Religious Revolutions and Violence:
Afghanistan, Iran, and the European Reformation
310-34002-01
Spring 2002
Tu, Th, 10:50-12:05
Naeem Inayatullah with Jesse Crane-Seeber
Office: Muller 325
Office Hours: Tu, Th 1-2:20 W 1-2:50 and by appointment
Office phone: 274-3028; email: naeem@ithaca.edu
1. Context and Purpose
Two years ago, Jesse Crane-Seeber and I sat down to plan this course. At that time I had in mind that two of the case studies would include Iran and the European Reformation. Unlike most, I consider the 1979 Iranian Revolution as perhaps the single most important (and the most underrated) event of the second half of the Twentieth Century. I think this is so for three reasons: (1) Of the revolutions of the modern period – that is, the period that starts approximately in 16 th Century with the Reformation, Capitalism, and birth of the state system -- the Iranian is the first theocratic social revolution. The Haitian (1780s and 1790s), the French (1789), the Russian (1917), the Chinese (1949), and the Cuban (1959) revolutions did not, as far as I know, have an explicitly religious component; (2) The Iranian revolution fired the imagination of the third world peoples. It allowed some to respond to modernity and development without assimilating themselves into either liberal capitalism or Soviet style communism. However, as the Iranian leaders learned to their exasperation, these religious models were often not consistent with a specific Iranian vision either. The result is that the Iranian Revolution brought to the surface an abundance of religiously based political visions; (3) As we shall see in one of our texts, Terror in the Mind of God, such religious political visions are not exclusive to Islam; they have also emerged from Judaism, Christianity, Sikhism, and even Buddhism. The emphatic return of religion to politics suggests that perhaps we are coming to close that period of history in which the religious and the political are separated. If this hypothesis is sustainable – and part of the purpose of the course is to explore this idea – then the Iranian Revolution signals the beginning of the end of the modern period.
All the above was more or less in our minds two years ago. We knew we needed an in depth look at the Iranian Revolution as well as familiarity with the European Reformation, the Thirty Years War (which if named to describe its content might be called instead, “Internal European Religious Crusades” or “The Catholic-Protestant European War”). The third case, Afghanistan , the Taliban, and Al’Quaida, is imposed upon us by events and by the response of the people of this country and their government to those events.
One of our goals will be to familiarize ourselves with our three cases: names, dates, places, culture, the place of all these in the history of the global political economy. In other courses I have banked on the hope that the abstract themes will motivate students to learn specifics. In this course, however, learning the particulars seems rather important. Parties whose representatives are bombing and killing each other ought perhaps to know something about each other. Certainly, it is possible to kill anonymous beings, just as it is possible to kill anonymously. But, together, we can resist this questionable and perhaps amoral/ unethical tendency to shroud killing in anonymity.
I can imagine that learning a few details of our context may be good enough. Nevertheless, we shall risk greater ambition. This course is composed of one theoretical section and three case studies. The cases include aspects of the European Reformation – especially the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants from 1500 to 1648, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the Taliban’s emergence in Afghanistan from 1994 up to the present. The theoretical thematic compares each revolution’s justification for violence, its vision of justice and good society, and its ideas about the treatment and place of heretics and non-believers. A second component of the comparative analysis will be to examine how each revolution moves from a phase of supreme and pure idealism to a realist phase – one where it begins to accept and compromise with “impure” elements of its social context.
The motivation for this course are many: First, the religious basis of ethnic, racial, and national identities are once again becoming part of the focus of larger society. Second, while this recent emphasis on religion seems clear enough, it may be less obvious, but more crucial, to appreciate that the powerful zeal of religious ideology has always been with us. Specifically, an understanding of how modern Europe itself emerged from the purifying hatred of religious intolerance may help to bring some needed perspective on recent events. Third, a comparison that is both historical and cultural may help us to locate both the similarities and differences between “then” and “now” as well as between “us” and “them”.
2. Evaluation
I will determine your grade by evaluating three take-home essay exams. I may distribute a range of essay topics. Each essay contributes towards one third of your total grade. For each exam you will have a week to prepare one essay between 5-7 pages in length. You may compose your own topic for any essay. I will also pass out a set of guidelines on how I would like you to write these essays. Essay topics will synthesize reading materials, lectures, and discussions. An “entry paper” and an “exit paper” are required but not graded.
Note Well: Jesse may read your work and offer comments. However, for various reasons, assessing and assigning your grades is a responsibility that I carry exclusively.
Entry paper: due Tuesday, January 29.
First essay : Essay due: Tuesday, February 26; topics may be distributed: Tuesday, February 19.
Second essay : Essay due: Tuesday, April 9; topics may be distributed: Tuesday, April 2.
Final Comprehensive essay : Essay due: Wednesday May 8; topics distributed: Tuesday, April 30. (Please place the third essay under my door by noon .)
Exit paper: (due date to be announced)
3. Readings :
We will select the readings from the following materials (to be purchased at the book store):
Rashid, Ahmed,.Taliban, (Yale, 2000)
Roy, Olivier , Afghanistan : From Holy War to Civil War ( Darwin , 1995)
Eire , Carlos M. N., War Against the Idols ( Cambridge , 1986)
Juergensmeyer, Mark, Terror in the Mind of God ( California , 2000)
Wright, Robin, The Last Great Revolution, (Knopf, 2000)
Mirsepassi, Ali Intellectual Discourse and the Politics of Modernization, (2000)
Course Reader (Purchased from Lynn Roberts, 309 Muller)
Ahmed, Leila, “The Women of Islam,” Transition, 83, V9N3, 2000, pp. 78-96.
Hilton, Isabel, “The Pushtun Code,” New Yorker, December, 3, 2001 , 59-71.
Macmalbaf, Mosen, “Limbs of No Body,” Iranian, ( http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/2001/June/Afghan/index.html ) June 20, 2001 , pp.1-36.
Chomsky, Noam, “The War in Afghanistan ,” znet, ( http://www.zmag.org/ZNETTOPnoanimation.html ) Dec. 30, 2001 , pp.1-14)
Klare, Michael T., “The Geopolitics of War,” The Nation, Nov. 5, 2001 , 1-5.
“Cooley, John K., “Introduction,” and “Carter and Brezhnev in the Valley of Decision ,” Unholly Wars, Pluto Press, 2000, pp. 1-28.
Hassan, Nasra, “An Arsenal of Believers,” New Yorker, November 19, 2001 , pp. 36-41.
Rashid, Ahmed, “They’re Only Sleeping,” New Yorker, January 14, 2002 , pp. 34-41.
Hanke, Lewis, “The ‘Requerimiento’ and Its Interpreters,” Revista de Historia de Amaerica, vol. 1, 1, 1938, pp. 25-34.
King, Martin Luther, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963 , (http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html), pp.1-10.
Gray, J. Glenn, “Conclusion,” The Warriors: Reflections of Men in Battle, Harper, 1970 [1959], pp.215- 242.
Inayatullah, Naeem, “Celebrating the End of the Cold War,” Program For the Analysis and Resolution of Conflict’s Working Papers Series, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, Number 19, April 1993, pp. 1-19.
Kangas, Steve, “A Timeline of CIA Atrocities,” (www.korpios.org/resurgent/CIAtimeline.html), pp. 1-13.
Blaney, David and Naeem Inayatullah, “The Westphalian Deferral.” (Chapter 2 of International Relations and the Problem of Difference, manuscript).
Instructor and students will jointly determine the pace and selection of the readings as the course proceeds.
4. A few more words on the design of the course:
I think of the design of a course as similar to a style of music. Most courses follow “classical (European) music” in design. That is, the audience hears music pre-determined by the score. The music may change slightly from performance to performance but this change is not part of the design of classical music. In contrast, Jazz and classical Indian music combine the structure of the tune, the interpretative skill of the players, and the response of the listeners to create a specific structured improvisation. Accordingly, I have designed this course to change from one performance to another according to the interaction of students, instructor, and the reading materials. Thus no two classes or performances should be the same because the interaction of the three differs on each occasion. This design embraces the necessity of improvisation.
A Jazz design has consequences for our sense of time in the course. To some the course will feel less structured and slower than what they might expect. The good news is that the course will also feel like something we create together.
6. Writing Suggestions for Essays
I hesitate to present a set of suggestions on writing essays because they may stifle your style. In addition you may be tempted to follow my suggestions to the letter thereby missing the larger point which has more to do with the attitude you bring to the writing and the tone you create. Nevertheless, I offer these suggestions because you may need and appreciate a certain amount of direction. Also, I wish to emphasize a particular style of writing that I hope you will add to your repertoire of skills - the style of an essay. Please take these instructions as “suggestive” and make your own decision on whether you wish to follow them. I would like to register a warning: While this style of writing may have great personal benefits it is not usually favored. The academy stresses a much more certain and assertive style.