Muslim Studies Program Begins at Michigan State University

January 10, 2006

Source: Lansing State Journal

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060110/NEWS06/601100346/1001/news

On January 10, 2006 the Lansing State Journal reported, "There is no shortage of misconceptions about the Muslim world. 'In the minds of many people, Islam has become synonymous with terrorism, with fundamentalism, with extremism,' said Mohammed Ayoob, a professor of international relations at Michigan State University's James Madison College. Part of the purpose behind a newly established Muslim Studies program at MSU, a program that Ayoob coordinates, is to show them that it's not... The program is the product of several years of discussion, precipitated by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Since that time, the university has slowly put together a coherent program of study, establishing a specialization (something like a minor) in Muslim Studies, hiring several new faculty members and creating new courses on topics such as 'Secularism, Nationalism and Islamism in the Middle East and South Asia' and the history of the Middle East during the period of Ottoman domination."