http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7536 Sun, 26 May 2013 05:32:09 GMT 2013-05-26T05:32:09Z http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu:80/retrieve/36489/barazangi_photo.jpg http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7536 http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7802 Title: The Equilibrium: Issues of Islamic Education in the United States Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: The theme of this special edition of Religion and Education (R&E) on "Issues of Islamic Education" is taqwa. Taqwa is an Arabic word often translated oversimply as "piety," but which bears the meaning of "a conscious balance between the individual, the society, and the limits set by Allah or God as the source of value and knowledge". Since I was asked to be guest editor of this edition, three overarching issues have been formulating my thinking about it, from selecting the theme to the significance that this edition of R&E may have for the debate over education in the country as a whole. The first issue is how to achieve a balance between the belief systems of individuals (often referred to as religion or philosophy) and this country's universal schooling system which has traditionally intended, to a large degree, to meld diverse individual views into the "common-ground" of a "pluralistic" social framework. The second issue is questioning the efficacy of "teaching about religion" and "teaching a religion." This issue comes out in particularly sharp relief in teaching about Islam as a belief system, and about Muslims, in a "neutral" manner when many teachers have little or no knowledge of Islam, and what they have too often represents an inaccurate picture. The third issue, which is the core of this edition, is how to introduce a discourse on "Islamic education" when females have traditionally been perceived as lacking the full privilege to interpret Islam. The centrality of Muslim women's and girls' education and acculturation (Barazangi and Kahf articles) to Islamic education may seem contradictory, and perhaps difficult to understand by those whose knowledge of Islam is limited to the perception that males are the only "legitimate interpreters" of Islamic texts or the perception that females are "oppressed by their patriarchal religion." Description: Copyright 1998, Religion and Education, Nimat Hafez Barazangi. This is a pre-copyedited version of an editorial accepted for publication in the edited journal Religion and Education following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through Religion and Education: http://fp.uni.edu/jrae/islamicissuetoc.htm. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#1 Thu, 01 Jan 1998 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7802 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7769 Title: Religious Education Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: Internal political and social movements of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries neglected Islamic education within the Muslim world and allowed external secular and missionary ideas to turn it into "religious" education. Variations in worldview and interpretation of Qur'anic principles of education resulted in emphasis on form over essence in educating Muslims. Historical accounts of Islamic/Muslim education provide a variety of perspectives on its nature and the function of its traditional institutions. Cultural and political restraints ended Islamic education as a functional system aimed at understanding and appropriating Qur?anic pedagogical principles and limited it to "religious" knowledge confined to selected males. Islamic education has recently been confused with a subject matter, "religion," or a moral, social codes, akhlaq. The primacy of formalized and juridical education over the informal development of Islamic character resulted in curricular and instructional differentiation between class and gender, a separation of "Islamic" and "non-Islamic" knowledge, and a dichotomy between ideal and practice in Muslim education. Description: Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through Oxford University Press: http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0212?_hi=3&_pos=1#match. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#1 Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7769 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7768 Title: Educational Reform Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: The dynamic relationship between political, social and educational changes is central to determining whether educational reform occurred in the Muslim world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Changes in curricular and instructional policies and their implications for intellectual and cultural development are discussed in relation to four major issues. The Muslim world initially rejected as irrelevant changes introduced from Europe in the early nineteenth century. Changes in technical, military, and vocational training dictated by local rulers and elites did not conform to the traditional educational practices that were the remnants of Islamic education. Comparing these practices with recent changes runs the risk of overstating where and how educational reform has taken place. Available literature indicates that old practices were not reformed and changes resulted in no significant attitudinal or cultural development. Setting the European utilitarian and the Muslim altruistic modes against each other resulted in centralized state-controlled educational institutions and a complete departure from Islamic education. The intellectual stagnation that characterized the Muslim world since the early fourteenth century remained despite mass and compulsory schooling in the postcolonial era. Recent reports indicate school and teacher shortages, low educational quality, lack of planning and of curricular and instructional compatibility, and disparity in access to and completion of all types and levels of education between the sexes and between rich and poor and rural and urban populations. Description: Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press. This is a pre-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the edited Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available through Oxford University Press: http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0212#e0212-s0004. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#1 Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7768 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7767 Title: Da`una Natakalam: Mufakirat Amrikiyat Yaftahn Nawafidh al Iman `Ala `Alam Mutagheyr Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: See attached Arabic abstract. Description: Copyright 2002, Dar Al-Fikr. See also: http://www.fikr.com/cgi-bin/_listgroup.cgi?tp=2&step=0; http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#1 Tue, 01 Jan 2002 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7767 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7766 Title: Islamic Identity and the Struggle for Justice Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez, First Editor; with M. Raquibuz Zaman, and Omar Afzal Abstract: Book description: Islam today counts one billion people as adherents or believers. Its teachings produced a civilization that has flourished for fourteen centuries. Islamic identity exerts a potent force around the globe, though Muslims are often stigmatized by Westerners as a religious threat. Presenting the Islamic concept of justice, this book is an introduction to contemporary Islamic thought and practice, offering a catalyst for dialogue and understanding. Description: Copyright 1996, University Press of Florida. See also: http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=BARAZS96; http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#1 Mon, 01 Jan 1996 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7766 1996-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7765 Title: Woman's Identity and the Qur`an: A New Reading (Arabic Translation) Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: An original and uncompromising study of the Qur'anic foundations of women's identity and agency, this book is a bold call to Muslim women and men to reread and reinterpret the Qur'an, Islam's most authoritative source, and to discover within its revelations an inherent affirmation of gender equality. Nimat Hafez Barazangi asserts that Muslim women have been generally excluded from equal agency, from full participation in Islamic society, and thus from full and equal Islamic identity, primarily because of patriarchal readings of the Qur'an and the entire range of early Qur'anic literature. Based on her pedagogical study of the sacred text, she argues that Islamic higher learning is a basic human right, that women have equal authority to participate in the interpretation of Islamic primary sources, and that women will realize their just role in society and their potential as human beings only when they are involved in the interpretation of the Qur'an. Consequently, a Muslim woman's relationship with God must not be dependent on her husband's or father's moral agency. Barazangi, an American Muslim of Syrian origin, is a scholar, an activist, and a concerned feminist. Her analysis of the complex interaction of gender, religion, and the power of knowledge for self-identity offers a paradigm shift in Islamic studies. She documents the historical development of Islamic thought and describes how Muslim males have arrived at the prevailing exclusionary positions. She considers the issues of dependent morality and of modesty, especially in attire--a polarizing subject for many Muslim women. She integrates her analysis with interviews she conducted with Muslim women in the United States and Canada, comparing that data with information from a parallel group in Syria and with historical cases. She concludes that the majority of Muslim women today are not educated even for a complementary role in society. The book offers a curricular framework for self-learning that could prepare Muslim women for an active role in citizenship and policy making in a pluralistic society and may serve as a guideline for moving toward a "gender revolution." Her main thesis, if carried out in the lives of Muslims in America or elsewhere, would be so radical and liberating that her discourse is more powerful than those of many Muslim feminists. She writes, "I intend this book to affirm the self-identity of the Muslim woman as an autonomous spiritual and intellectual human being." Description: Copyright 2007, Nimat Hafez Barazangi. Reprinted with the permission of the University Press of Florida. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#1 Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7765 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7764 Title: Woman's Identity and the Qur'an: A New Reading Authors: Barazangi, Nimat Hafez Abstract: An original and uncompromising study of the Qur'anic foundations of women's identity and agency, this book is a bold call to Muslim women and men to reread and reinterpret the Qur'an, Islam's most authoritative source, and to discover within its revelations an inherent affirmation of gender equality. Nimat Hafez Barazangi asserts that Muslim women have been generally excluded from equal agency, from full participation in Islamic society, and thus from full and equal Islamic identity, primarily because of patriarchal readings of the Qur'an and the entire range of early Qur'anic literature. Based on her pedagogical study of the sacred text, she argues that Islamic higher learning is a basic human right, that women have equal authority to participate in the interpretation of Islamic primary sources, and that women will realize their just role in society and their potential as human beings only when they are involved in the interpretation of the Qur'an. Consequently, a Muslim woman's relationship with God must not be dependent on her husband's or father's moral agency. Barazangi, an American Muslim of Syrian origin, is a scholar, an activist, and a concerned feminist. Her analysis of the complex interaction of gender, religion, and the power of knowledge for self-identity offers a paradigm shift in Islamic studies. She documents the historical development of Islamic thought and describes how Muslim males have arrived at the prevailing exclusionary positions. She considers the issues of dependent morality and of modesty, especially in attire--a polarizing subject for many Muslim women. She integrates her analysis with interviews she conducted with Muslim women in the United States and Canada, comparing that data with information from a parallel group in Syria and with historical cases. She concludes that the majority of Muslim women today are not educated even for a complementary role in society. The book offers a curricular framework for self-learning that could prepare Muslim women for an active role in citizenship and policy making in a pluralistic society and may serve as a guideline for moving toward a "gender revolution." Her main thesis, if carried out in the lives of Muslims in America or elsewhere, would be so radical and liberating that her discourse is more powerful than those of many Muslim feminists. She writes, "I intend this book to affirm the self-identity of the Muslim woman as an autonomous spiritual and intellectual human being." Description: Copyright 2004, University Press of Florida. For the Cornell Community: http://racereligion.library.cornell.edu/religion/ebook_profile028.php. A Paperback edition (2006): http://www.upf.com/book.asp?id=BARAZF04. See also: http://www.eself-learning-arabic.cornell.edu/publications.htm#1 Thu, 01 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1813/7764 2004-01-01T00:00:00Z