Religion in the Maghreb

This web site has been created as a "digital learning object" for both learning leaders as well as independent learners. The focus is diversity and religion in the area of North Africa known alternately as the Maghreb. It uses materials developed in the course of participation in a professional development seminar for post-secondary academic leaders during the summer of 2011; the time period of the "Arab Spring" and "Jasmine Revolution" when the citizens of predominantly Islamic countries around the perimeter of the Mediterranean Sea are calling upon their respective leaders for fundamental governmental and social change that is perhaps more democratic in nature than current or previous leadership of those countries. At the same time a resurgence of conservative Islamist leaders want to participate fully in the process of change.
It should also be noted that this is a period of great economic and ideological instability across the globe. It is the author's wish that productive diversity-oriented dialogue can be generated through the use of this web site in the face of the post 9-11 era, especially here in the New York City and across the United States. Our own national "Occupy Wall Street" debate is dangerously sprouting concomitant themes that have begun to challenge the national sense of a "full diversity" idealistically, economically and socially.

This digital learning object should be thought of a "point of departure," that can assist learners from across disciplines to explore the diversity of three particular concepts: culture as influenced by religion, various religions within the prescribed region, and the array of forms that Islam is expressed by Muslims of the region and around the world.

The three concepts listed above provide the organization of this web site. For each area, quotes from the author's travel diary and notes are included. A short overview of the seminar experiences and current events underscore why the topic was