INAF 125 - Politics and Culture in the Middle East

An introduction to the politics and social organization of the Middle East, including North Africa, studied in its Islamic cultural setting. The course deals with a contiguous group of countries, from Morocco to Pakistan. Their political systems vary but they share a common history, culture and values based on the religion of Islam. The course examines the Islamic cultural heritage and the dilemmas for Islamic peoples caused by twentieth-century social and political change. Change is particularly difficult for these peoples since there is no separation between church and state. The impact of change on them will be studied through an analysis of specific change agents: technology, foreign political control, secular ideologies (e.g. Marxism), and Western-model materialism.