TLDR: It's a scoring class with interesting material, however you need to put in effort. So it is not difficult, but it is time consuming. I would recommend you to take this class and Prof Yarbrough is a great lecturer. Took this class partly online as it was in Winter 2022. The professor is great to listen to and the lectures and subject matter are generally interesting. This is an upper div but I took this class as a freshman and got an A.

Prof Yarbrough is a good teacher and interesting to listen to with a sense of humor. The class is about Islam and how it has interacted with other religions (or societies) in many different ways. Themes taught in the class include the treatment of non-Muslims in Islamic empires, Islam and violence, Muslims in Europe now etc. He makes lectures very interesting and I liked the lectures a lot.

Most classes were structured like this: The professor will explain some basic concepts, dive deeply and analyze some examples like a case study, give a conclusion and then present like an original insight/takeaway from this. It was interesting and engaging.

Lectures were fun, the readings were not. There are a lot of readings and you will NEED to do the readings. Expect around 60-100 pages of reading a week. Most of the readings will be very dense, academic texts or really old historical texts and they will be dry and challenging. The readings are rigorous and will need effort.

60% of the total grade is more or less guaranteed if you do the very very bare minimum and you can easily score 80% with minimal effort, getting an A requires some effort but again it's not a difficult class.

One good thing is that all the readings (which reading is due for when) and the syllabus (which mentions the focus question for each week, details about your final paper etc) are given to you at the start of the class itself so you can plan accordingly and get ahead if you have some free time early on.

Grading:
10% Discussion section attendance
10% Discussion section participation
10% Weekly Focus Question Submission
10% Weekly Micro-Quiz
20% Midterm
20% Final Exam
20% Final Paper

More info:

1. Each week you submit a one page focus question response with each response worth 1% of your total grade. So there will be a focus question which will basically require you to answer it and use evidence from the readings to support your answer. However, this did not take much time because you do not really need to present a world class essay or anything. Just have complete sentences and cite the appropriate evidence from the readings (which after reading the focus question you can search the readings for key words and quickly find) and you will be fine. Honestly I wrote most of these before I even went through the readings and each week's response took under 20 mins to do so I was fine.

2. Micro-quiz: at the start of every Thursday's lecture, we will have a 10 minute 5 question micro-quiz with fill in the blanks, MCQ or T/F questions. Each micro-quiz is worth 1% of your grade. The quiz will be about the big picture ideas of the readings or basically be a multiple choice question about what is the thesis of the author of a certain reading. It is a pass/fail micro-quiz meaning you get full credit if you get 3/5 correct or more and you get 0 if you get 2/5 or below. Even if you barely skim the readings, this should be easy. I went through many of these without doing the readings and still passed the quiz because I used my common sense.

3. The mid-term and the final have half of the questions allocated to content from lectures and half to readings alone. So half of your questions will be exclusively from the readings. The questions are very straightforward and quite basic so if you did the readings you will be fine and won't have to sweat, but that said you need to do the readings. 60% of each exam is based on MCQ/ TF/ Fill Blanks questions and the remaining 40% was based on 2 essay questions (500 words each). That said, the 2 essays were chosen from an essay bank of 5 questions that was released like a week before so you can prepare for this easily. Our exams were open book so that was great too, though I do not know if they will be open book or online henceforth after Winter 2022.

4. The final paper basically requires you to do what the professor does in each lecture: analyze an interaction across a boundary and draw an original insight from that, and using the readings (separate readings assigned for the final paper) explain what happened, how this interaction played out and why it happened the way it did and not any other way. You will be given like 3-4 different choices and you can pick a topic. Again, the details of the final paper are released more than a month in advance so it is easy and nothing to stress about. My paper was like 6 pages so not a big deal.

By far, my most favorite class ever! I didn't know much about Islam before taking this class, as I had only chosen to take it for my GE, but this class opened up my eyes to a whole different level. I learned so much not only about Islam and Muslims, but about the interactions between Islam and Christianity, and Muslims and other races/ethnicities. I was able to see connections regarding similarities and places of conflict when differences were shown. It helped me see a lot of issues in a whole different light, and realize how sometimes the media manipulates issues regarding Islam and its followers. I even got the chance to visit a mosque, which was so interesting. We even had a meal there. Overall, Yarbrough is a great lecturer and helps us understand the concepts, even if some of the religious concepts may be hard to understand. Every week, I looked forward to coming to class and learning more. Yarbrough also loves to make funny jokes, which helps make lecture go faster. The grade breakdown for this class is Attendance (5%), Class Participation (20%), Micro Quizzes (10%), Focus Question Weekly Answers (10%), Midterm Examination (20%), Micro-Final (15%), and Final Essay (20%). I would highly recommend taking this class!

Dr. Yarbrough is awesome! Even though this class was online, I looked forward to all his lectures. However, if you'd like to take this as an easy GE with little prior interest about Islam, I'd advise against it. There is a lot of readings/work every week with a reading quiz and reading reflection and it was a lot to keep up with. However, if you are interested in Islam and have room for a more heavy GE I'd highly recommend! I learned so much and I am so happy I took this class. The tests require studying but are very fair. they truly demonstrate your knowledge and questions are fairly straightforward.

Unfortunately Dr. Yarbrough will leave UCLA after spring 2020 to do research in Israel. He is a humorous and very clear professor. He is also caring and quick to respond. One thing though is the class consists of small points, especially participation is 25%. Tests are a bit tricky, mainly because there are so many readings. In short, he is great, but you will have to read a lot every week to do well.

I was really excited for this class until it started. We were assigned an insane amount of readings each week, ranging from 80-120pages worth of readings. We were required to engage thoroughly with each reading, as were was a weekly quiz/focus question, as well as a cumulative midterm for weeks 1-5 and final (6-10). The readings were very complex and boring, which is unfortunate because with religion classes there are so many beautiful, informational readings that could have been assigned, but we were instead required to read historical theory, jargon filled readings that really turned me and so many others away from the subject. I have taken multiple religion classes before and this one by far has been the worst because of its heavy workload and uninteresting material. This class definitely took the cake for being my most time consuming course thus far.

Ok, so I took this GE since I needed another class. I'm saying this review as someone who has very little original interest in Islam. I will discuss each portion by itself.

Professor:
Yarbrough is one of the best lecturers I have ever had in my life. He is funny, engaging, and extremely well spoken. Classes are 75mins, and while they do feel long, it's not nearly as bad with Yarbrough as it is with other professors. I went to his office hours once, and he was nice and friendly. While being very nice, I doubt that he's lenient, though I've never been put in a position where I had to test this.

Easiness:
This is not a free A, but there is a good chance to get an A with a decent amount of effort. This class is not hard, but does take effort/time.

Time Consumption:
This class takes lots of time. There is an above average amount of reading in this class, and the once a week HW assignment takes a decent amount of time.

Readings:
Unfortunately, you can't get away with not doing the readings. Both the midterm and final are half based off the readings, as are the weekly assignment. I can't imagine getting more than a 80% (at the absolute most, more realistically 50%) in this class without reading. There is about 40-70 pages of reading, depending on the week.

Interest:
I didn't really like the subject, but that's just me. Still, it ended up being mildly interesting.

Key Assignments:
There is a midterm, final, and final essay, all put together worth ~60% of the grade. If you take decent notes during lecture and while reading, you should get at least a high B/low A on the midterm/final once you review. You'll have to study ~ 4 hours for each, so not that bad (if your notes don't suck). Final essay is 5 pages with about 80 pages of reading. Get started early so that it doesn't conflict with your finals.

Overall: Great professor, lots of work for a GE, not that difficult. Extremely fair and organized.