Mass higher education and the religious imagination in contemporary Arab societies

This article explores the relationship between the recent growth of mass higher education in the Arab Muslim world, particularly in Oman and North Africa, religious activism, and the implications of the “objectified” religious knowledge and authority that modern education encourages. Study of the new ways of knowing and the emerging networks for communication and action produced by mass higher education and contemporary religious activism offers insight into the “political economy” of religious knowledge: the interplay of religion, politics, and national identity. [Islam, Middle East, authority, religion, education]