• Academic Credits: 3
  • Cross listed: Credit not given for both this course and 01:685:357
  • 20209-01-790-367-02.pdf
  • Syllabus Disclaimer: The information on this syllabus is subject to change. For up-to-date course information, please refer to the syllabus on your course site (Sakai, Canvas, etc.) on the first day of class.

Course Description:

This course will examine the ongoing debate over the reasons behind the reluctance of the Muslim majority nations of the Middle East to embrace democracy following the third wave of democratization that engulfed Latin America, the former Soviet Union and East Europe and many parts of Africa during the 1990s and after It will analyze why most authoritarian regimes collapsed, except in the Middle East. It will primarily focus on the role Islam has been playing in the modern political, cultural and economic discourse. It will explore if this predicament related to the culture, the economy, the absence of civil society, the marginalization of women, the nature of the regimes in power, the oil or a combination of these variables. The course will also analyze the correlation between Islam and democracy and the different discourses of Islamic movements in the Arab world. The course will shed some light on the Arab Revolt of 2011 that started in Tunisia and the regression it has seen in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Yemen.