Cover image for Teaching Islam : textbooks and religion in the Middle East
Title:
Teaching Islam : textbooks and religion in the Middle East
Publication Information:
Boulder, CO : Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007
ISBN:
9781588264503

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30000010134281 BP43.I48 T42 2007 Open Access Book Book
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Summary

Summary

Much has been made of the role that Saudi Arabia's education system played in fostering the hatred that fueled the September 11 terror attacks. But do Saudi textbooks deserve to be faulted for fostering violence? And have Wahhabi ideas infiltrated the Islamic textbooks used in public schools throughout the Middle East? Confronting these questions, ""Teaching Islam"" explores the political and social priorities behind religious education in nine Middle Eastern countries. The authors reveal dramatic differences in the way that Islam is presented in textbooks across the range of countries, reflecting local histories and the policy interests of the state. They also illustrate the perhaps surprising adaptability of Islam as leaders strive to reconcile Muslim identity with both state citizenship and the modern reality of an interdependent, globalized world.


Author Notes

Eleanor A. Doumato is visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies, at Brown University. Her publications include Women and Globalization in the Arab Middle East: Gender, Economy, and Society (coedited with Marsha Pripstein Posusney) and Getting God's Ear: Women, Islam, and Healing in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Gregory Starrett is associate professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt.