Each student will research a country with an Islamic past or present.  The student will write a short report including essential information about the religion, politics, and culture of that country.  It will be helpful to think of this as being a report compiled for a boss or a colleague in an organization which deals with the country in question.  You are putting together a report that will help that person avoid serious embarrassment that comes from not knowing the basic facts of another country's culture.

A selection of students will be asked to make oral presentations to the class, based on their reports .

The report will include, but not necessarily be restricted to, the following material:

•  Basic facts of population, especially number of Muslims at present.
•  What other countries, Muslim and non-Muslim, have been major  cultural influences.
•  How and when Islam was introduced.
•  Significance of the country in Islamic history as a whole.
•  What specific variety or varieties of Islam are practiced, and how much impact Islam  has had on indigenous customs.

And especially:

•  What kind of role Islam plays in its culture and public life today.

Some of  the countries I have suggested have small or relatively recent Muslim populations.  Your emphasis, if you choose one of them, will be somewhat difference.  However, your main focus will remain:   What kind of role does Islam play in that country's culture and public life today?

Given the availability of raw information on the Internet, doing a poor or unimaginative job on this assignment will be fairly easy.  The challenge is to go past the obvious raw data and present it well and in an organized fashion.   Imagine your boss or colleague looking at your reporting saying, "I could've got this off the Internet myself!"   Now visualize the same person saying, "am I ever glad so-and-so took this assignment! This is really going to be useful!"   You are going for reaction number two.

Useful books include these, which are on reserve:

 Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

 Muslim Peoples, Religion and Politics:  A World Guide

 An Atlas of the Islamic World  since 1500.

Of course the library will have books on your specific country.  Warning:  a straightforward history of a country like Egypt may not have statistical information about the present in a useful form.  Any book we have, including the newest, may be out of date in some respects.  Most countries of the world now have web sites, though the quality of information varies, and verges on the propagandistic in many cases.   A search of the sites of major news organizations may prove useful.  In some cases Google News may lead you to local media outlets in English that provide up-to-date information on political, economic, and religious issues.

Finally, you may want to check sites put up by such international organizations as Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch, all accessible from my World History of Democracy site.  If a country's government is imprisoning or harassing certain kinds of people, you can be sure the government at least thinks this is a serious issue, even if they don't want to admit it.   And if people are being repressed, they must be occupying a strategic place in the political constellation, either by choice or by accident. 

Length:  Between 5 and 10 pages.  Maps and illustrations may be helpful.

Due:   October 20

Countries available

Afghanistan

Algeria

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Bosnia

Canada

Chad

China

Egypt

France

India

Iran

Iraq

Israel

Jordan

Kyrgyzstan

Lebanon

Libya

Mali

Mauretania

Nigeria

Pakistan

Russia

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Syria

Tunisia

Turkey

Turkmenistan

United Kingdom

United States

Uzbekistan

Yemen