Class offers 'eye-opening' look at Islam's complexities
This is the first time the class has been taught at Drake University, and it could hardly come at a more opportune - or more difficult - time. Next year will mark 10 years since the 9/11 attacks changed the popular American view of Islam from one of ignorance or mere curiosity to something far more complicated.And in recent months, Islam has found itself at the nexus of debates central to our understanding of American democracy. The planned Muslim community center near ground zero has pitted property rights and religious freedoms against respect for a national tragedy. The proposed Quran burning in Florida played freedom of speech off the sensitivities of Muslims worldwide and the safety of American troops. And the recent firing of Juan Williams from National Public Radio, after he spoke of his fear of Muslims in airports, has generated a discussion of tolerance vs. free speech, and some debate about media partisanship.
In his class, Hamad, a thoughtful 35-year-old raised in Egypt, forces discussion out of sometimes-reluctant students. He hopes to broaden their views of Muslims, views mostly shaped by polarized political rhetoric. Only one student in the class is a Muslim: senior Isaiah Ellison, president of the Drake Muslim Students Association and son of Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis, the United States' first Muslim congressman.
"They appreciate the opportunity to learn from someone from a different culture and religious background," Hamad said. "The kind of debate we have might have been a little bit alarming in the last few months. But I take it as a learning opportunity. Not as a threat. Because you cannot blame students for what they hear in the media."
As Islam gets thrust repeatedly into the national debate, American Muslims such as Hamad speak of an increasing awareness of their "other-ness." Hamad's wife, Shaimia, who wears a hijab, talks of the looks she's gotten in recent months. Their oldest son, Omar, 6, recently asked why he keeps hearing about Islam on the news programs his father always has on.
Hamad knows he can't explain it all to a 6-year-old and also knows his moderate voice doesn't always have a place in the national political rhetoric.
He knows tensions between Islam and Christianity have become more pronounced in the past decade, following centuries of unease. But his goal in this class focuses on the here and now: to influence the thinking of his 18 politically inclined students.
"Democracy can't function without engaged, committed and educated citizens," Hamad said. "(Islam's place in the West) is going to be on the policy radar for a very long time. You owe it to yourself and your nation to know more about those issues."
Instructor follows path from Cairo to Drake
For Hamad even to be here - teaching to a group of mostly white, mostly Christian students at a private university in the Midwest - is an improbability.
When Hamad was growing up in Cairo, the Egyptian capital of 17 million people, he wanted to be a fighter pilot. But poor eyesight dashed his dream at a young age. His mom was a physician, his dad a journalist, and soon, Hamad's dreams shifted: He wanted to teach.
Growing up in the Middle East, Hamad couldn't escape the impact of politics on daily life. Developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict dominated the news. His first political memory was the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat by Islamic fundamentalists enraged by Sadat's peace treaty with Israel. Hamad's next political memory came when he intently followed the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He was 7.
"In the Middle East, you are within the fire," he said.
Hamad studied at Cairo University and figured he'd teach there, too. But he got a Fulbright scholarship and in 1999 began graduate work at the University of Washington. It was a time, after the Cold War but before 2001, when there was little animosity between the Arab world and America. He was living in Seattle when the 9/11 attacks changed that.
After earning his doctorate from the University of Utah, he ended up at Drake by accident. He hadn't heard of the school until he saw the Democratic presidential debate hosted by Drake in 2007. Soon after, Hamad met longtime Drake political science professor Arthur Sanders at a conference, and he told Hamad of a job opening. Hamad interviewed for a dozen jobs across the country, but Drake felt right. He started in 2008, teaching courses in introductory politics.
The course on Islam sprang out of Hamad's decision to take students on a three-week summer tour of Egypt, Drake's first study-abroad program in the Middle East. The students studied up on the country, then went on a whirlwind tour: visiting the Pyramids, taking a night safari in the desert, visiting military museums. But Hamad felt he was merely scratching the surface.
"We need to provide students with something that is relevant, informative and thought-provoking about Islam," he said.
Average American 'has no idea' what Islam is
Hamad's course covers the gamut of 21st century Islam, from the basics of the religion, to the treatment of women, to democracy in Islamic countries, to perceptions about Islam in the United States. The class is more debate than lecture. One assignment is to interview and write about a Muslim living in Des Moines.
"It's been eye-opening for me," said Ellison, who has learned about the many faces of his faith in the class. "It's material people want to understand: 'Why do women in Afghanistan dress the way they do?' 'Why do suicide bombers say "Allahu Akbar" before they detonate themselves?' "
The students' debate comes in the shadow of a time when many American Muslims say they feel more cognizant of their "Muslim-ness."
"A lot of my classmates, that's when their world started, with 9/11," Ellison said. "If that's your building block, everything related to Islam has a negative connotation to it. Being able to talk with other Americans who aren't Muslim about Islam, it's been good for me. People understand the complexity of the issue."
For Merle Domer, a 22-year-old senior majoring in religion and philosophy, the class has been a revealing look at timely issues. Debates have frequently gotten heated, especially on current events. It was "mind-boggling," she said, when Hamad brought in several local Muslim women who work as doctors and scientists. Seeing Muslim women who mesh fluidly with the Western world upended her view of subservient women in Islam.
"The average American citizen really has no idea what Islam really is about, me included," Domer said. "I'm a religion major. I thought I knew the religion. But Americans get such a diluted version of what the average Muslim is really like. All we hear is the rhetoric of the media."
She sees Hamad as a professor who wants students to challenge conventional wisdom.
"I hope we come away from this class realizing how much we don't know about other cultures," she said. "That there's always another side to the stories."
Difficult to raise sons as Muslims, Americans
But perhaps the most insightful view students get on Islam in 21st century America comes from Hamad's own daily life.
Hamad and his wife have grappled with how to raise their two young boys as Muslims and as Americans at the same time.
"I think the media is making it more complicated for us," his wife said. "I don't think my kid would ever notice he's different unless someone else pointed it out to him."
Hamad makes an analogy about seeing his religion being used for political purposes: that people such as Terry Jones, the pastor who proposed burning the Quran, are similar to Muslim extremists who've given their religion a bad name.
"They are basically collaborating to achieve the same political objective, which is to divide this country," he said. "To many Muslims, it's offensive that their religion is being used as a scapegoat or a scarecrow to achieve limited political objectives. I know it's a winning strategy in the short term. I don't think it's a winning strategy for the nation in the long term. As an American Muslim, I care for this nation. And I want my kids to have the kind of life that we came to America for."
