Teaching About the Middle East

Videos for Teaching the Middle East in the Precollegiate Classroom

Notes by Michael Fahy, CMENAS, U. of Michigan (Click here for PDF version for printing.)

Introduction to the Arab World: Islam
Produced by AMIDEAST, 1989. Running time: 30 minutes. Color

Islam is the second of three segments in this Introduction to the Arab World video (which includes an Overview and final segment on Arab Society Today) but the section on Islam stands quite well on its own. The video comes with a teacher's guide book which provides scripts, notes and synopses for each of the segments, as well as general discussion questions, classroom exercises and informational handouts.

There are a number of videos available on the subject of Islam but, unfortunately, they are of uneven quality. There are an egregious few, for example, that either equate Islam with "fundamentalism" or otherwise present it almost entirely through the prism of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Other, older versions simply have production values that are either poor or no longer compel the interest of younger people, or focus on one or another aspect of Islam (e.g., Sufism) to provide an adequate overview of Islam.

One of the outstanding virtues of this video is that, twelve years after it was produced, it remains an example of balanced, highly informative, general survey of Islam suitable for use in the classroom. The stated goals of the film, as indicated in the accompanying guidebook (p. 52) are worth citing here:

1. To explain the birth of Islam and the relationship between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (e.g., all worship the same God, all acknowledge the Old Testament prophets, all consider Abraham their patriarch)
2. To explain the reforms Islam brought to Arabian Society
3. To describe the basic tenets of Islam, including the Five Pillars of Islam
4. To identify the major branches of Islam
5. To illustrate the achievements made by Muslim scholars and scientists, and their contributions to the rest of the world
6. To establish an understanding of Islam as a major world religion.

What is most remarkable about this video is that this is achieved in all of fifteen minutes! For teachers wanting to incorporate a unit on Islam in more general world civilization survey courses who have limited time to do so, Islam is an excellent complement to the lesson plan.
One other virtue of this video that merits particular attention, is the tone is strikes in its presentation. The Islam segment opens with a muezzin's call to prayer, accompanied by a voiceover translation by the narrator:

"God is great. I witness there is but one God. I witness that Mohammed is the Messenger of God. Come to prayer. Come to salvation."

For the average student in the American classroom, having been exposed to the predictable range of representations of Muslim societies afforded by the popular culture, the muezzin's call to prayer will have served as a kind of soundtrack marking an inscrutable "exotic world." Here, in what may well be for him or her a first and singular experience, the muezzin's words are presented as a simple and sincere profession of faith. In the context of contemporary American society, where Islam is paradoxically the fastest growing religion and still portrayed as something that is alien and "other," the narrator's translation of the shahadah open this segment from the perspective of the center of an experience, rather than at a distanced remove from it.

The historical survey is quite thorough, given the brevity of the segment, and teachers wanting to elaborate on any of a number of themes-such as a comparison of Islam with Judaism and Christianity, the early history of Islam, the split between Sunni and Shi'a in Islam, or even Islam in colonial and post-colonial societies-will find this video useful as a springboard for class discussion. For teachers concerned with standards and benchmarks for geography and history for a number of grade levels, Islam will prove to be of interest as well.

Notes by Michael Fahy, CMENAS, U. of Michigan

This video is available for loan to Northern California teachers from the Schools Program/BAGEP, WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL, 312 Sutter St., Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94108, tel 415-982-3263.
It can be ordered from: AMIDEAST, 1730 M Street NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20036-4505, Phone: 202/776-9600, Fax: 202/770-7000, Email: inquiries@amideast.org, Internet: www.amideast.org.