Stanford University course teaches students about Islamophobia in U.S.

A new course being offered this fall for the first time at California's Stanford University aims to teach students how Islamophobia manifests in the United States.

The course, named Interrogating Islamophobia, is being taught by Abiya Ahmed, the associate dean and director of Stanford’s Markaz Resource Center, The Stanford Daily, first reported. 

Ahmed’s work examines the intersection of religion and education, with a focus on Muslims and Islam. She told Middle East Eye that the course aims to interrogate complexities around Islamophobia in the United States, both as a concept and in how it manifests. 

Anti-Muslim rhetoric has long existed in the US. Muslims are five times more likely to experience police harassment because of their religion, compared to those of other faiths, a study by Rice University shows.

Next semester, Ahmed is offering a different but related course called Contemporary Islam and Muslims in the US, “which takes a deeper dive into the lived experiences of Muslims in the US, addressing more closely the interplay between the theory and practice of Islam in the US and how/why Muslims negotiate religion as a minority in this country,” she explained.

She plans on offering the Islamophobia course again next fall and hopes it will become a regular feature at Stanford.