Sociologies of Islam

Charles Kurzman, “Sociologies of Islam,” Annual Review of Sociology, August 2019, Vol. 45, pp. 265-277. “The sociology of Islam arguably emerged in the fourteenth century with the work of Ibn Khaldun, but the term itself appeared first in 1931. In recent years, the field has expanded to encompass the study of all aspects of the social lives of the world’s Muslims, who constitute one-fifth of the global population — hence the plural label, sociologies of Islam. This article reviews four central debates in the field: approaches to Muslim modernities, challenging Orientalist images of Islam as enduringly premodern; tensions between national and global Islamic identities and institutions; activism around Muslim women’s rights, both by women and by state-building men; and proliferating challenges to Muslim authorities. As the field confronts political pressures and barriers to scholarly travel, the way forward may involve collaborations that extend training opportunities and comparative research across national and regional borders.” More…

The Disparaging Implications of Strategic Location

Charles Kurzman, “The Disparaging Implications of Strategic Location,” July 31, 2019. We can probably all agree that the Strait of Hormuz is strategically located — one sixth of the world’s oil production and one third of the world’s natural gas pass through its narrow shipping lanes. But what about Afghanistan (“strategically located on the map”), Algeria (“strategically situated on the rim of the Mediterranean Sea, gateway to the deep Sahara”), Andorra (“strategic location in between Spain and France”), Angola (“strategic location in southern Africa”), and Azerbaijan (“strategically located near Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq”)? More…

Acknowledging State Terrorism

Charles Kurzman, “Acknowledging State Terrorism,” June 20, 2019. The United States government now recognizes the existence of state terrorism. If the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a foreign terrorist organization, as the Trump administration announced in April, then what other government agencies around the world meet the Department of State’s statutory definition of terrorism: “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets”? More…

The Privacy Rights of Terrorism Defendants, Muslim and Non-Muslim

Charles Kurzman, “The Privacy Rights of Terrorism Defendants, Muslim and Non-Muslim,” Lawfare, April 5, 2019. The official position of the Department of Justice—according to a legal brief filed in February—is that association with a terrorism charge is so stigmatizing that defendants should not be publicly identified. This is puzzling, since the department itself periodically releases a list of Muslim Americans convicted in terrorism-related cases, as well as hundreds of press releases naming Muslim American terrorism defendants. Yet the department has never released a list of domestic terrorism-related cases, and its press releases named only one-quarter of defendants involved in right-wing violent extremism. More…

Building Bridges Podcast

Interview about The Missing Martyrs on the Building Bridges Podcast, Georgetown University, March 1, 2019. More…

The Destruction of Syria

Syrian Declaration of Independence, 1920

Charles Kurzman, “The Destruction of Syria: Resources for Teaching,” February 28, 2019. Syria, like most nations, is a modern invention. It was created in 1918 by the Syrian National Congress, who established a constitutional monarchy. The French invaded in 1920 and split the country into two, with the southern half under British rule.
Fictitious national assembly in “Lawrence of Arabia,” directed by David Lean, 1962 (IMDB entry).
Syrian national assembly and declaration of independence, 1918-1920 (Hathi Trust).
Ottoman provinces of the eastern Mediterranean (Levant, al-Sham, Greater Syria) (1893 map).
Ethno-sectarian groups (Gulf/2000, Columbia University).
Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916 (Wikipedia).
French conquest of Syria, 1920 (map of French mandate). More…

Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2018

Charles Kurzman, “Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2018,” Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, January 22, 2019. The wave of Muslim-Americans associating themselves with the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” appears to have dwindled, continuing a downward trend that was visible in the final year of the Obama administration. There were no incidents or arrests in 2018 involving Muslim extremists who entered the United States illegally. These findings contradict the alarms about terrorism sounded by the Trump administration. In a survey conducted for this report, terrorism experts attribute the decline in Muslim-American involvement with violent extremism to the loss of territory by the Islamic State, the reduction in online recruitment, and the already small scale of Muslim-American extremism. More…

    Examine the data for yourself here. Previous versions of this annual report are available here.

The Missing Martyrs: Why Are There So Few Muslim Terrorists? (updated for the age of ISIS)

Charles Kurzman, The Missing Martyrs: Why Are There So Few Muslim Terrorists? (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). Released December 7, 2018. More…

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