Attaining Certainty: A Rhetorical Analysis of Yaqeen Curriculum Artifacts

Introduction: This research project will offer a rhetorical analysis of Yaqeen Institute, a traditional Muslim research organization in the United States, uses to attract Muslims to Islam and shape their views of themselves and the ideas they engage with. In what ways might Yaqeen Institute shape Muslim identity? What ideas are introduced to Muslims by Yaqeen, how are they introduced, and why? How might ideas translate into lived practices, organizing efforts, or other initiatives that impact how people live? Drawing on rhetorical analysis of Yaqeen Institute artifacts, I will argue that young Muslims resort to Yaqeen Institute to confront and rid themselves of doubt in exchange for certainty. During or after this process of dismantling doubt, Yaqeen introduces young Muslims to ideologies considered external to Islam. They are also introduced to select Islamic thought and scholarship. Yaqeen uses rhetoric to engineer negative reactions to philosophies/ideologies that are not deemed Islamic by the organization. Islamic thought is positioned as a solution to ideologies, and Yaqeen grounds Muslims in a selective Islamic worldview as an alternative to ideologies that become perceived by Muslims as contrasting. The result is Muslims going from doubtful to being grounded in some Islamic thought and language that they use to contrast themselves with other ideologies. Methods: Burke's Language as Symbolic Action, Aristotle's Rhetoric, and Lyons's There’s No Translation for It: The Rhetorical Sovereignty of Indigenous Languages will be used to analyze Yaqeen Institute artifacts. Results: The results of this research will be available on April 19th, 2024.