Skip to main content
Metropolitan State University (Home)

RELS 380 Muslim Identities in the United States

This course examines Islam as a cultural, political, social and faith identity in the United States. Topics may include: gender, family, and sexuality; immigration, acculturation, and assimilation; stereotypes, xenophobia, and Islamophobia; race, racism, and ethnicity; media and popular culture representations; American Muslim organizations and leadership; and the relationship of US Muslims to Muslim global communities.
4 Undergraduate credits

Effective August 16, 2016 to present

Meets graduation requirements for

Learning outcomes

General

  • Describe how faith informs, influences, and shapes Muslim identity formation in the United States
  • Describe and explain different factors of identity for Muslim Americans, including race, gender, dynamic faith practices, and perceptions of faith, as they interrelate to culture, ethnicity, and migration history and status
  • Appraise the impact of these factors of identity on Muslim American individual and community formation and self-conception
  • Discern similarities and differences between specifically US-based Muslim identities and global Muslim communities
  • Assess the impact of race, racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia on US Muslim self-conception(s), identities, individuals, and communities
  • Analyze US Muslim collective identities and their relationship to individual identity formation.

Minnesota Transfer Curriculum

Goal 5: History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences

  • Employ the methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition.
  • Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.
  • Use and critique alternative explanatory systems or theories.
  • Develop and communicate alternative explanations or solutions for contemporary social issues.

Goal 8: Global Perspective

  • Describe and analyze political, economic, and cultural elements which influence relations of states and societies in their historical and contemporary dimensions.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences.
  • Analyze specific international problems, illustrating the cultural, economic, and political differences that affect their solution.
  • Understand the role of a world citizen and the responsibility world citizens share for their common global future.