PVCC Puma Press: April 2006

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	The Quran, the holy book of Islam is traditionally written in Arabic. This is one aspect of a culture commonly misunderstood that will be studied in Arabic 298AA.
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Paradise Valley Community College is accelerating the development of a certificate in Islamic Studies this spring, an effort that will break new ground in the Maricopa County Community College District.

No coordinated field of study in that area currently exists within MCCCD and Paradise Valley is the only school whose work on the certificate has reached an advanced stage.

The Islamic Studies certificate is the brainchild of Michele Marion, PVCC’s director of international education. Marion first contemplated the certificate three years ago as a needed addition to the college’s two other regional studies certificates in Asia and Latin America.

“It made sense to me that we would also have something in Islamic Studies because of population, because of general naiveté about the Islamic people and things of that nature,” says Marion.

To begin the process of transforming her idea into tangible action, Marion discussed the hypothetical certificate with PVCC’s International Education Committee, and in particular with Dr. David Rubi, communications and humanities faculty. Rubi was amenable to the idea.

“As a humanist, I’m supportive of people dialoguing, having a greater human understanding and being able to tell their stories,” says Rubi, who believes that a program in Islamic Studies can not only advance those goals, but the broader aims of the college itself. “It fits the mission of Paradise Valley Community College.”

The effort to develop the certificate received a tremendous boost this spring when PVCC welcomed visiting scholar Dr. Zahra Tamouh to its campus. Marion, who was closely involved with the process of bringing Tamouh to the district, believes that the certificate’s curriculum could not be developed without the assistance of an expert in the field.

“We have to have an Islamic scholar to do this,” says Marion.

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	'Arabic 298 AA will help us come to a better understanding of the Arab world.'
	—Dr. David Rubi
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For her part, Tamouh, a Muslim professor who teaches university courses on Islamic civilization in her native Morocco, is eager to assist Marion. She cites the opportunity to participate in the development of the certificate as the single greatest factor that led her to choose the MCCCD’s Fulbright proposal over offers from schools in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Tamouh believes that the exposure of Americans to an objective and academic view of the Islamic world can lead to more constructive interaction between the U.S. and the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims.

“The relationship between the United States and the Muslim world needs more dialogue, more studying and more attention,” says Tamouh. “Students should not have information only from TV news. They have to have information and facts to be able to do their own analysis and form their own points of view.”

Tamouh is one of three principals at the core of the certificate’s development. Marion and Sarah Risha, Arabic faculty, are the other two.

Risha, a Muslim and a native of Kuwait, has taught Arabic at PVCC for the past two years. She recently approached her supervisor, Rubi, with a proposal to teach a course on Arab civilization. Rubi fully supported the idea and is now shepherding the course through the approval process, which is the same role he will play with the Islamic Studies certificate. Assuming that all goes as planned, the course, Arabic 298AA Special Studies, will be taught next fall as a model for a future class.

“This class will help us come to a better understanding of the Arab world,” says Rubi.

The model class may well undergo a transformation after its fall debut. The certificate will require a core course in Islamic Studies, and Marion believes that the new course in Arab civilization will eventually morph into that core course on Islamic civilization.

Tamouh and Risha are working together to both develop the Arabic civilization class and to prepare it for an eventual transformation to an Islamic civilization class. Although a course number for the core class has yet to be determined, an introduction to Islam class (Religion 212), has existed in the school’s course bank since December, 2005, though it has never been offered.

Whatever section number the core class is eventually assigned, PVCC will need to add faculty to teach it, either several part-timers or a full-time faculty member who teaches the course as part of his or her load. In addition to a future Islamic Studies course, classes already offered at the college which have a component devoted to the Islamic world will be used for the certificate.

Marion, who is the chief architect overseeing and coordinating the development of the certificate, is optimistic that an Islamic Studies program will become a reality in the near future. She will be working throughout the spring on writing an outline for the program and anticipates the approval process lasting into the fall.

Marion foresees the certificate first being made available to students in either the spring or fall semester of 2008. She estimates that PVCC will be able to graduate its first student with the certificate in December 2009.

“Our hope is that it will be done quickly,” Marion says.