- This event has passed.
Justine Howe: Between the Global Islamic Revival and American Exceptionalism: The Muslim Students Association during the Cold War
March 15, 2021 @ 5:00 pm
In this lecture, Justine Howe (Case Western Reserve University) explores how the Muslim Students Association engaged two intersecting political and religious paradigms of the Cold War: the global project of Islamic revival and formulations of American exceptionalism as “tri-faith America” (Schultz 2012). By 1968, the MSA had spread to over 100 campuses and had become one of a handful of American Muslim organizations that could boast a national reach. During this period, the MSA was particularly focused on the revivalist project of da’wa. Focusing on publications by male and female MSA members, Howe explores what this practice meant for early MSA leaders as they sought to renew and reform religious practice among other Muslims both in the US and around the world, as they negotiated, contested, and sometimes embraced ideologies of American exceptionalism.