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BLACK MUSLIMS: Race, Religion, Culture

AMES 295S/ AAAS 295/ICS 212/GSF 296S/REL 295S Professor Ellen McLarney

Wednesday 1:25 p.m.-3:55 230 John Hope Franklin Center

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The spread of Islam to Africa, Islamic knowledge and learning in Africa, African Muslims and African Islam, Muslim communities and the transatlantic slave trade, Muslim slave rebellions in Brazil and the Caribbean, Muslim slave autobiographies, African Muslims in Europe, the Moorish Science Temple and the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, conversion narratives, black Muslims in Durham, women of the Nation of Islam, black Muslim women's Qur'an exegeses, Hagar as a black woman, black feminism, the Five-Percent Nation, Islamic hip-hop and rap (Lupe Fiasco, Ice Cube, Mos Def, Q-Tip, etc.), "the Black Crescent," the black international and Islam, negritude, decolonization and Black Power.

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REQUIREMENTS

30% Three Short Papers Write four short, 5 page papers on any of the course themes or related themes. The papers are due before class the day that particular topic is discussed. Please include endnotes or in-text citations, along with a bibliography (not included in the page length). Submit the papers to the Sakai Forum in lieu of a response.

30% Weekly Responses

Thoughtful and thorough reflection on the week’s readings, approximately one page long, double spaced, due at midnight the night before Wednesday’s class. Please respond to at least ONE of your colleagues’ posts before class begins. This can be a short observation or comment. If you fulfill these requirements, your grade for this portion of the course will be an A. Late responses get half credit.

20% Presentation of assigned readings or suggested readings

The presentation includes: 1. submitting study questions, notes, an outline, or powerpoint to your classmates, 2. presenting the material with some minor outside research, and 3. soliciting participation and discussion. The presentation and discussion should be no longer than 20-30 minutes. Advice on powerpoints: 1. focus on a handful of KEY “take away” points to drive your point home; 2. powerpoint slides should never be wordy, but succinct; 3. fill in details orally with main points and visuals on the slides. You MUST submit your presentation materials to me by the Monday before class—so that we can coordinate our approaches to the material and so that I can give you feedback.

20% Attendance & Participation Students are expected to attend all class, do the readings and assignments, and participate by thoughtfully engaging the materials in class discussions. If you fulfill these basic expectations, you will receive an “A” for this portion of the course. Sicknesses and STINFs technically count for an absence unless there is a dire emergency that you justify with documented evidence. Sport commitments, conferences, job interviews, good deeds, and psychological crises are usually excused. Perfect attendance=A+; one absence=A; two=A-; three=B+; four=B, etc.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

In cases of academic dishonesty, no credit will be awarded on the course assignment (e.g. quiz, test, exam, presentation, paper), no make up for the assigned work will be allowed, and the final course grade may be marked down. The case will be reported to the DUS and to the Office of Student Conduct in the Dean of Students Office, and the course will not count toward the AMES major. In the case of a second incident of academic dishonesty, the student will receive a failing grade for the course. http://asianmideast.duke.edu/academic-dishonesty

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BIBLIOGRAPHY OF KEY TEXTS RELATED TO OUR THEME (* recommended for purchase) Su’ad Abdul Khabeer

Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip-Hop in the United States (ebook) Zain Abdullah

Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem (ebook) Hisham Aidi

Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture Hisham Aidi and Manning Marable

Black Routes to Islam Habeeb Akande

Illuminating the Blackness: Blacks and African Muslims in Brazil Allan Austin

African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles *James Baldwin The Fire Next Time Edward E. Curtis

Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam (ebook) Call of Bilal: Islam in the African Diaspora Islam in Black America (ebook)

Sohail Daulatzai Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International and Black Freedom Beyond America (ebook)

Sylviane Diouf Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (ebook)

*Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth Dawn Marie Gibson and Jamillah Karim

Women of the Nation: Between Black Protest and Sunni Islam (ebook) Michael A. Gomez

Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas Omar ibn Said

A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Ibn Omar Said Sherman Jackson

Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking Toward the Third Resurrection Michael Muhammad Knight

Blue Eyed Devil: A Road Odyssey Through Islamic America The Five-Percenters: Islam, Hip-Hop, and the Gods of New York

*Malcolm X and Alex Haley The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Manning Marable Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Richard Brent Turner Islam in the African-American Experience

Amina Wadud Gender Jihad Qur'an and Woman

Olufemi Vaughan Religion and the Making of Nigeria (ebook)

Rudolph T. Ware The Walking Qur’an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa (ebook)

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SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

WEEK ONE, Wednesday, January 18th Black Muslims

• Edward E. Curtis IV, The Call of Bilal: Islam in the African Diaspora, pp. 1-20 • Will Caldwell, “’The Name Means Everything’: On the Birth of the Black Muslim,” Sapleo Square, https://sapelosquare.com/2016/08/29/the-name-means-everthing-on-the-birth-of-the-black-muslim/ • Explore the Sapelo Square digital portal SUGGESTED & MLK, Jr. • Clayborne Carson, “The Unfinished Dialogue of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X,” in Souls (08 August 2006): 12-19.

AFRICA WEEK TWO, Wednesday, January 25th Islam in Africa

GUEST SPEAKER: Professor Bruce Hall, History, Duke • David Robinson, Muslim Societies in African History, pp. xv-59 • Jay Spaulding, “Medieval Christian Nubia and the Islamic World,”

International Journal of African Historical Studies SUGGESTED • Bruce Hall, “Arguing sovereignty in the Songhay,” Afriques

WEEK THREE, Wednesday, February 1st Religious Knowledge in Africa

GUEST SPEAKER: Professor Mbaye Lo, Middle East Studies, Duke • Rudolph T. Ware, The Walking Qur’an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa (ebook), pp. 1-109

PUBLIC LECTURE: Youssef Carter, Sociocultural Anthropology, UC Berkeley “Schooling the Black Muslim Body”

THE AMERICAS WEEK FOUR, Wednesday, February 8th Islam, Africa, and the Slave Trade

• Sylviane Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (ebook), pp. 1-70 • Edward E. Curtis IV, “Islamic Jihad or Just Revolt?: African Muslims in Latin America and the

Caribbean,” The Call of Bilal: Islam in the African Diaspora, pp. 111-134

SUGGESTED • Michael Gomez, Black Crescent: Experience & Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas, pp. 1-127 • Habeeb Akande, Illuminating the Blackness: Blacks and African Muslims in Brazil

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WEEK FIVE, Wednesday, February 15th Muslim Slave Narratives

• Allan Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles, pp. 3-64 • Omar ibn Said, A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Ibn Omar Said (ebook), pp. 3-94 • Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, “The Middle Passage: An African’s Ordeal,” pp. 55-59

in David Northrup, The Atlantic Slave Trade • Explore documentary website about ‘Abd ar-Rahman: http://princeamongslaves.org/ • WATCH IN CLASS: “A Prince Among Slaves” • CLASS VISIT to RUBENSTEIN LIBRARY: Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua, Biography

THE CARIBBEAN

WEEK SIX, Wednesday, February 22nd Race, Religion

• Aisha Khan, Callaloo Nation: Metaphors of Race and Religious Identity Among South Asians in Trinidad (ebook), pp. 1-64

& Decolonization GUEST SPEAKER: Professor Gregson Davis, Classics, Duke • Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, pp. 29-78

• Aimé Césaire, Return to My Native Land WEEK SEVEN, Wednesday, March 1st Decolonization, continued

• Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, excerpts • Sohail Daulatzai, Black Star, Crescent Moon: The Muslim International & Black Freedom Beyond America, pp. 1-88 • WATCH IN CLASS: Isaac Julien, “Franz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask” SUGGESTED • Samir Meghelli, “Transnational Solidarities between the African American Freedom Movement and Algeria, 1962-1978,” in Black Routes to Islam, pp. 91-120

BLACK AMERICA WEEK EIGHT, Wednesday, March 8th NATION OF ISLAM

• Ed Curtis, Islam in Black America (ebook) OR • Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam (ebook)

FIELD TRIP: AR-RAZZAQ ISLAMIC CENTER 1009 West Chapel Hill Street Durham, NC 27701 http://arrazzaqislamiccenter.org/

Wednesday, March 15th Spring Break, NO CLASS WEEK NINE, Wednesday, March 22nd MALCOLM X Choose either the autobiography or the biography to read.

• Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X • Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention • WATCH IN CLASS: “Malcolm X: Keep It Real”

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WEEK TEN, Wednesday, March 29th MALCOLM X, cont. GUEST SPEAKER: Professor Omid Safi, Middle East Studies, Duke Choose either the autobiography or the biography to read.

• Malcolm X with Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X • Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Read either James Baldwin OR Sherman Jackson. • James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time • Sherman Jackson, “Between Blackamerica, Immigrant Islam, and the Dominant Culture”

in Islam and the Black American WEEK ELEVEN, Wednesday, April 5th CONVERSION

• Sohail Daulatzai, Black Star, Crescent Moon, pp. 137-68 • WATCH AT HOME: “The Trials of Muhammad Ali” • WATCH IN CLASS: dir. Zareena Grewal, “By the Dawn’s Early Light: Chris Jackson’s Journey to Islam SUGGESTED • Michael Muhammad Knight, Blue Eyed Devil: A Road Odyssey Through Islamic America

WEEK TWELVE, Wednesday, April 12th RACE, RELIGION, & HIP-HOP

• Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, Muslim Cool: Race, Religion, and Hip-Hop in the United States • Sohail Daulatzai, Black Star, Crescent Moon, pp. 89-136 • Hisham Aidi, Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture, pp. 221-57 WATCH & LISTEN • A Tribe Called RED, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXVyQiEPqbI • Amir Sulaiman, “Come to the Hills,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dXVpCWTUyQ • Oddissee, “Lifting Shadows,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-FN6P8Mk4&list=RDAq-FN6P8Mk4 • Poetic Pilgrimage, “Silence is Consent,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1orCqZg4SA SUGGESTED • Elisabete Suzana, “Performing Islam in Europe: Poetic Pilgrimage,” http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:760744/FULLTEXT01.pdf • Michael Muhammad Knight, The Five-Percenters: Islam, Hip-Hop, and the Gods of New York • Naeem Mohaiemen, “Fear of a Muslim Planet: Hip Hop's Hidden History,” in Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture, ed. by DJ Spooky Paul Miller • Felicia M. Miyakawa, Five Percenter Rap: God Hop's Music, Message, and Black Muslim Mission • Samy Alim, “A New Research Agenda: Exploring the Transglobal Hip Hop Umma”

in Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop “Re-inventing Islam with Unique Modern Tones: Muslim Hip Hop Artists as Verbal Mujahidin” in Soul

WEEK THIRTEEN, Wednesday, April 19th BLACK FEMINISM

GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Jamillah Karim, Religion, Spelman College • Dawn Gibson & Jamillah Karim, Women of the Nation: Between Black Protest and Sunni Islam • Robin Kelley, “This Battlefield Called Life: Black Feminist Dreams,”

Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, pp. 135-57 SUGGESTED • Amina Wadud, Qur'an and Woman • Amina Wadud, Gender Jihad • Julianne Hammer, More Than A Prayer: American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism, pp. 13-35

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WEEK FOURTEEN: Wednesday, April 26th

GUEST SPEAKER: Professor Candis Watts Smith, Public Policy, UNC • Zain Abdullah, Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem Short presentations of final projects and celebration.