What’s So Bad about Polygamy? Teaching American Religious History in the Muslim Middle East

In two different classes at the American University in Cairo, a private university with a mostly Arab and Muslim undergraduate population, I gave my students an exercise in which they were to decide famous Supreme Court cases dealing with the religious freedom and establishment clauses of the First Amendment.  Given the bare facts of the case, in both classes the students changed history as they voted unanimously in favor of George Reynolds, the Mormon polygamist whose test case before the Supreme Court in 1879 upheld federal anti-polygamy law and created the belief-action distinction that has governed religious freedom law ever since.  Even after extensive discussion and explanation of the Court’s rationale behind the Reynolds opinion, the students shook their heads in disbelief that America could claim to protect religious liberty while banning what to them is an entirely acceptable, if not always desirable, marriage practice stemming from genuine religious belief.  Although none of these students practice polygamy, or even want to, their religious and cultural background dictates an entirely different approach to the subject than is typically found in the American classroom, where nineteenth-century Mormon plural marriage elicits the relatively narrow range of reactions from snickering to disgust.

My paper will use this and other examples to reflect on the opportunities and challenges of teaching American religious history in a predominantly Arab Muslim classroom.  I will suggest the benefit of using historical examples from another time and place to encourage Arab students to drop their defenses and think critically about pressing issues in their own society—such as church/mosque and state, religion and science, treatment of religious minorities, the relationship of religion and gender norms, and the appropriate role of religion in politics—that can be difficult to approach directly.