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Islam and Colonial Rule in Lagos

This essay provides an explanation of the dynamics of the interaction between Islam and politics by placing emphasis on the role played by Muslims in the collision of traditionalism and British rule as colonialism took root in Lagos. The focus is on the development of a political schism within the nascent Muslim community of metropolitan Lagos at the start of the twentieth century up until the end of the 1940s. It highlights the role of Islam in an emerging urban settlement experiencing rapid transformation from a purely rural and traditional center into a colonial urban center. The essay is located within the broader issues of urban change and transition in twentieth-century tropical Africa. Three major developments (viz: the central mosque crisis, the Eleko affair, and the Oluwa land case) are used as the vehicles through which the objectives of the essay are achieved.

• Olakunle A Lawal

An Alternative to the Clash of Civilizations Scenario in the 21st Century

The term civilization has come into a focal point in current intellectual and political discourse since the publication of Samuel Huntington’s controversial thesis on the subject. Since the work revolves around ideas related to the future of humanity, many scholars have joined the debate, although some have rejected the idea arguing the thesis as self-contradictory because a civilized individual is not supposed to get involved in clash with others. Yet many observers of current affairs, particularly in the mainstream media, are convinced that the clash of civilizations is a fact of international politics today. That is why it has become absolutely pertinent for every historian, philosopher, and social scientist concerned about world peace and civilizational harmony to participate in this debate. Has the idea turned out to be a historical reality? Or this is just a myth which interest groups and individuals have manipulated in order to promote their political aspirations? We shall examine these questions below.

• Abdullah alAhsan

Malek Bennabi: An Analytical Study of His Theory of Civilization

In the aftermath of colonialism, the Arab and the Muslim worlds began to wake up to witness a deep crisis that prevailed all sectors of people’s life. Many Muslim thinkers have posed the question “what has gone wrong with modern Muslim culture…with a bitter acknowledgment that the Muslim world is far from sound and that the road to recovery is long indeed.”1 The Western intervention in the Muslim countries due to its growing capitalism disrupted the political, economic, social and cultural realities of these countries. The political independence of these countries was not an outlet for then they came to face the worst reality; they came to witness their defeat and disequilibrium. Hence, most of these countries focused their attention on finding out strategies for a rebirth and development. Efforts were made to modernize existing cities. Yet because of the social and administrative problems, these efforts went in vain. It just presented an unbalanced and a handicapped development.

• Zahra Boussalah

Conference on Islam in Africa: Global, Cultural and Historical Perspectives

Academic studies regarding “Islam in Africa” have increased at a rapid pace over the past few years. In the 1960s, works of Trimingham and Lewis were among the few which dealt with the subject. Towards the end of the 1990s, one could select from a number of works; for example, one had a choice between Westurland and Brenner, Fischer and Stewart, Levtzion and Mazrui and others. This reflects to what extent the African continent and, in particular, Islam has attracted the attention of scholars who represent a variety of disciplines.

The Policy of the Dutch Government Towards Islam in Indonesia

This paper aims to examine the policy of the Dutch colonial government towards Islam in Indonesia, especially during the period of 1945-49 in which the Indonesians struggled for their independence from the Dutch. However, the attitudes of the Dutch East Indian Company towards the Indonesian Muslims in the 17th and 18th centuries and that of the Dutch colonial government in later periods were also included in order to indicate the changes in policy.

The government’s policy towards Islam during the independence period was determined largely by its immediate aim to gain the support of the Muslim people for the reestablishment of the Dutch rule in Indonesia after the war. Therefore, the Dutch authorities in Jakarta tried to show a tolerant attitude towards the Muslim leaders, especially the ulama who had great influence upon the people, and they were inclined to give them more help in religious, social and educational fields, but without endangering the principle of the separation of religion and politics. In this respect, the attempts to establish close contact with the Muslim leaders and their organizations as well as the stimulation of ulama conferences and establishment of regional Islamic councils were discussed in detail. Based largely on the archival materials, the paper concludes that the Dutch needed to pursue a liberal policy after 1945 in contrast to a neutral one in previous times.

• Ismail Hakk Göksoy

On History, Progress, and Civilization

Is history progressive? Does progress lead to civilization? If history is progressive and progress leads to civilization, why then do civilizations rise and fall in history? These questions lead to more questions. What is progress? High rise buildings? Increase in economic and material production? Increase in longevity? Does progress lead to easing life? If it leads to easing life, does it bring happiness in human lives? Is there a crisis of civilization in our times? If there is, is there a remedy for this crisis? These questions have been raised and discussed extensively by historians and philosophers of history, and yet the debate has not ended. In fact as the twentieth century approached its end, the debate seemed to have become more and more live and controversial. Let us browse through the last two decades of this controversy.

• Abdullah alAhsan

Religion as the Source of Reconciliation among Civilizations

The problem of using the category of civilization in much of the social science literature is so obvious that it necessitates a philosophical definition. The heart of every civilization is its primordial tradition. The life of every civilization is tied to the well-being and operativeness of those religious truths that it upholds as sacred. When the religion dies, its civilization also dies. This paper points to the errant “clash of civilizations” thesis and argues that the seat of a universalist consensus cannot be modernity. Rather, it must be religious traditions. It further argues that resuscitating the western tradition is a prerequisite for reconciliation between Islamic societies and the West, and finally, that the ideology of globalism is the wrong milieu for finding such a common platform.

• Ejaz Akram

Auto/Biography and the Construction of Identity and Community in the Middle East

Mary Ann Fay, ed. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 226 pages.

This collection of reflective essays and research articles argues for the greater use of auto/biographies, both as data sources and as representational texts, in examining individual and communal identity negotiations in the Middle East. It reflects the theoretical and topical shifts toward the local, regional, and particular that characterize poststructuralist and postmodernist social science research. It also resonates to the increased concern about representing marginalized populations in historical, sociological, and anthropological literature. Positing that “biography lies at the intersection of the personal and the political and of public and private history,” Fay calls for a more flexible, interpretive, and micro-focused understanding of the relationship between individuals and their contexts. She also champions auto/biography as both a means of entry into private lives and a lens through which to view those lives as part of a broader sociohistorical milieu.

• Mary Ann Fay

Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership and Its Modern Implications

Although the Qur’an does not mandate a specific form of government, it provides broad moral directives for sound political governance. The Qur’an further refers to two specific traits in the legitimate leaders of the Muslim (and any other righteous) polity: precedence and moral excellence, two concepts which were understood to have considerable socio-political implications as well. In the secondary, extra-Qur’anic literature, there is extensive commentary on these two traits and their significance for defining legitimate leadership. This article traces the broad contours of this extended discussion and refers to its continuing relevance in our own times. It further indicates points of similarity between this discursive treatment of leadership and some aspects of the modern electoral system.

• Asma Afsaruddin

Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World: The Roots of Sectarianism

Bruce Masters, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 222 pages.

In this interesting and well-researched book, Bruce Masters analyses the history of Christian and Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire’s Arab provinces and how they fared within a Muslim majority and hierarchy. By and large, this important study is a story of modernization, identity, and ecclesiastical politics that focuses primarily on Christian communities in Aleppo, Syria. The book’s main themes are somewhat familiar: How Christian and Jewish communities were in an advantageous position to benefit from increasing European influence in the Middle East, and how a secular political identity (Arab nationalism) emerged in the Levant. The book’s value lies not in its overarching thesis, but rather in the details of the story and the impressive research upon which this well-crafted narrative is based.

• Bruce Masters

Dialogue of Civilizations: A New Peace Agenda for a New Millennium

Majid Tehranian and David W. Chappell, eds., London and New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd. in association with The Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, 2002. 302 pages.

This book arose from a series of conferences held as part of the Toda Institute’s research project, Human Security and Global Governance, initiated in 1996. The book’s ambitious title matches its expansive structure. Aside from 16 chapters divided equally into Parts One and Two, there is a preface by Hans Kung, an introduction by the editors, and a lead chapter by Tehranian. In addition, the appendix cites a 15-item declaration by the peace scholars attending the Okinawa conference in 2000 to promote mutual respect and understanding among all religious and secular traditions of civility.

• Majid Tehranian
• David W Chappell

The Qu’ran Manuscripts in the al-Haram al-Sharif Islamic Museum, Jerusalem

Khader Salameh, Reading, UK: Garnet Publishing, 2001. 190 pages.

Founded in 1922 and moved to al-Haram al-Sharif in 1929, the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem houses artifacts covering nearly all of Islamic history and originating in North Africa, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and the Middle East. This beautifully illustrated volume, published with the support of UNESCO in both English and Arabic, treats a small part of the Museum’s collection: a selection of its Qur’an manuscripts. The work, divided into three parts, first introduces the Islamic Museum and its collection, then provides background information concerning relevant textual and art history, and finally presents 31 Qur’an manuscripts in detail.

• Khader Salameh

The Rise and Fall of the Islamic Empire and the Threat to the West

Anthony J. Dennis, Lima, OH: Wyndham Hall Press, 2001, 2d ed. 157 pages.

Historians and literary critics looking for examples of modern literature using classic Orientalist discourse will find The Rise and Fall of the Islamic Empire and the Threat to the West a useful tool. Anthony J. Dennis presents 1,400 years of history, interprets the Qur’an and the Shari`ah, scrutinizes Sunni and Shi`a sectarianism, psychoanalyzes Muslims, comments on the status of women, discusses international political and national movements, and gives diplomatic and military contingency plans for civilians and policymakers to stem the “Islamic threat” to the West in 157 pages (including notes). His second edition forward begins with a polite “I-told-you-so” claiming that 9/11 occurred because Americans were not as vigilant as he told them to be in his first edition (1996), that it was the “first chapter in what promises to be a long battle” (forward) between Islam and the West.

• Anthony J Dennis

Globalization or Recolonization?: The Muslim World in the 21st Century

Ali Mohammadi and Muhammad Ahsan, London: Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 2002. 196 pages.

Globalization has been a burning topic of interest for social scientists and the general public for the last 2 decades. However, a Muslim discourse on globalization has not been sufficiently developed. The current book seeks not only to present a dramatic picture of the ummah within the globalized network of mainly economic relations, but also offers policy solutions to get out of this crisis and create the Islamic ummah as an active actor in global economic and political affairs.

As the title suggests, in this book globalization does not have the positive connotations that it has in liberal western scholarship. In fact, it is seen more as a recolonization of the Third World, and, in particular, of the Islamic world. The first chapter lays the theoretical ground, the last one concludes the argument and gives a strategic plan to counter recolonization, while the other six chapters concentrate on different aspects of globalization.

• Ali Mohammadi
• Muhammad Ahsan

Holy Land, Whose Land: Modern Dilemma, Ancient Roots?

Dorothy Drummond, Seattle: Educare Press, 2002. 326 pages.

Dorothy Drummond’s book was born at the dawn of the third millennium, when the author was in Jerusalem. She had taken notes throughout her travels in the Holy Land, which she defines not only as the land of historic Palestine, but also the lands of present-day Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt (i.e., where the Patriarchs, Prophets, and the Holy Family roamed). Rather than write a travelogue, she decided to write a book about the Arab-Israeli conflict while interspersing her personal comments (in italics) about her journeys. Her intent is not to “answer the question posed in the title of this book. Rather, by shedding light on dark corners, it attempts to bring understanding,” as she explains in the prologue.

• Dorothy Drummond