Part II: Studying Islam in Context
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:30-6:30 pm
Location: Center for Government and International Studies, Harvard University
1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge MA. Room 050
Speaker: Dr. Ali Asani, Professor of the Practice of Indo-Muslim Languages and Cultures, Harvard University

Professor Asani framed his lecture around the idea that as students and teachers the crucial questions we should be asking when thinking about Islam and Islam in context are:

Whose Islam are we talking about? In other words, who is defining it?

On what basis (of authority) do we know this Islam?

In which context (political, social, historical, cultural) do we know this Islam?

Professor Asani began by asking the audience “how do you know what you know?” He then told a story of how five blind men describe an elephant. Each observation was important but none was complete. The story was used to illustrate the importance of a multi-dimensional approach to constructing knowledge.

The focus of the lecture was on the public understanding of Islam in the US and how that understanding was created. He highlighted the interesting paradox of the rise of the mis-understanding of Islam by the general public, operating in the context of a rapidly globalizing and interconnected world. In other words, while we live in a world of rapid access to more information, our general information about Islam and Muslim societies is rife with misinformation. Professor Asani argued that this mis-understanding gap was perpetuated by a chasm of religious illiteracy, which fuels bigotry and stereotypes that marginalize and dehumanize whole religious groups.

Next the lecture considered a number of ways to study and teach religion. The first method Professor Asani discussed is an approach that examines religions from a Devotional Perspective, which uses the believer as the main frame of analysis. The second method is a Textual Approach, which privileges a sacred text as a framework of understanding. However, an emphasis on text tends to underestimate the organic context within which that text was organized. The third method considered is the Cultural Studies Approach, where a multi-disciplinary analytical lens appropriately matches the multi-dimensional ways that religions and religious life manifest themselves in the human experience.

In light of these techniques to approach religion, Professor Asani argued that the Cultural Studies Method is the most prudent tool available to promote religious literacy. He emphasized that by using the Cultural Studies Method alarm bells should ring when statements are made that maintain “all Muslims do this”, or “all Christians or all Jews believe X or Y”. Religion can often become a legitimizer, not a cause, of behavior. The lecture ended with the idea that the local context is the most significant variable for how Islam is practiced, more so than elements within Islam as a tradition. Using a number of examples from Turkey, the US, Mali, China and Europe, Professor Asani demonstrated how Islamic practice and understanding changed with different national situations.

Professor Asani’s lecture was the second in a series of five “Islam in Context” lectures taking place over the 2007-08 academic year. We hope that you will join us for the next in the series, where Dr. Jocelyne Cesari of the “Islam in the West” Program at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University will deliver a lecture titled "Islam in the West: From Encounter to Mutual Accommodation". This event will take place on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008; for more details please see The Outreach Center’s website for the “Islam in Context” series announcement.