DISSERTATION
Rethinking Islamic Political Thought: Politics of Polarization and the Quest for Tolerance.
Committee: Dr. Michaele Ferguson (Chair), Professor Steven Vanderheiden, Dr. Tamar Malloy, Dr. Nader Hashemi, Dr. Alexandra Siegel. To be completed in 2025.
What went wrong with the rise of Islamist extremism? What conditions create an appeal for radical polarization? How do Muslim communities resist the appeal of radical political Islam from a political theory/ideological perspective? How does Islamic political thought respond to the rhetoric of violent extremism? My project looks at how influential radical Islamists theorized about intolerance depicting a polarized worldview based on the victimhood of Muslim identity. I look at the rhetoric of Sayyid Qutb, Osama bin Laden, and Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi/ISIS and examine how they characterized concepts like the state system, sovereignty, and world order. While these thinkers and activists were quite influential in radical Islamism, I argue that there are tolerant and democratic traditions within Islamic political thought which often go unnoticed. I bring in other thinkers (i.e., Rached Ghannouchi and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad) to demonstrate that tolerance is not an un-Islamic tradition/practice and that Islam can accommodate freedom, justice, and human rights while talking about statecraft.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2016). Domestic Inputs in Bangladesh Foreign Policy: A Critical Reappraisal. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Humanities), 61 (2), 259-282.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2022). The UN Climate Change Conferences: An Investigative Study of the Shortcomings, in Samina Luthfa, Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan and Munasir Kamal (eds.) The Bangladesh Environmental Humanities Reader: Environmental Justice, Development Victimhood, and Resistance. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. and Tanzimuddin Khan, M. (2016). Residential Life of the Students: An Exploration into Existential Realities, in Imtiaz Ahmed and Iftekhar Iqbal (eds)., University of Dhaka: Making Unmaking Remaking, Prothoma Prokashon in association with University of Dhaka, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 232-256.
Yasmin, L. and Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2016). Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean Region: Bangladesh’s Cogitation. in ASM Ali Ashraf (ed.), Intelligence, National Security and Foreign Policy: A South Asian Narrative. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs, Dhaka.
WORKING PAPER
Nazneen, S. and Rezwan, M. (2017). The Politics of Negotiating Gender Equity in Bangladesh. ESID Working Paper No. 76., UK: ESID, The University of Manchester.
BOOK REVIEWS
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2020). Review of Srinath Raghavan, 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, 2013, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), 65(1), 97-10.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2015). "Vision of A Changing International System in Kissinger’s View”, (in Bangla) Review Article of Henry Kissinger’s book titled World Order: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History, Protichinta, 158-170.
REVIEWER
Reviewed a journal article manuscript titled “The Analect and the Arthashastra: Kongzi of Zhou China and Kautilya of Mayurya India Compared" for SAGE Open journal in August 2017.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (Article in progress). Alienation, Recognition and the Question of Muslim Identity in the US.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (Article in progress). Authoritarianism, Ideology, and Media Hegemony: A Warning for Democracy.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (Article in progress jointly with Dr. Michaele Ferguson). The Development of Leadership and Public Speaking Skills Using Reacting to the Past Pedagogy.
Rethinking Islamic Political Thought: Politics of Polarization and the Quest for Tolerance.
Committee: Dr. Michaele Ferguson (Chair), Professor Steven Vanderheiden, Dr. Tamar Malloy, Dr. Nader Hashemi, Dr. Alexandra Siegel. To be completed in 2025.
What went wrong with the rise of Islamist extremism? What conditions create an appeal for radical polarization? How do Muslim communities resist the appeal of radical political Islam from a political theory/ideological perspective? How does Islamic political thought respond to the rhetoric of violent extremism? My project looks at how influential radical Islamists theorized about intolerance depicting a polarized worldview based on the victimhood of Muslim identity. I look at the rhetoric of Sayyid Qutb, Osama bin Laden, and Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi/ISIS and examine how they characterized concepts like the state system, sovereignty, and world order. While these thinkers and activists were quite influential in radical Islamism, I argue that there are tolerant and democratic traditions within Islamic political thought which often go unnoticed. I bring in other thinkers (i.e., Rached Ghannouchi and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad) to demonstrate that tolerance is not an un-Islamic tradition/practice and that Islam can accommodate freedom, justice, and human rights while talking about statecraft.
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2016). Domestic Inputs in Bangladesh Foreign Policy: A Critical Reappraisal. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Humanities), 61 (2), 259-282.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2022). The UN Climate Change Conferences: An Investigative Study of the Shortcomings, in Samina Luthfa, Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan and Munasir Kamal (eds.) The Bangladesh Environmental Humanities Reader: Environmental Justice, Development Victimhood, and Resistance. Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. and Tanzimuddin Khan, M. (2016). Residential Life of the Students: An Exploration into Existential Realities, in Imtiaz Ahmed and Iftekhar Iqbal (eds)., University of Dhaka: Making Unmaking Remaking, Prothoma Prokashon in association with University of Dhaka, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 232-256.
Yasmin, L. and Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2016). Maritime Security in the Indian Ocean Region: Bangladesh’s Cogitation. in ASM Ali Ashraf (ed.), Intelligence, National Security and Foreign Policy: A South Asian Narrative. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs, Dhaka.
WORKING PAPER
Nazneen, S. and Rezwan, M. (2017). The Politics of Negotiating Gender Equity in Bangladesh. ESID Working Paper No. 76., UK: ESID, The University of Manchester.
BOOK REVIEWS
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2020). Review of Srinath Raghavan, 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts, 2013, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), 65(1), 97-10.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (2015). "Vision of A Changing International System in Kissinger’s View”, (in Bangla) Review Article of Henry Kissinger’s book titled World Order: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History, Protichinta, 158-170.
REVIEWER
Reviewed a journal article manuscript titled “The Analect and the Arthashastra: Kongzi of Zhou China and Kautilya of Mayurya India Compared" for SAGE Open journal in August 2017.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (Article in progress). Alienation, Recognition and the Question of Muslim Identity in the US.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (Article in progress). Authoritarianism, Ideology, and Media Hegemony: A Warning for Democracy.
Rezwanul Haque Masud, M. (Article in progress jointly with Dr. Michaele Ferguson). The Development of Leadership and Public Speaking Skills Using Reacting to the Past Pedagogy.
