al-Qaida in 2012 without having any practical implications.

It is unlikely that ISIS will provide Boko Haram with fighters and arms. Boko Haram has, in fact, been critical of “Arab” involvement in its activities in Nigeria. Foreign fighters are not flocking to Nigeria as they are to ISIS-held areas. Nor is it likely that Boko Haram will provide soldiers to ISIS. It might mean infusion of funds from ISIS, but also that is uncertain.

Boko Haram and ISIS are rooted in different localities

Keep in mind that both organizations – even if they claim to represent something global – reflect their respective localities.

Boko Haram has its specific history and ethnic particularity and is geographically confined to northeast Nigeria. It has been haunted by internal divisions, and there are many questions as to how strong and coherent the current leadership is. Thus it is doubtful that the recent pledge will mean that Boko Haram would submit to the will of ISIS, take orders from Bagdadi, and view itself as a branch of ISIS.

This situation relates to the larger issue of constant fragmentation among militant Islamic groups.

The rise of ISIS has created tensions within the jihadi camp, with al-Qaida going against ISIS, and rifts developing between ISIS and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi – the main jihadi ideologist associated with ISIS’s forerunner, al-Qaida in Iraq.

Boko Haram is itself a coalition of various factions, and it is unclear how strong this alliance actually is. While affiliating itself with ISIS, Boko Haram has at the same time not distanced itself from al-Qaida.

Everyone wants to be a caliph

A pattern of disintegration seems to be at play: exclusive ideologies coupled with violent struggles are empowering to individuals.

When groups under the leadership of strong personalities experience success they create momentum and leadership. Everyone, basically, wants to be a caliph or spiritual leader.

Just as al-Shabaab’s pledge to al-Qaida and its push beyond the confines of Somalia produced conflicts within that organization, Boko Haram’s pledge to ISIS may possibly spur further internal tensions.

The US and other Western powers should, therefore, be careful not to interpret the pledge as yet another sign of a more solidified front. While there obviously is an urgent need to reduce the human suffering caused by these organizations, there is a similar need to maintain a realistic view of the situation, to avoid exaggerating the threat scenarios, and to apply strategies that reduce the risk of political collateral damage.

It is also important to note the format of the pledge – an audio-message posted online. This is in clear contrast to how such pledges traditionally were done, when individuals or groups declared their allegiance in real time and space.

Boko Haram’s pledge obviously has an important symbolic meaning, but there is a noncommittal flavor to it. It says what it says, but that’s not necessarily binding for either party.

In a world with constant flows of messaging, including the posting of online fatwas (legal rulings) and jihadi propaganda videos, let’s not forget the ephemeral nature of such messages. Yesterday’s postings are forgotten and substituted by today’s postings.

Boko Haram’s pledge of allegiance to ISIS can therefore for practical reasons remain what it is: virtual.

#QuranChallenge aims to go viral

As I continue my research into global Islam, and the various manifestations of its transnational and local dimensions, I also get the chance to cover some of the phenomena I encounter as a freelance religion newswriter. Graciously, the Religion News Service accepted my story on the #QuranChallenge - an increasingly popular social media Quran recitation challenge being passed around YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. 

Below is an excerpt from the article, read the rest at ReligionNews.com

*For more religion & culture news & commentary, follow @kchitwood

(RNS) Move over Ice Bucket Challenge. Muslims have a new take on the viral social media phenomenon: the Quran Challenge.

The new campaign seeks to raise awareness and funds for Muslim "da’wah" -- a call to propagate the faith -- by reciting verses from the Quran on various online platforms.

Issam Bayan, a 26-year-old student and professional Islamic singer, came up with the idea as a way to awaken Muslim piety, just as the Ice Bucket Challenge raised awareness and well over $30 million for ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

While the #QuranChallenge has no specific cause, Bayan, who lives in Germany, said he wanted to make it available to all Muslims regardless of their financial ability to make a contribution. In an email interview, he said the benefits for this challenge are the rewards that a Muslim receives for reciting the Quran.

*Read more HERE

Does ISIS = Islam?

Does ISIS = Islam? Does Islam = ISIS? 

In the wake of rising violence and thuggish rhetoric, many are re-visiting the common accusation that terror groups and rogue states such as ISIS are Islam and that any discussion about the varieties of Islamic belief and ritual throughout the world is smokescreen. The assumptive claim is that if you prick Islam it always bleeds terror, hate, and violence. 

Dr. Terje Østebø, whose perspective on global Islam helped inspire this post, is involved in the launch of the University of Florida’s Center for Global Islamic Studies. After The Gainesville Sun published an article on the center’s launch, Østebø suffered vitriol via comments, phone calls, and e-mails. Although Østebø said, “There is an urgent need for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the rich diversity and the complex dynamics of contemporary Islam," many of his critics found the need to point out to him — the scholar in Islam — that Islam is clearly typified by ISIS and that ISIS is at the core of this world religion.

*For more on religion and culture, follow @kchitwood

Unfortunately, these verbal assaults are too often accompanied by physical attacks as well as just last week, a man chased a Muslim American woman into oncoming traffic in Brooklyn while threatening to behead her and her companion. Every time I post an article, like this one, I will undoubtedly receive comments like this from Cowboywill46:

“Once and for all, will someone with a grain of sense admit to the world that Islam is nothing more than a mind-control, anti-social cult bent on world domination. ”

— Cowboywill46

To be fair, Islam is a world religion with a unifying foundation. It may be the Qur’an, or the holy book’s common language — Arabic. The shahada, or profession of faith that “there is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet,” is universal in form — all Muslims confess it, it is what it takes, and means, to be Muslim. Mecca, perhaps, as “the capital of Islam” serves as, in the words of Miriam Cooke and Bruce B. Lawrence, as “[t]he organizing principle of Islamic ritual and imagination.” As such, this Saudi Arabian city is “the defining node for a worldwide community of believers who are linked to the Prophet Muhammad and to Mecca and to one another through networks of faith and family, trade and travel.” Whether knit together by language, profession, text, orienting metropolis, or something else there is a unified, integrated, sense to global Islam and a shared cultural history. To be sure, there are not several, or even two, Islams, but one Islam. 

At the same time, Islam is, in the words of scholar Talal Asad, “a discursive tradition.” There is an ongoing debate, what Reza Aslan calls, “a civil war,” raging over what is orthodox Islam and where the boundary lines of Islam can be drawn. Islam, as a world system, is not static, but is always changing according to the various lines of its own “discursive traditions.” The tone of these various streams of thought about Islam are determined by local realities, Islamic networks, and by external global forces of economics, politics, religion, and culture. 

What do these localizations and various discursive traditions do to Islam’s shared cultural and textual heritage? Local Muslims, sharing in "global Islam," interpret Islam differently according to their socio-cultural, and historical, context. Sometimes accusing the other interpretation or lived religion as not “authentic” or “orthodox” Islam. This is why ISIS, along with killing Yazidis and Christians, also targets Muslims they deem kafir (unbelievers, or apostates) because of their extreme definition of takfir— those who claim Islam but are outside the strict boundaries of Islam that ISIS puts in place. 

*For more on religion and culture, follow @kchitwood

Today is the 13th anniversary of the terror attacks of 9/11. Certainly, it is a somber remembrance and one with potent emotions and visceral reverberations in our cultural psyche. 9/11’s effect on our the U.S.’s interest in Islam has been a double-edged sword. While more solid, scholarly, work has been done on Islam in the U.S. than ever before, we have also been seeking to essentialize Islam in an effort to have manufacture a clearly defined enemy to combat. We want a clash of civilizations — Islam v. the West — but it’s not that simple. Seeking a “clash of civilizations” we usually end up with what Edward Said called, “a clash of ignorance” wherein “unedifying labels” such as “Islam” and the “West,” “mislead and confuse the mind, which is trying to make sense of a disorderly reality that won't be pigeonholed or strapped down as easily as all that.”

So, is Islam to be represented by ISIS? In one sense, yes. ISIS = Islam. However, ISIS ≠ global Islam. ISIS ≠ Islam everywhere. Not every Muslim living in the U.S., in sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, or Southeast Asia is a secret jihadi with ties to ISIS, Boko Haram, or al-Qaeda. Instead, ISIS is an expression of Islam in its locality (Syria, Iraq, the Levant) forged out of a combination of contextual concerns, socio-cultural realities, and translocal forces of politics, economics, and religion. As such, it is competing to be the authoritative voice of Islam and, in many ways, wants pundits and cultural commentators to say that ISIS = Islam. 

Yet, to say ISIS = Islam is too simplistic. There are too many other Muslim communities and expressions of glocal (localized forms of the one global faith) Islam throughout the world. Islam is a diverse global faith, which takes on a different form, with varying interpretations of the Qur’an and the tradition of Muhammad where the local Muslim community deals with dissimilar concerns about local realities and contrasting views on religious violence and Westernization. This is why it is unsophisticated to simply posit that ISIS = Islam with no further discussion or clarification. 

After all, many Muslims claim that ISIS Is un-Islamic. Muslims in South Africa who fought for equality of all races after mistreatment and misrepresentation for centuries under Afrikaaner nationalism and apartheid and Muslims in Houston who advocate anti-gang initiatives and are actively engaged in inner-city education programs would not want to be lumped in with ISIS. They are engaged in a struggle, they share the same Islamic faith, but they are not ISIS. As Jaweed Kaleem reported for the Huffington Post, there is widespread disappointment among worldwide Muslims in how ISIS is often equated with Islam in popular media.

Even so, without any right or proper understanding, many will continue to try and declare what Islam is and is not. They will pipe up and declare that “ISIS is Islam” or ignore progressive understandings of Islam by countering, “but doesn’t the Qur’an actually say _______?” What the Qur’an says, not to be crass or offensive to my Muslim friends, is irrelevant. What is more relevant in this discussion is what Muslims say the Qur’an says. What ISIS says about what Islam is or what the Qur’an says is going to be different than a Muslim community in Miami or a Muslim organization in Indonesia. Muslims’ interpretation of their shared holy text is defined by their local context, their historical moment, their transnational networks, socio-cultural realities, and interaction with global forces.

If we are to understand Islam — and ever since 9/11, 7/7, and other terrible terrorist attacks, it is evident that we must in some way endeavor to do so — our shared starting point cannot be solely those groups that engage in terrorism, persecution, and barbarous bombast. Instead, we must approach Islam as a global phenomenon, with a certain sense of interconnectedness and unity. At the same time, we must come to appreciate and pay attention to its various localities as they wrestle with the shared international socio-cultural forces of Westernization, globalization, and transnationalism. 

Does ISIS = Islam? 

Yes, but it’s too superficial of us to say “yes” unequivocally. It has to be a nuanced affirmation, one that appreciates that as much as ISIS is Islam, it is also equally not Islam. In the end, we must listen to Muslims, and their various discourses about orthodoxy, Muslim boundaries, and authenticity, before we can come to any strong conclusions or make any serious political or religious decisions about Islam as a whole based on the actions of the few who take part in the violent actions of ISIS and its counterparts.  

*For more on religion and culture, follow @kchitwood