The terms “multiculturalism” and “integration,” which frequently arise in public discourse, are regularly employed to describe a range of diverse and occasionally conflicting phenomena. At the core of these ideas lies a crucial concern for the contemporary political landscape: how to integrate individuals from many backgrounds, languages, and religions into a unified political society? What methods do democracies employ to accomplish these objectives? Most countries in the world have “minority nations” that possess their own distinct language or culture, such as Catalonia in Spain, Quebec in Canada, or the Indigenous Peoples in various South American countries. These groups also include Muslims in Europe, and minorities in Islamic majority countries. Additionally, many countries are affected by migration patterns that contribute to the ethnically and culturally diverse combinations of their population, including Europe, South Africa, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Examining the escalating prevalence of identity assertions globally, we see that this growing movement of people/groups underscores the necessity of analyzing the Islamic understanding of these subjects for individuals interested in multicultural societies. This course looks into the East and West, the practice of multiculturalism in Islam, and discusses examples of multiculturalism and interculturalism in the early Islamic society.

As Methodology: The course focuses on comparative analysis of both early and modern societies. Students investigate case studies using the theory of multiculturalism.