Lecture
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Tuesday 24.02.2026
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Political Islam and Islamic Politics in the Modern World: Secularism, the West, and the Road to 9/11
Tuesday 24.02.2026
How to watch
This lecture starts on 24 February at 5:00pm (UK).
Summary
This class explores the diverse reactions within Islam to both colonial dominance and the advent of Western modernity. Topics covered include the rise of Islamic nationalism in South Asia; the growing influence and spread of political Islamism throughout the Middle East region; and the significant secularization of Turkey compared to the process of Islamization in Iran.
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Zvi Ben-Dor Benite teaches Chinese History, Middle Eastern and Islamic history, and sometimes Jewish history, at New York University. He is author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China (Harvard, 2005); The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History (Oxford, 2009); co-editor of Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Culture, and Politics (Brandeis, 2013); The Scaffolding of Sovereignty: Global and Aesthetic Perspectives on the History of a Concept (Columbia University Press, 2017); and Time and Language: New Sinology and Chinese History (Hawaii University Press, 2023).