DOCSLIB.ORG

A. Ibrahim Dissertation 11.5.2017 in Template

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A. Ibrahim Dissertation 11.5.2017 in Template AMERICAN MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS’ PLATFORM AND STRATEGIES: UNDERSTANDING CHANGES IN INTEREST GROUP IDENTITY by Ayah Ibrahim A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Political Science Committee: _______________________________________ Peter Mandaville, Chair _______________________________________ Jennifer N. Victor _______________________________________ Priscilla M. Regan _______________________________________ Ming Wan, Program Director _______________________________________ Mark J. Rozell, Dean Date: __________________________________ Fall Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA American Muslim Organizations’ Platform and Strategies: Understanding Changes in Interest Group Identity A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Ayah Ibrahim Master of Arts George Mason University, 2010 Bachelor of Arts College of William and Mary, 2007 Director: Peter Mandaville, Professor Schar School of Policy and Government Fall Semester 2017 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2017 Ayah Ibrahim All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION This is dedicated to my loving husband Nader, my wonderful son Laith, and my parents Salma and Hassan. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the many friends, relatives, and supporters who have made this happen. My loving husband, Nader, supported me. My parents, in-laws, aunts, and cousin Amani helped me with proofreading and babysitting. Drs. Mandaville, Victor, and Regan were of invaluable help. Schar administrators guided me throughout this process. ISNA, MPAC, and CAIR allowed me access to their records and archives. The George Mason University’s provost’s office, the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies, and the Islamic Scholarship Fund awarded me financial grants that helped support my work. My Schar colleagues, especially Hiromi whose help and support were vital. Finally, thanks go out to the many university libraries in Maine, Vermont, and Virginia for providing clean and quiet places to work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... xiii Abstract ............................................................................................................................. xiv Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Marginalized Minority Communities in a Liberal Democracy ........................................ 1 Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 6 Main Terms Defined ........................................................................................................ 8 Significance ..................................................................................................................... 8 Assumptions and Limitations ........................................................................................ 10 Overview of Chapters .................................................................................................... 11 Chapter Two: Literature Review ....................................................................................... 14 Ethnic Minority Group Literature: A subfield of organizational theory ........................ 16 Organizational Identity Formation ................................................................................. 21 Demand Aggregation ................................................................................................. 22 Niche Theories ........................................................................................................... 24 Multidimensional Approach ....................................................................................... 25 Organizational Identity Shifts ........................................................................................ 29 Literature on American Muslims ................................................................................... 30 Possible Explanatory Factors and Hypotheses .............................................................. 34 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 41 Chapter Three: History of American Muslim Organizations ............................................ 42 Pre-Revolutionary and Antebellum America ................................................................ 42 Late Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Immigrant Missionary Groups and Black Muslim Movements ....................................................................................................... 45 Immigrant Muslims in the Mid-Twentieth Century ...................................................... 55 v Immigrant-Founded Communities and Organizations ............................................... 56 The Oldest Existing American Muslim Organization: Muslim Student Association (MSA) ........................................................................................................................ 62 The Largest American Muslim Organization: Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) ........................................................................................................................ 71 Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) .................................................................. 76 Leading Political Muslim Organization: Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) .. 78 Largest Muslim Civil Rights Organization: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) ........................................................................................................................ 82 Other American Muslim Organizations formed in the 1980s and 1990s ................... 86 Post-9/11 American Muslim Organizations ............................................................... 99 Summary .................................................................................................................. 113 Chapter Four: Methodology ............................................................................................ 117 Data .............................................................................................................................. 121 Case Selection, Coding, and Variables ........................................................................ 125 Data Coding Schemes and Evidence Reliability of Indirect and Direct Measures .. 126 Research Design .......................................................................................................... 134 Data Analysis and Display of Procedures .................................................................... 139 Hypotheses and Data Explained .................................................................................. 141 Chapter Five: Islamic Society of North America, 1999–2013 ........................................ 148 Platform and Tactics .................................................................................................... 148 Dependent Variables’ Descriptive Statistics ............................................................ 149 Independent Variables’ Descriptive Statistics ......................................................... 157 Independent Variables Explained Longitudinally .................................................... 162 Testing Hypotheses ...................................................................................................... 169 Platform: Scope ........................................................................................................ 171 Platform: Frame ....................................................................................................... 173 Platform: Rhetoric .................................................................................................... 175 Multivariate Logistic Regression Models on Platform Variables ............................ 181 Tactics: Coalition Use and Type .............................................................................. 184 Tactics: Advocacy Type ........................................................................................... 189 Multivariate Logistic Regression Models on Tactics’ Variables ............................. 191 ISNA Results ............................................................................................................... 194 vi Overview .................................................................................................................. 194 Findings .................................................................................................................... 197 Chapter Six: Muslim Public Affairs Council, 1999–2013 .............................................. 207 Platform and Tactics .................................................................................................... 207 Dependent Variables’ Descriptive Statistics ............................................................ 208 Independent Variables’
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reaching Muslims from the Bully Pulpit: Analyzing Modern Presidential Discourse on Islam and Muslims from FDR to Trump
    International Journal of Communication 13(2019), 4107–4129 1932–8036/20190005 Reaching Muslims From the Bully Pulpit: Analyzing Modern Presidential Discourse on Islam and Muslims From FDR to Trump RICO NEUMANN DEVON GEARY1 University of Washington, Seattle, USA U.S. political discourse increasingly emphasizes Islam and Muslims. Rooted in political communication and religious discourse scholarship, this study seeks to identify broader trends and patterns in modern presidential discourse on Islam. Our quantitative content analysis builds on a sample of nearly 1,500 invocations of Islam and Muslims in U.S. presidents’ spoken domestic communications, ranging from Franklin Roosevelt (1933) to Donald Trump (2018). Results indicate that Islam largely entered presidential discourse during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. Since then, references to Islam and Muslims have risen (particularly since the Clinton administration) and have tended to be embedded in foreign rather than domestic contexts. Presidential discourse on Islam has primarily focused on people (e.g., Muslims, Muslim Americans) and over time has become less likely to be linked to other communities of faiths. Presidents have consistently associated Islam and Muslims with notions of violence, but, with the exception of Trump, portrayals frame them as opponents or targets rather than enablers of violence. Our empirical findings are discussed in their historical and sociopolitical context. Keywords: presidential discourse, religious discourse, Islam, Muslims, content analysis The topics of Muslims and Islam have become increasingly prominent in U.S. political discourse. Since the early 1990s and especially since September 2001, the U.S. political climate has highlighted Islam, with recent focal points being events such as the Arab protests in the Middle East, terrorist attacks in the name of ISIL, the growth of Islam both in the United States and abroad, and, in 2017, travel bans issued by the Trump administration targeting travelers and refugees from Muslim-majority nations.
    [Show full text]
  • La Renovación De Los Discursos Orientalistas En La Sociedad Americana Tras El 11 S
    CAEI Centro Argentino de Estudios Internacionales La renovación de los discursos orientalistas en la sociedad americana tras el 11 S. El debate por la instalación de Casa Córdoba en Nueva York por María Lourdes Flores Working paper # 26 1 Todos los derechos reservados. - Pág. 1 Programa África Subsahariana La renovación de los discursos orientalistas en la sociedad americana tras el 11 S. El debate por la instalación de Casa Córdoba en Nueva York por María Lourdes Flores “No fue el Islam lo que nos atacó el Once de Septiembre, fue Al Qaeda” Esta fue una de las últimas frases que dijo el presidente de los Estados Unidos; Barak Obama, en la conmemoración de la fecha que representa el más grande de los atentados que tuvo este país en las últimas décadas; Dicha conmemoración coincide con la práctica del Ramadán islámico y también con la celebración de año nuevo judío. Todas estas festividades cívico / religiosas coincidieron con campañas publicitarias, arengas virtuales en Internet, a favor y en contra de la instalación de la Mezquita en el Zona Cero. Este atentado ocurrido en el año 2001 desató la reivindicación de viejas, o mejor dicho de ciertas visiones orientalistas de lo que para los americanos es la cultura árabe, o de medio oriente, y específicamente una religión; “el Islam”. Asociaciones apresuradas, disfrazadas de experticia se construyen constantemente en torno a fenómenos tales como “la mente islámica”, “las raíces de la ira musulmana”, 1 como consecuencia de la destrucción de las Torres Gemelas. En este trabajo se analizaran tres discursos en contra de la instalación del Centro Cultural Islámico “Casa Córdoba” y dos discursos a favor de la misma, para terminar con un discurso de un intelectual palestino que intenta profundizar un poco más.
    [Show full text]
  • Shariah: the Threat to America: an Exercise in Competitive Analysis
    SHARIAH: THE THREAT TO AMERICA AN EXERCISE IN COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT OF TEAM ‘B’ II 1 Copyright © 2010 The Center for Security Policy All rights reserved. Shariah: The Threat to America (An Exercise in Competitive Analysis—Report of Team ‘B’ II) is published in the United States by the Center for Security Policy Press, a division of the Center for Security Policy. THE CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY 1901 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 201 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: (202) 835-9077 Email: [email protected] For more information, please see securefreedom.org ISBN 978-0-9822947-6-5 Book design by David Reaboi. PREFACE This study is the result of months of analysis, discussion and drafting by a group of top security policy experts concerned with the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time: the legal-political-military doctrine known within Islam as “shariah.” It is designed to provide a comprehensive and articulate “second opinion” on the official characterizations and assessments of this threat as put forth by the United States government. The authors, under the sponsorship of the Center for Security Policy, have modeled this work on an earlier “exercise in competitive analysis” which came to be known as the “Team B” Report. That 1976 document challenged the then-prevailing official U.S. government intelligence estimates of the intentions and offensive capabilities of the Soviet Union and the policy known as “détente” that such estimates ostensi- bly justified. Unlike its predecessor, which a group of independent security policy professionals conducted at the request and under the sponsorship of the Director of Central Intelligence, George H.W.
    [Show full text]
  • Muslim Brotherhood Case Study Documentation
    Muslim Brotherhood Case Study Documentation Contents Exhibit 1: Holy Land Foundation Trial – Strategic Plan of the Muslim Brotherhood p.4 Exhibit 2: Holy Land Foundation Trial – Muslim Brotherhood Underground Movement Plan, p.37 Exhibit 3: Holy Land Foundation Trial – List of Muslim Brotherhood Organizations in the US, p.47 Exhibit 4: Holy Land Foundation Trial – List of Unindicted Coconspirators, p.49 Exhibit 5: Islamic Voice – Obituary of Mahboob Khan, p.61 Exhibit 6: Muslim Community Association of Santa Clara - Obituary of Mahboob Khan, p.64 Exhibit 7: Ikhwan.net Obituary of Mahboob Khan, p.66 Exhibit 8: Stephen Schwartz – The Muslim Student Association, A Wahhabi Front, p.76 Exhibit 9: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs – Seven Muslim Organizations Establish National Coordination Council, p.79 Exhibit 10: Chicago Tribune – Terrorists evolved in U.S. Fundraising, p.81 Exhibit 11: San Francisco Chronicle – Al-Zawahiri Solicited Funds Under The Guise Of Refugee Relief, p.86 Exhibit 12: CAIR Poster - 'Build A Wall of Resistance', p.93 Exhibit 13: Insight – D.C. Islamist Agent Carried Libyan Cash, p.95 Exhibit 14: Alamoudi & Gov. George W. Bush, p.103 Exhibit 15: Alamoudi & President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, p.105 Exhibit 16: New York Post – Hamas Goes to Foggy Bottom, p.107 Exhibit 17: Islamic Institute Friday Memo – Sponsoring Rally with Al-Amoudi, p.109 Exhibit 18: Islamic Institute Check from Al-Amoudi, p.112 Exhibit 19: DOJ Statement: Al-Amoudi Sentenced to Jail in Terror Financing Case, p.114 Exhibit 20: Boston
    [Show full text]
  • 2006 U.S.–Islamic World Forum
    2006 U.S.–Islamic World Forum Doha, Qatar February 18–20, 2006 The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World 2006 U.S.–Islamic World Forum Doha, Qatar February 18–20, 2006 The Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World But it is at times like these that our dialogue becomes more, not less important because the bridges we are trying to build to understand one another are burning and we must serve as the fire brigade. Note from the Forum Organizers . 5 Leaders Roundtable 1 . 59 The Greater Middle East Five Years After 9/11, Program of Events . 9 Five Years Forward Transcripts Leaders Roundtable 2 . 63 Introductory Address . 17 Women Leading Change by Martin Indyk Leaders Roundtable 3 . 67 Director of the Saban Center at The Brookings Institution Policy, Faith, and Change in an Age Welcome Address . 19 of Globalization by H.E. Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al Thani First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Leaders Task Force Summaries of the State of Qatar Task Force A: Security . 70 Speaker Introductions . 23 Task Force B: Youth and Development . 80 by Martin Indyk Director of the Saban Center at The Brookings Institution Task Force C: Governance and Reform . 88 Opening Address . 25 by Syed Hamid Albar Science and Technology Leaders Seminar . 96 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia Arts and the Public Sphere: Opening Address . 31 Arts and Culture Leaders Seminar . 104 by Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad bin Mohammed al-Khalifa Bridging the Divide: Muslim Minority . 110 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain Leaders Seminar Opening Address .
    [Show full text]
  • Dr. Michael Waller
    Testimony of Dr. Michael Waller Annenberg Professor of International Communication The Institute of World Politics October 14, 2003 Statement of J. Michael Waller Annenberg Professor of International Communication Institute of World Politics Before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security Senate Committee on the Judiciary 14 October 2003 Thank you, Chairman Kyl, and members of the Subcommittee for holding this important series of hearings. Thank you also for inviting me to testify on the subject of terrorist penetration of the U.S. military and prison systems via corruption of the chaplain programs, and how it fits in with a larger foreign-sponsored campaign to build terrorist support networks inside this country. I am testifying in my capacity as Annenberg Professor of International Communication at the Institute of World Politics, a graduate school of statecraft and national security in Washington. My expertise is in the political warfare of terrorist groups, not the theology of Islam. Enemies of our free society are trying to exploit it for their own ends. These hearings ensure that policymakers and the public know and understand how our enemies' operations work within our borders. Chaplains are only one avenue terrorists that and their allies have used to penetrate and compromise the institutions of our civil society. The recruitment and organization of ideological extremists in prison systems and armed forces is a centuries-old problem, as is the difficulty that civil societies have had in understanding and confronting the matter. While in tsarist prisons, Stalin and Dzerzhinsky organized murderers and other hardened criminals who would lead the Bolsheviks and their Cheka secret police.
    [Show full text]
  • The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel
    THE APARTHEID PARADIGM IN PALESTINE-ISRAEL: ISSUES OF JUSTICE AND EQUALITY Desmond Tutu CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY FRIENDS OF SABEEL NORTH AMERICA HOSTED BY FRIENDS OF SABEEL NEW ENGLAND Noam Chomsky John Dugard OCTOBER 26 – 27, 2007 Naim Ateek OLD SOUTH CHURCH Diana Buttu 645 BOYLSTON ST BOSTON, MA Donald Wagner USA Jeff Halper Anat Biletzki Noura Erekat Farid Esack David Wildman Phyllis Bennis Joan Martin Nancy Murray photo: Anne Paq/activestills.org What is Apartheid? In 1973, the UN General Assembly adopted the international Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, a crime against humanity. The word ‘apartheid’ means separation in Afrikaans, a language spoken in South Africa. ‘Apartheid’ is defined by the UN as “…a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group … over another … and systematically oppressing them…” by creating ghettos, confiscating land, banning freedom of movement, speech and mixed-marriage and through illegal arrest and detention. Marcia Bushnell "Interrogation" oil/canvas What is Hafrada? The Hebrew word for separation has come to be used by Israeli policy makers to refer to the idea of creating deliberate divisions between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel's barrier carving through the Palestinian West Bank is a conspicuous example, planned to stretch more than 400 miles including the endless spans of 25-foot-high concrete wall still under construction. The structure is called a 'separation fence' in Hebrew. The expression 'unilateral disengagement' for Israel's actions, for example, in Gaza, is yet another way to frame the officially-sanctioned policy of apartheid.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3 the Grassroots Organizations and the Religious Right
    Chapter 3 The grassroots organizations and the religious right “Take your Sharia and go home, you terrorist lovers. Your hands are bloody! Your money is bloody! Get out! Terrorists! Terrorists! Terrorists!” These statements were shouted by protestors at Muslim American children walk- ing into a fundraiser event in Yorba Linda, California, in February of this year. The Muslim American families moved briskly into the building as some parents shielded their children from the men and women in the crowd, who were waving flags, carrying homemade signs, and barking obscenities. The taunts and howls of the mob were captured on video and later circulated online. The YouTube video left many observers around the country outraged at the visceral display of hatred toward a minority group.1 But it was just the latest in a string of events that have included vandalism at mosques, Koran burnings, and street protests against American Muslims. Our nation is witnessing a rising tide in anti-Muslim sentiments. A Washington Post -ABC News poll last September showed that nearly half of Americans (49 percent) hold an unfavorable view of Islam, which is a 10 percent increase from October 2002.2 Yet the Yorba Linda rally did not occur in a vacuum. Nor was it spontaneous. Some of the people involved are members of national organizations dedicated to targeting the Muslim American community. One of the largest such hate groups, ACT! for America, was involved in both the Yorba Linda incident and similar hate rallies in Tennessee, Florida, and other states, as this chapter of our report will demonstrate.
    [Show full text]
  • Report Is Based on Three Sets of Documents: First, Internal U.S
    The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States STEVEN MERLEY Research Monographs on the Muslim World Series No 2, Paper No 3, April, 2009 HUDSON INSTITUTE CENTER ON ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND THE FUTURE OF THE MUSLIM WORLD The Muslim Brotherhood in the United States STEVEN MERLEY Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Muslim World HUDSON INSTITUTE 1015 15th Street NW, Sixth Floor Washington, DC 20005 202-974-2400 www.hudson.org © 2009 by Hudson Institute, Inc. All rights reserved. Contents SYNOPSIS . 1 BACKGROUND . 1 Goals of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood . 1 The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe . 3 THE BEGINNINGS (1962-1970) . 5 Three Iraqis. 9 FOUNDATIONS OF U.S. INFRASTRUCTURE (1970-1975) . 11 New Organizations. 12 North American Islamic Trust . 13 Elkadi Becomes Brotherhood Treasurer . 15 Parallel International Organizing . 16 Nada International . 17 MAJOR FRONT ORGANIZATIONS (1975-1984) . 19 The Islamic Society of North America . 21 Islamic Association for Palestine . 23 SAFA GROUP . 25 The International Institute of Islamic Thought . 25 SAAR Foundation . 27 THE ERA OF PROBLEMS (1985-1994) . 29 Leadership . 29 Problems . 30 1. Political Action. 30 2. ISNA . 31 The Muslim American Society . 33 The Palestine Committee of the U.S. Brotherhood . 35 Founding of CAIR . 37 Fiqh Council of North America . 39 Ahmed Elkadi Replaced. 39 TODAY . 41 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Leadership . 41 Brotherhood Organizations . 41 1. Muslim Student Association (MSA). 41 2. North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) . 42 3. The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). 42 4. International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) . 42 5. Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
    [Show full text]
  • American Islam, Muslim Americans, and the American Experiment Juliane Hammer and Omid Safi
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00241-8 - The Cambridge Companion to: American Islam Edited by Juliane Hammer and Omid Safi Excerpt More information Introduction: American Islam, Muslim Americans, and the American Experiment Juliane Hammer and Omid Safi The conversation about where American Muslims fi t into the larger fabric of American society far predates the election of Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency in 2008. To critically assess the anxiety over American Muslims as part of a historical chronology and continuum, we should start with the ratifi cation of the United States Constitution. The date was July 30, 1788. The site was North Carolina, and the occasion was the convention to ratify the proposed U.S. Constitution. The speaker on this occasion was a certain William Lancaster, who was a staunch Anti-Federalist. Lancaster spoke of what would happen not if, but when, a few centuries down the road a Muslim would be elected to the highest office in the land, the presidency of the United States of America. But let us remember that we form a government for millions not yet in existence. I have not the art of divination. In the course of four or fi ve hundred years, I do not know how it will work. This is most certain, that Papists may occupy that chair, and Mahometans may take it. I see nothing against it. 1 “Mahometan” was the common designation for Muslims back then, now considered derogatory, and was derived from the also obsolete and equally offensive “Muhammadan.” In 1788 there were no Muslim Americans run- ning for the office of the president.
    [Show full text]
  • 2001 Annual Report
    terfaith Allia e In nce Th and The I nte rf ai th A l l ia n c e F o u n d a t i o n 2 0 0 1 A N N U T A L R E P O R PeoplePeople ofof FaithFaith andand GoodGood WillWill RestoringRestoring HealthyHealthy DemocracyDemocracy Dear Friends: Never have I been more proud of The Interfaith Alliance than I was this past year. September 11 was a horrific day in world history, one that will be remembered with sadness and anger for generations to come. But those of us in the daily practice of spiritual leadership know, too, that we have a unique obligation in such times. The men and women of The Interfaith Alliance and The Interfaith Alliance Foundation are not all clergy; indeed, mine is the only ordination in our national office when our board members are not in town. Our staff reacted to the tragedy as would a pastor, imam, priest, or rabbi, reaching out to lend support and resources to those in pain, working to prevent anti-Muslim and anti-Sikh backlash and to help bring communities together. Our local Alliances and national boards sprang into action as well. Some scheduled unity events, some reached out to Muslims and Sikhs, and some met with political and religious leaders in an effort to gently guide them toward messages of inclusion. All demonstrated in word and deed the positive, healing role of religion in our society. Although we have grown and expanded our programs significantly since we were founded, we remain very much true to our original calling.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and Politics – Driskell – Page 1 of 15
    Religion and Politics – Driskell – Page 1 of 15 M.P.S. in Legislative Affairs Fall Semester August 27th – December 12th Religion and Politics LGAF 6240.LH [CRN 26510] 3.00 Credits Thursday Hall of States BASIC INFORMATION AND RESOURCES Instructor: Rev. Prof. Quardricos Bernard Driskell, Morehouse College (BA); Harvard University (M.T.S.); The George Washington University (M.P.S, Legislative Affairs, PACs & Political Management) Contact Information Email Address: [email protected] Communication I am available via email or phone, though it’s best to reach me via email. I will respond within 24 hours. Also, note, I am available before/after class, but only by appointment. THE COURSE Legislative Affairs Program Objectives Upon completion of the Master’s degree in Legislative Affairs, students will: 1. Gain both theoretical and practical knowledge related to the U.S. Congress, general issues in the legislative arena, and how to effectively advance legislation; 2. Hone their oral and written communication skills in both theoretical and technical aspects of legislative affairs; 3. Be able to conduct cutting-edge research and engage in effective problem solving by learning critical thinking skills; 4. Learn how to work effectively with others, the value of collaborative work, and will understand ethical issues involved in the legislative arena. Course Description and Overview This course will give an overview of the influence of religion on politics in the US. America’s ongoing debates about religion in public life and politics— whether about gay marriage, Masterpiece Cakeshop, President Trump’s Travel Ban, (E.O. 13769) Black Lives Matter Movement, the Mormonism of Mitt Romney, the zeal of evangelical support for Donald Trump, the role of political Islam post-9/11, or Religious Right activism, to name just a few—have caused millions to realize that religion may well be the most powerful, yet least understood, force of our times.
    [Show full text]