Hi, I'm a student in a rhetoric course in college, and, as we've just started the semester, the professor has been giving incredibly vague assignments to test our chops. In this case, we were told to write a five-page persuasive paper "about religion in modern conflicts in the Middle East". I'm just now starting my research, but can anyone give me some (academic) sources to get going in the right direction, as well as any essential reading on the subject? I need 15 sources minimum, so even minor sources are welcome. It's also for an uneducated audience and I'm an uneducated writer, so just the basics is appreciated. I've also got five days to do my research, so I'd prefer shorter papers over large novels.
Points I'm thinking of focusing my research on:
Thank you in advance.
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I would look into Ussama Makdisi’s work, he has a new book out last year called Age of Coexistence that traces from the late Ottoman era to the present day, compellingly arguing that “religious conflict” is a poor framing to understand the modern Middle East without painting a false picture of inter religious perfect harmony. When looking at full books, I would look closely at the introduction and see who he cites to find other good resources. The key term “sectarianism” will also be a helpful one for you to look up in flagship journals in the field like Middle Eastern Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, etc through your school library data base.
Edited to add: almost forgot this wonderful resource, the Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative. It is run by the top scholars in the field (critical historians but also political scientists, geographers, anthropologists) and they collect Essential Reading lists geared at students and teachers to get an overview of specific topics in the field. For instance the one on political Islam may help you https://mespi.org/2018/02/12/essential-readings-on-political-islam/