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READINGS

UNIT 1: 

The Case Against UNC & Michael Sells' Approaching the Qur'an:

• Supplement to the Notes: Additional Points on the Case against UNC & Approaching the Qur'an;
• "Assigned Reading on Koran in Chapel Hill Raises Hackles" by Kate Zernike

The Atlantic Monthly Debate on the Qur'an:

• "What is the Qur’an?" by Toby Lester;
• "STATEMENT ON THE RECENT ARTICLE IN THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY ABOUT THE QUR'AN" by Dr. Azizah Y. al-Hibri;
• "Letters to the Editor of The Atlantic Monthly & Online Commentaries";
• Islamic Awareness: "On Pre-Islamic Poetry & The Qur’an" by Qasim Iqbal and M.S.M. Saifullah;
• Islamic Awareness: "Nevo & Nagev Inscriptions: The Use & Abuse Of The Evidence" by M.S.M. Saifullah and Mansur Ahmed

UNIT 2:

• Sunni-Shia Split by Hussein Abdulwaheed Amin;
• Eyewintess Accounts of the Crusader's Capture of Jerusalem; 
• "Becoming Muslim" by Muhammad Asad;
• Orietnalism by Edward Said;
• "Faith & Practice" by John Esposito: Part 1; Part 2 from What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam

• INTERNET ASSIGNMENT: "What Would Muhammad Drive?"

UNIT 3:

• "James M. Ludlow: The Tribute of Children, 1493";
• "The Liberation of Constantinople" by Br. Muhammad El-Halaby; 
• "The Status of Jews and Christians in Ottoman Muslim Lands, 1772"; 
• Foreign Travelers' Observations of the Ottoman Empire's Decline

UNIT 4:

Background:

• A Brief History of the Ba'ath Parties

1^st Gulf War:

• "The Liberation of Kuwait Has Begun", speech by US President George Bush, January 16, 1991; 
• "Is This Any Way to Wage Peace?" by John Mack and Jeff Rubin;
• "Blood, Oil, & Ecology" by Charles Betz 

2^nd Gulf War: {Note: The war began on March 20, 2003, and the main fighting lasted for about three weeks; on April 9 Saddam Hussein fled Baghdad and his regime crumbled, though of course fighting continued thereafter as well.  These readings are listed in chronological order, with the exception of the before-and-after views of British Prime Minister Tony Blair}.

• A Conservative Against the War--"Don't Start the Second Gulf War" by Doug Bandow;
• Remarks by President George W. Bush on Iraq;
• A Liberal's Case for Bush's War by Michael J. Totten;
• Iraq & the Arabs' Future by Fouad Ajami;
• "The Case Against the War" by Jonathan Schell in The Nation;
• Top Ten Reasons Why the US Should Not Invade Iraq from Global Exchange;
• Ten Reasons Why America Should Invade Iraq by William Sjostrom;
• "Reasons for War?" from ABC News; 
• Tony Blair Defends the War--Before and After;
• The Case for War--Revisited from The Economist; 
• Iraq & War: A Comparison of Views;
• Excerpts from the 9/11 National Commission Report on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Chapters 7 & 10);
• U.S. Report Finds No Evidence of Iraqi WMD by Ken Guggenheim
• Optional: the transcript of Vanity Fair's interview with Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on May 9, 2003; and Iraq Body Count

UNIT 5:

• INTERNET ASSIGNMENT: "Operation Ajax"
• Listen to the NPR Report "Esther's Children: the Jewish Experience in Iran"

• Optional/Recommended: Listen to this NPR report "Operation Ajax" on Stephen Kinzer's new book All The Shah's Men (37:40) (NPR program "Fresh Air") (07/28/03).

UNIT 6:

• Review of Stephen Kinzer's All the Shah's Men by Masoud Kazemzadeh;
• Sermons and speeches by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini;
• "The Double Revolution" by Sandra MacKey from The Iranians: Persia, Islam, & the Soul of a Nation
• Excerpts from the 1979 Iranian Constitution; 
• "Shadow Land" by Joe Klein in The New Yorker

UNIT 7:

• "A Woman's Prerogative" by Rebecca Mead in The New Yorker;
• "Forgotten Coverage of Afghan 'Freedom Fighters'" by David N. Gibbs;
• "The Massacre at Mazar-i Sharif" (brief summary of a Human Rights Watch report in November 1998);
• "Prisoner of the Caucuses" by Lev Tolstoy;
• Exile: How the Chechens were deported (author unidentified);
• Analysis of Maskhadov's death by Murad Batal al-Shishani of the Central Asia-Caucusus Institute at John Hopkins University (03-23-05)

• Optional/Recommended--listen to these audio reports from NPR:
• Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan (8:16) from "All Things Considered" (01-25-02)
• The Post-Taliban Situation in Afghanistan (47:49) from "The Connection" (08-05-03)

UNIT 8:

• "King's Ransom" by Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker; 
• "The House of Bin Laden" by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker;
• "The Double Bind Revisited" and "The Shah Bano Case", from Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence by Bruce B. Lawrence
• "The Veil and Veiling"

• INTERNET ASSIGNMENT: "Reel Bad Arabs"

UNIT 9:

• Excerpts from the Old Testament Book of Joshua;
• Supplement to the Notes: Jerusalem--the "City of Light";
• Excerpts (Chapters 1-3) from In search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3;
• Reviews of Books on the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict;
• Excerpts from The Jewish State (1896) by Theodor Herzl;
• The McMahon Letter (1915);
• Optional: "A Historiographic Review of Literature on the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict" by Kenneth W. Stein in The American Historical Review, Vol. 96, No. 5 (Dec. 1991), 1450-1465

UNIT 10:

• Excerpts (Chapters 4-5) from In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi: Part 3 (cont’d); Part 4;
• The Arab Office: The Arab Case for Palestine (March 1946);
• State of Israel: Proclamation of Independence (May 14, 1948);
• Optional: the Summary of the 1937 Palestine Royal (Peel) Commission Report;
• Optional: the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry; 

UNIT 11:

• Information from the Palestinian National Authority Official Website (1997 & 2000);
• Information from the Israeli Government (1997 & 2001);
• Emerging alternatives in Palestine by Edward Said;
• "The Myth of the Generous Offer" from FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting); 
• "In a Dark Time" by David Remnick in The New Yorker;  
• "Among the Settlers: Will they destroy Israel?" by Jeffrey Goldberg in The New Yorker;
• "The One-State Solution" by Virginia Tilley;
• President Discusses Road Map for Peace in the Middle East White House Press Release (3-14-03);
• The Disengagement Proposal of Ariel Sharon MidEast Web (04-14-2004);
• "What is the Saudi Peace Initiative?" BBC News (03-22-05)
• "Will Israel Live to be 100?" by Benjamin Schwarz in The Atlantic Monthly;
• Listen to the NPR program "Give it to them" (58:59) (08/02/02);
• View the hour-long PBS Frontline program "Israel's Next War" (05/12/05)

• Optional/Recommended--listen to the following NPR programs:
• Conflicting Views on the Arab-Israeli Conflict (41:69) from "Fresh Air" (10-28-03)
• Will Israel Live to be 100? (48:22) from "On Point" (04-06-05)

• INTERNET ASSIGNMENT: "Solving the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict"

UNIT 12:

• "Islam According to Oprah" by Rod Dreher in The National Review Online;
• "The Revolt of Islam" by Bernard Lewis in The New Yorker; 
• "The Clash of Civilizations?" by Samuel Huntington in Foreign Affairs; 
• "The Clash of Civilizations: An Islamicist’s Critique" by Roy Mottahadeh in Harvard Middle Eastern & Islamic Review; 
• "A Window on the World" by Edward Said;
• "If not Civilizations, What?: Samuel Huntington Responds to His Critics" in Foreign Affairs;
• Terrorism & Islam;
• Excerpts from the 9/11 National Commission Report on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Chapters 2 & 12)