Due to rising student demand, the University of Iowa has launched a search for a full-time professor of Islamic studies. The U-of-I has been using one-year visiting temporary professors for the courses but is making the teaching position permanent, according to Professor David Klemm, chair of the university’s Department of Religious Studies.After the attacks of September 11th, Klemm says U-of-I students became extremely interested in Islam and many of them were “lamentably undereducated and ignorant about Islamic religion and Islamic civilization.” He says the students at the Iowa City institution have a thirst to learn more about the important culture.Klemm says Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and in the United States. He says the few courses offered on Islam at the U-of-I have been very popular in recent years.Klemm hopes to announce the new appointment by March 2004, giving the U-of-I its first full-time tenure-track professor of Islamic studies.
