Centre for the comparative study
of muslim societies and cultures

The Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures has been established at Simon Fraser University to encourage the academic discussion and public understanding of the cultures and societies of Muslim peoples in the past and present. It builds on the History Department's nationally recognized Middle Eastern and Islamic Concentration and on existing activities such as the Drs Fereidoun and Katharine Mirhady Lecture in Iranian Studies, courses in Persian and Arabic, and a growing Farsi library collection.

Muslim societies and cultures increasingly have become the focus of public and academic attention, although much of the discussion has centred narrowly on contemporary issues of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. The variability and flexibility of Muslim practices and perspectives have not featured in this discourse, leaving the public largely unaware of complexities, achievements and challenges. The Centre will work to redress this imbalance by broadening the discussion to introduce more comparison and complexity in the study of Muslim societies and cultures from Africa, through the Arab and Persianate world, and into Asia and the West. By focussing attention on Muslim (not Islamic) societies and cultures, the Centre encourages the shift in analysis from the notion of a single unitary religious ideascape defined by Islam to a more complex view of Muslims as agents in the construction of their own history.