FCS 529
RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
FOR TEACHING IN
CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC THINKING
Carool Kersten
King’s College London
ISN Workshop ‘ Islamic Studies in Scotland’
Prince AlWaleed bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World
University of Edinburgh, 21 October 2011
1
Situation in UK
HEFCE Report Islamic Studies Provision in UK (2010)
1,101 modules
156 institutions
No degree programme focusing on contemporary Islam
at any of the five UK Universities with the most Islamic
Studies Programmes
None of the other programmes focusing on contemporary
Islam and the Muslim world has a concentration on
Islamic thinking, history of ideas, or intellectual history
2
Project initiator
BA module
Contemporary Thought in the Muslim World
MA Module
Intellectual History of the contemporary Muslim World
Planned taught MA programme
Islamic Thought
(Theology & Religious Studies/Philosophy)
3
Project Objectives
1) Develop a course pack for teaching
contemporary Islamic Thinking
2) Pool of stakeholders
3) Pilot workshop
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Course Pack
Deliverables?
• Sample syllabus for a core module
• Capita Selecta outlines
• Key Bibliography
• Topical reading lists
• Online resources
5
Categories & classifications
Kamrava
Shepard
Saeed
Ramadan
Official Islam
Traditionalism
Legal Traditionalism
Scholastic Traditionalism
cf. NU (Indonesia)
(Neo-Traditionalism)
Populist Islam
Sufism
Islam as Religion
Islamism
Theological
Puritanism
Salafi Literalism
Political activist
modernist
Political Islamism
Salafi Reformism
Fundamentalist
radical
Political literalism Salafism
(instrumentalist)
incrementalism
‘al-Qa’ida phenomenon
rejectionist
Militant Extremism
Islam as belief
Secularism
Secular Liberalism
(non-instrumentalist)
Muslim secularism
Classical Modernism
Intellectual
Conservative
Reformist
Religious secularism
Progressive Ijtihad
Liberal Reformism
Cultural Nominalism
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Themes & topics
Epistemologies
(turath thinkers)
New approaches to Qur’anic Studies
(discourse analysis; deconstructionism; semiotics)
Legal Thinking & Ethics
(From usūl al-fiqh to maqāsid al-sharīʽa)
Human Rights
(UDHR or UIDHR?)
Secularization, civil society
(‘Post-Islamist’ Turkey, ‘Post-traditionalist’ Indonesia,
lessons for the ‘Arab Spring’?)
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Ethical Leadership
(public & private)
Globalization
(Third-worldism, Islamic Liberation Theology)
Gender Issues
(including homosexuality; influence of psychoanalysis)
Medical Ethics
(Cloning, organ donation, euthanasia)
Ecology
(Khilafat Allah fi’l-Ard)
8
‘Stakeholders’?
• Input providers
• Output consumers
 academics
 policy makers (foreign & domestic)
 public administration consultants
 NGOs/advocacy groups
 Interfaith platforms
 media
9
Challenges
Start-up delays
• Teaching load
• Unexpected grant award for
research visit to Asia
• Examination period
• Response time of potential
stake holders
• Summer break/Ramadan
• Start new academic year
Sounds familiar? 
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