The Qur’an and Islamophobia

The question of what texts should or shouldn’t be added is the wrong question, in my opinion, considering there is a text that is currently actively missing for no apparent reason. For me, the Qur’an makes the most sense for what should become a required text, because its absence is a significant academic blunder. There is an inherent flaw in teaching two out of the three Abrahamic religions, and, since they are so closely related, it seems either very arbitrary or very purposeful that the Qur’an is not required. Thus the question of ethnocentrism in curricula must be addressed. A Legacies peer of mine, Gretchen Mueller, did some analysis on white supremacy in Western Civ class requirements, and the need for a reimagining if the course is to be held up to modern day scrutiny. She also looks at white supremacy and its fostering in academia, which sets up a fundamental truth that this nuanced look at the Qu’ran builds on. We see this problematic relationship, and must take into consideration that universities are supposed to prepare future leaders with not only skills for the work place, but ideas and tolerance that will push the nation to progress. I feel that there ought to be at least some minimal responsibility taken for the waves of Islamophobia that the United States has had trouble with in the past decades, being in the form of appropriate, non-xenophobic education. The Bridge Project at Georgetown does a great job of outlining the basics of Islamophobia and addressing some misconceptions, which, when understood, can allow one to more easily accept that the Qur’an’s absence is related to this intolerance. This 2008 article is a good example of rhetoric condemning the teaching of Islamic history and of general Islamic practices. This is the kind of rhetoric with professional jargon that can incite real fear. The danger created is very real, and affects Muslims as well as people perceived to even possibly be Muslims. Therefore this creates a very real extension into general anti-Middle Eastern sentiment and xenophobia. A 2017 survey saw 35% of U.S. adults say that there is a “great deal of extremism in U.S. Muslims. The same survey saw ~75% of U.S Muslims say that there is significant discrimination against Muslims in the United States. With all of this considered, the decision to not include the Qur’an becomes more and more of an ethnic discrimination decision than one of syllabus organization. This claim is further developed by the objective community between the Qur’an and the Judeo-Christian Bible.

Inclusion of the Qur’an

The route of implementation taken should be in the form of understanding Islam to be a major Abrahmic religion, instead of implying a pure dichotomy in Judaism and Christianity. The persistence of Islamaphobic rhetoric in the world does not change the fact that there is a glaring academic misstep in only teaching two parts to a three part whole. They exist as Abrahamic religions and are fundamentally related to each other- practitioners of all three religions have been called “people of the book” for “sharing a belief in the primacy of the divine word through scripture.” Throughout the Qur’an are appearances from Noah, Jesus, and of course, Abraham. This communal nature is objective, and those who understand that are only driven to further confusion at the Qur’an’s absence. With it’s addition, some would argue, comes the danger of tokenism. This threat of tokenism in the addition of the Qur’an would only be coming from the fact that it was not taught before in the course, instead of from any actual disconnects in how it fits with the curriculum. Also, since it is a text that draws so heavily from what is already taught, and is literally a continuation of those texts, the lack of experience that a professor might have is less limiting due to that fact. In the same way that a new topic in the same discipline has related, fundamental building blocks, would be the same way that teaching this third Abrahamic religion only builds on what has already been mastered by said professors.

The development of a better relationship with the text and how it should be taught is made conducive through the fact that it most likely should have been being taught and discussed already. In our section of Core 151, Islam was not out of place as a text. On the contrary, the Qur’an’s relationship with Judaism and Christianity made it a curiosity that it was not required in the course. This relationship meant that comprehension was not based on entirely new concepts, and that allowed for quicker comprehension. The flow of the 3 made sense and pushes one to look at the real reason that this flow is deliberately disrupted. One cannot have a complete understanding of the world’s complicated religious history if one major section is just ignored or sidelined, simply for the fact that practitioners of Islam are not majority white. 

By Pedro Martinez. I am a Peace and Conflict major at Colgate University with planned minors in Chinese and Philosophy. I plan on focusing my work to creating a more cosmopolitan version of the severely divided world we live in now. I have interests in design, comedy, music, spirituality, and spreading radical empathy.