I am writing on my own accord, as a student of Dr. Kevin Barrett's at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His 15-week course on Islam is almost over, and I wanted to take a moment to describe how the class has turned out as most people have not had the opportunity to attend the lectures.
When I signed up for African Studies 370, ""Islam: Religion and Culture,"" I knew nothing about Dr. Barrett and was unaware that he was teaching the course. However, I am very glad I took this class. Yes, Dr. Barrett has controversial views on how 9/11 unfolded.
However, what has been taught in the classroom has not been controversial. We spent little time on 9/11 and spent most of our time on the religion and culture of Islam, as the title of the course would suggest.
It goes without saying that any class on Islam taught in 2006 will devote time to 9/11. Since Professor Barrett's views are not the official story of 9/11, his ability to teach a balanced class has been questioned. Some of this questioning has been unfair; for example, the media criticized Dr. Barrett for requiring a book titled, ""9/11 and the American Empire: Christians, Jews and Muslims Speak Out,"" implying that students were being forced to buy a book to which he had contributed. In truth, Professor Barrett's article in that text was never required reading, and the three required articles were made available to the class free of charge.
In class he presented many different viewpoints on 9/11 and the War on Terror. Our class was even fortunate enough to have one of the more controversial authors, Yasmin Ahmed, visit our class. It was exciting to be able to have a dialogue with her about her article, ""The Remaking of Islam in the Post 9/11 Era,"" rather than just embrace or reject the article's premise.
I will take away from this class much more than controversial theories on 9/11. I have a deeper understanding of a multifaceted religion practiced by 1.48 billion people worldwide.
I have learned a lot about the history and development of Islam, the fundamental practices, the traditional Muslim worldview and the contemporary situation of Islam internationally. But, as it says in ""The Vision of Islam,"" a required text for Dr. Barrett's course and many other courses around the country, ""Peace, harmony and equilibrium do not make the news.""
Liv A. Anderson
UW-Madison ‘08
