ISLM10002: Islam in the Modern World

As mentioned above, there are 3 assignments throughout the semester.

Take Home Test (800 words) 20% Due Monday, Week 8
Journal Exercise (1,500 words) 30% Due Monday, Week 11
Major Essay (2,000 words) 50% Due Monday, Week 2 of Exams
Assignment details are:

TL;DR - This subject is great overall - the workload is much lighter than your typical breadth subject and provides an interesting insight into how a religion, such as Islam, is coping with the challenges of modernity.

You must select three of the assigned weekly readings and for each reading write a 500 word reflective response. Mere summary of the reading will not receive a good mark. You are expected to discuss issues raised in the reading. If you feel it is appropriate you may also decide to critique (appraise) the reading. If you do please stick to the quality of the arguments and evidence offered by the author rather than addressing the writing style. Your focus must be on the reading you have chosen to respond to, but in order to deliver a high quality response you are advised to read around the subject dealt with, starting with the other readings linked to the week, both assigned and additional. It is recommended that you wait till after the relevant class discussion has taken place before completing a response in order to take advantage of insights generated by the class. It is also recommended that you do not attempt to complete your responses at the last minute but space them out through the semester. You can submit 2 responses of 750 words each (which is what I did). Mark: 23/30 (H2A)

Yes, with lecture capture. We were told that there was no lecture capture by the lecturer, but the link was found by visiting echo360 and going through other subjects. The Lecture Capture Link was added to the LMS later.

Dr. Muhammad Kamal

There were 12 lectures for the subject. These covered interesting topics, such as:

Select one of the essay questions and write a 2000 word answer in essay format.
An essay is an extended intellectual engagement with a particular question or topic. It must demonstrate not only an ability to write to an acceptable standard but, just as importantly, an ability to think to an acceptable standard. You are required to research the relevant issues, and to show evidence of that research in the form of appropriate reference and quotation. You are asked to query and evaluate all that you read and, through a critical engagement with it, develop your own opinions and ideas. These ideas must be argued and substantiated by rational means, and in a logical order. Your argument must have a clear structure. You will lose marks for errors in spelling or grammar.
Your essay will be assessed on the following criteria:
The quality of the research completed on your chosen topic
The quality of the insights into your topic that you display
The quality of the analytical and critical thinking you display
The quality of the arguments you present and the evidence you use to defend them
The originality of the insights and arguments that you display
The quality of your writing style (the clarity and elegance with which you present material and arguments)
Appropriate adherence to scholarly conventions
Grammar and spelling.
Mark: 42/50 (H1).

Why the subject lost 0.1 of a mark is because there is no clear rubric as to what is actually expected of you and where you could lose marks. I found little to no comments and many ticks throughout my first assignment and lost 20% of the overall mark.

What is also important to note is that Dr. Kamal gives the Major Essay topics in Week 3 of Semester, and it is due during the examination period. It is the first assignment you receive, so you may as well start working on it!! I had to do it in between my CHEM10004 (Chemistry 2) and PSYC10004 (Mind, Brain and Behaviour 2) exam, which only gave me 5 days to complete it all! It was stressful indeed. Interestingly, you receive the final assignment first, so finishing that and giving yourself a lot of time to practice is important.

A note about scaling: Everyone in the subject received a 1 mark bonus added to our final grades, which could push change the overall letter grade. For me, my overall mark for the assignments was 81/100 which was then bumped up to 82 for the subject.

Overall, a fantastic subject and an interesting breadth! This was my first breadth and I really enjoyed it. I would recommend that you do not slack off in the subject, especially with the assignments. It is not as easy as a H1 as one would like! But with a bit of effort and practice, you could definitely score highly

Hydroxyl

N/A

4.9 out of 5

Students will be assigned a series of five questions in week 6 of teaching period. Answers to be submitted in week 8. Mark: 16/20 (H1)

ISLM10002 Subject Reader - available from the Co-op for ~$43. Not really recommended, can do without it.

The tutorial program links some of the discussions of the lectures with other theory and practice. I found the tutorials helpful in providing an alternate point of view, as you can learn a lot from other students and what they have to say (and consequently, use that in your essay OR assignments). It also provides a great opportunity to engage with your tutor and ask them questions about how they want the assignments to be written (as they are marking it). However, I found that there was only one tutor for the subject (Dr. Sirin Yasar). She was helpful in many aspects, but I found that sometimes the standard was quite high for our work and, as previously mentioned, it seemed like the entire tutorial class got H2A's for their assignments across the ball. However, I didn't find all the tutorials helpful. You need to go to at least 80% of them, so try and make use of them while you can. The best thing that came out of our tutorials was the friend groups that we formed ahah.

Belief and Practice in Islam

The Struggle for Democracy

Muslims in the West: The Case of Australia

Islam and the West: Where to from here?

I found each lecture pretty interesting. My favourite for the subject was Week 7, which was about women's rights. I also chose this topic for my major Essay - as there were many avenues for discussion. It was also a topic that I found pretty easy to sustain a 2000+ word argument for.

I found the lectures quite stimulating. It was more so conducted as a class, where we could stop and interrupt to add our own options. Dr Kamal was always happy to hear the points of views of the students and even called on us to question it. It is not that important to take that many notes from each lecture, however I would strongly advise taking detailed notes for the first 6 weeks as this comes up in the take home test. From memory, the take home test was due in Week 8, so two weeks to answer 5 questions with a paragraph each is totally reasonable. I found the marking to be quite harsh for this, with the overwhelming majority of students scoring a H2A for this assessment. I only barely managed a 16/20 (H1), but this only came after a review of my original work (15.5/20 - H2A). However, I think it's important not to stress if you do not receive that many marks for this, as it is only worst 20% of the subject.
From Weeks 6-12, more of the material covered was for our own knowledge rather than the assessments. Some of the lectures ended early but there were many points of discussion regarding the different topics. You could chose to write anything that is mentioned in the lectures for your major essay, and I would recommend doing a topic that is based on the lectures. Why I stress this is because it is

Origins and Developments: Islam, Muslim Empires, Movements and States

Issues in Islamic Legal Thought

Post-Caliphate Reformers

Contemporary Thinkers

Mass Media Islam

The Status of Women and Human Rights

The Question of Palestine

Jihad and Militancy in the Muslim World

- this is where the bulk of the subject lies, as the subject primarily deals with the religion and it's impacts in the modern world. Weeks 1-3 provide more of a background into the faith.

1 x 1.5 hr lecture & 1 x 1 hr tutorial per week (2.5 hours per week)

Semester 2, 2018

H1 (82)