Re-Islamization in higher education from above and below

596 Pages·2015·2.89 MB·English

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USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations USF Graduate Theses and Dissertations
1-16-2008
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Terri K. Wonder
University of South Florida
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Wonder, Terri K., "Re-Islamization in Higher Education from Above and Below: The University of South
Florida and Its Global Contexts" (2008). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
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Re-Islamization in Higher Education from Above and Below:

The University of South Florida and Its Global Contexts

by

Terri K. Wonder

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Psychological and Social Foundations
College of Education
University of South Florida

Co-Major Professor: Arthur Shapiro, Ph.D.
Co-Major Professor: Stephen B. Permuth, Ed.D
Abdelwahab Hechiche, Ph.D
W. Steve Lang, Ph.D.

Date of Approval:
January 16, 2008

Keywords: Islamism, Muslim Brotherhood, censorship, academic freedom, human rights

© Copyright 2008, Terri K. Wonder
Dedication
This work is dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. George H. Mayer, USF
Professor of History who died in 1999 at the age of 78. In his final month of life, George
expressed a wish that I would write about the changes in higher education over the past
thirty years. This thesis attempts that but only tacitly. The knowledge of American
intellectual history and ideas that he passed on to me during undergraduate school is
infused throughout this work. Like the hero in a novel on George’s recommended fiction
list, The Glass Bead Game, George was a true master of the game yet understood the
fragility of the enterprise. He therefore expressed measured criticism of it. Not a day
passes in my life that I do not shed a tear for his departure from this world.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude for all those people who have
endured with me since the 2001 fall semester when consideration of this thesis topic
began. Most of them know me well enough to appreciate the shift in consciousness
within me that this work produced. These professors, colleagues, friends, and loved ones
in Florida, the United States, and around the world are also fully aware of the risk to life
and property that this work might and did engender, especially after the summer of 2005
when the first full draft was delivered to my examining committee. From that point
onward, the actions of a few people on campus apparently proved some of the findings,
although those individuals apparently did not recognize that themselves. Fortunately,
with the support of a loving husband, Dr. Raymond E. Wonder, and the assistance of Dr.
Arthur Shapiro, Dr. Steven B. Permuth, Dr. Abdelwahab Hechiche, Dr. W.S. Lang, Dr.
Howard Johnston, Dr. Erwin V. Johanningmeier, and Dr. Brent Wiseman, civility, due
process, thesis governance policy, academic freedom, and civil liberty prevailed for both
the committee members and me. I want to thank everyone who did for suffering with me
as I refrained from sensationalizing my case in the media and bringing an already
wounded institution I love so much to the point of political convulsion. The emotional
and financial toll has been tremendous. I hope they will stand with me in the future, as I
continue to follow the logic of inquiry wherever it may lead.
Table of Contents

List of Tables viii

List of Appendices ix

Abstract x

Chapter One Introduction 1
Section 1: Mass Social Movements in Higher Education 1
Islamism and Totalitarianism 4
Islamism’s Borrowing of Totalitarian Symbols and
Strategies 6
Islamism, the Social Psychology of Mass Movements,
and Problems in Higher Education 9
Problem Statement 18
The Al-Arian Case 20
The Mohamed and Megahed Case 22
Purpose of the Study 24
Research Questions 27
Method 27
Section II: Extended Discussion of
Major Themes for Answering the Research Questions 29
Section III: Limitations 33
Section IV: Definition of Terms 36
Section V: Significance of the Study 43
Section VI: Chapter Summary 47

Chapter Two Review of the Literature 49
Introduction 49
Section I: Psychoanalytic Social Psychology of
Civilizations and Totalitarian Mass Social Movements 50
“Social Contagion”: Prefatory Remarks 50
Sigmund Freud, Death Instinct, and Society 53
Freud’s Influence on American Social Psychology:
Herbert Marcuse 55
Carl Jung and Twentieth-century Totalitarianism 61
Jung’s Essays about a Nation Overtaken by its Shadow 62
The Repression of a Pre-Christian Archetype 63
The Collective Guilt of German Socialism 64

i
Section II: Non-psychoanalytic Social Psychology of Mass Social
Movements, Islamic Fundamentalism, and Islamist
Totalitarianism 67
The Non-Psychoanalytic Frame: Prefatory Remarks 67
Blumer’s General Contributions to the Study of Collective
Groups and Their Institutions 68
Hannah Arendt and the Collective Behavior of Totalitarian
Movements 71
Ibn Khaldun’s Contributions to Social Psychology: “Group
Feeling” Predating Blumer by Six Hundred Years 73
Fundamentalisms : Socio-religious Perspectives on Sacred
Terror and Islamism 78
“Introduction: A Sacred Cosmos, Scandalous Code, and
Defiant Society” 78
“Accounting for Islamic Fundamentalisms” 79
“Religious Fundamentalisms and the Sciences” 83
“Worldview of Sunni Arab Fundamentalists” 84
“Fundamentalist Impact on Education and the Media” 86
“Reshaping Personal Relations in Egypt” 88
“Fundamentalist Influence in Egypt: The Strategies of the
Muslim Brotherhood and the Takfir Groups” 89
“Hizbullah: The Calculus of Jihad” 91
“Terrorism in Democracies: Its Social and Political Bases” 92
“The Moral Logic of Hizballah” 93
“The Western Mind of Radical Islam” 96
Section III: Organizational and Administrative Theory and
Practice in Higher Education 99
The Role of Higher Education in Attracting Islamism:
Prefatory Remarks 99
Organizational and Administrative Theory in Higher
Education 100
Contemporary Issues Regarding Curriculum Planning and
Change 116
Section IV: Chapter Summary 124

Chapter Three Methodology 129
Section I: Introduction 129
Section II: Purpose of the Study 131
Types of Scholarship Represented in This Inquiry 133
Research Questions 136
Population Samples 137
Methods of Analysis 138
Textual Analysis: Three Interrelated Levels of Social
Movement Discourse 138
ii
Examples of World-Historical Discourse in the
Study’s Findings 140
Examples of Organizational Discourse in the
Study’s Findings 140
Examples of Individual Discourse in the Study’s
Findings 141
The Study’s Historiography: Textual Analysis Based on
the Assumptions of Foucault, Richards, and Derrida 144
“Will to Truth and Power” Located in the Research
Study 149
Other Findings in the Inquiry’s Excursion into
“Taboo Discourse” 152
Coding of Collected and Studied Information into
a Finished Work 159
Coding and the Study’s Thematic Findings of
Characteristics and Conditions of Islamism’s
Interplay in Higher Education 160
Explication of Coded Findings: Table 1,
“Conditions of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher
Education in Selected Locales and at USF and
Its Service Area” 161
Explication of Coded Findings: Table 2,
“Characteristics of Islamism’s Interplay in
Higher Education in Selected Locales and at
USF and Its Service Area 165
Methods of Data Collection: Historical-Case Study
Research, Archival Documents and Sources, and
Observation of Institutional Events 168
Historical-Case Study Research 169
The Global Referent as Overarching
History and Case 171
The Local Referent as Part of the “Ebb and
Flow” of Its Global Antecedents 173
Archival Documents and Sources 174
Observation of Institutional Events 174
Validity and Reliability: Triangulation of Vision,
Purpose, and Methods 175
Vision 177
Purpose 178
Methods 179
Bias and Limitations 181
External Validation of the Findings 181
External Validators 182
Section II: Chapter Summary 185

iii
Chapter Four Re-Islamization in Higher Education in Selected
Middle Eastern and African Countries: A Prelude to the USF Case 187
Section I: Introduction 187
Research Question 190
Population Samples 190
Section II: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, The Mother of
Re-Islamization in Higher Education: Conditions and
Characteristics 191
Conditions of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher Education 191
Condition One: The Fall of the Ottoman Caliphate
Engenders Ikwhan Ideologies, Strategies, and Legacies 191
Condition Two: Exposure of Salafist Doctrine to Radical
Western Ideologies and De-Westernizing Ferment in
Western-style Universities 193
Condition Three: Exposure to European Fascism through
Strategic Alliance with the Nazis 199
Condition Four: Alternating Attempts to Appease or
Repress the Mass Movement 202
Characteristics of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher Education 212
Characteristic One: External and Internal Organizational
Networks Run by highly Educated Elites Interacting with
Universities and Their Service Areas for Purposes of
Re-Islamization from Above and Below 212
Characteristic Two: Codified Education Theory for
Purposes of Promoting Monolithic View of Islam and
Subverting Universities and Surrounding Society from
Above and Below 224
Characteristic Three: “Campus Holy War” and Other
Problems Associated with Universities and Interactive
Organizations toward Advancement of Re-Islamization
from Above and Below 238
Characteristic Four: Transnational Influence of Islamism
and its Esprit de Corps through the Migration of
Professors and Students to Other Locales 255
Section II: Saudi Arabia’s Higher Educational Interplay of
Corporate Wealth and Muslim Brothers in Exile: Conditions
and Characteristics 259
Conditions of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher Education 259
Condition One: Transnational Influence of Islamist
Thought and its Esprit de Corps through the Migration
of Ikwhan Professors and Students to Saudi Arabia 259
Condition Two: Changes in Saudi Arabian Educational
Policy Resulting from Accumulation of Oil Wealth 265
iv
Characteristics of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher Education 269
Characteristic One: External and Internal Organizational
Networks Run by Highly Educated Elites Interact with
Universities for Purpose of Re-Islamization from Above
and Below 269
World Association of Muslim Youth 270
Muslim Students Association 273
Islamic Society of North America 277
Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers 287
Institute of Islamic-Arabic Studies of America 287
Characteristic Two: Codified Education Theory for
Purpose of Promoting Monolithic view of Islam and
Subverting Universities and Surrounding Societies from
Above and Below 288
Characteristic Three: “Campus Holy War” Advocated and
Exported to Other locales for Purposes of
Re-Islamization from Above and Below 312
Section III: “Parallel Hierarchies” in Levantine Higher
Education: Conditions and Characteristics 316
Conditions of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher Education 316
Condition One: Transnational Influence of Islamism and
Its Esprit de Corps from Non-Indigenous
Organizational Networks Toward Advancement of
Re-Islamization from Above and Below 318
Characteristics of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher Education 318
Characteristic One: External and Internal Organizational
Networks Run by Highly Educated Elites Interacting with
Universities for Purpose of Re-Islamization from Above
and Below 318
Characteristic Two: Codified Educational Theory for
Purposes of Promoting Monolithic View of Islam and
Subverting Universities and Surrounding Societies from
Above and Below 323
Characteristic Three: “Campus Holy War” and Other
Problems in Universities Associated with Interactive
Organizations’Advancement of Re-Islamization from
Above and Below 328
Section IV: The University as “Ladder to Power” in Algeria,
Tunisia, and the Sudan: Ikwhan Interplay with Post-colonial
Vacuums of Intellectual Thought and Social Policy 334
Conditions of Interplay in Higher Education 334
Condition One: Transnational Influence of Islamism and its
Esprit de Corps through the Migration of Professors and
Students from other Locales 334
Characteristics of Islamism in Higher Education 336
Characteristic One: External and Internal Organizational
v
Networks Run by Highly Educated Elites Interacting with
Universities for Purpose of Re-Islamization from Above
and Below 336
Characteristic Two: Codified Educational Theory for Purposes of
Promoting Monolithic View of Islam and Subverting
Universities and Surrounding Societies from Above and Below 343
Characteristic Three: “Campus Holy War” and Other Problems
in Universities Associated with Interactive Organizations’
Advancement of Re-Islamization from Above and Below 346
Characteristic Four: Transnational Influence of Islamism and its
Esprit de Corps through the Migration of Professors and
Students to other Locales 352
Section V: Chapter Summary 357

Chapter Five Toward Local Confirmation of a Global Narrative:
Islamism Comes to USF and Its Service Community 360
Section I: Introduction 360
Research Questions 362
Population Samples 364
Section II: Re-Islamization at USF and its Service Area
Community: Conditions and Characteristics 367
Conditions of Islamism’s Interplay in Higher Education 367
Condition One: Temporal Developments Related to
Expansion of The University’s Mission with Eventual
Formation of a Partnership with Sami Al-Arian’s
Think-tank, World Islam Studies Enterprise 367
Condition Two: Epistemological Developments in Higher
Education Giving Rise to De-Westernizing Intellectual
Trends Affecting an Internationalizing USF Community 387
Condition Three: Transnational Influence of Islamist
Thought and its Esprit de Corps through Migration of
Ikwhan Professors and Students to USF and its Service
Area Community 403
Characteristics of Islamism in Higher Education 410
Characteristic One: External and Internal Organizational
Networks Run by Highly Educated Elites Interacting with
USF and its Service Area Community for Purpose of
Re-Islamization from Above and Below 410
Characteristic Two: Signs of Islamist Hidden Curriculum at
USF,With Strong Linkages to the Theory, Strategy,
Practice, and Practitioners Associated with the
International Institute of Islamic Thought 450
Characteristic Three: “Campus Holy War” and Other
Problems at USF and its Milieu Associated with Use of
the University and Interacting Organizations 469
vi