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What is the relationship between religion, democracy, and human rights? What is the status of religion within modern human rights regimes? Do religions have "special" rights in democracies? Why did the French outlaw the hijab (Islamic headscarf) and the Swiss the building of mosques and is that good for human and democratic rights? What is (and what should be) the relationship between religious human rights and democratic self-determination? How do we balance between concerns over blasphemy and free speech, in the case of the Danish cartoon depiction of Mohammad, for example? Is the idea of "religion" even useful in human rights or democratic language anymore, as some now claim? These are just some of the questions students will take up as they are introduced to several important areas within the larger field of religion and international relations.nnReadings are interdisciplinary in nature, and include case studies. No prerequisite. Open to all majors/minors, and will be particularly beneficial to students in International Relations, International Policy Studies, Political Science, and Religious Studies, as well as students with specific regional political interests where the themes of the course are especially relevant (e.g., Middle East, Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe, Africa, and so on) and Pre-Law students.

No religious tradition forms or exists in a vacuum and throughout history Muslims have lived and interacted with non-Muslims, whether Christian, Jews, or Hindus. This course will explore those encounters by looking at the social and political effects of five encounters between Muslims and non-Muslims across the world.nThe class will begin with two examples from the contemporary period: political debates over Islamic clothing in Europe and shared devotion between Muslims and Hindus in modern Indian as the class examines how politics and cultural affect and are affected by religious identity. We will then turn to the example of Muslims living under non-Muslim rule in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century West Africa. As we examine how these communities decided to shift from religious accommodation to religious warfare and Muslim statehood we will question the role of religious conflict in driving large historical changes. nIn the fourth section of this class will examine the relationship between racial and religious identity by looking at Muslims in the Americas, and specifically at the participation of Muslims in the 1835 slave uprising in Brazil. Finally, the last section of the class will focus on the development of the first Muslim community in the Arabian peninsula as we look at the relationship between the formation of religious identity and the formation of a religion itself.nWhile historically and geographically distinct, all these moments bring to light the fundamental issue of contact and encounter and examine how those encounters shape religious traditions and identity.

Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department. May be repeated for credit.