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Islam In Africa (from Voice of America - VOA)
DATE=4/1/97 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT NUMBER=5-36085 TITLE= ISLAM IN AFRICA - PART 1 BYLINE=HILLETEWORK MATHIAS DATELINE= WASHINGTON CONTENT= UN-VOICED: INTRO: ISLAM IS THE SECOND LARGEST RELIGION, AFTER CHRISTIANITY. IT IS ESTIMATED ABOUT ONE-BILLION MUSLIMS LIVE AROUND THE WORLD. OF THESE, ABOUT 300-MILLION RESIDE IN AFRICA. TODAY, ISLAM PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE POLITICAL AND CULTURAL LIVES OF MILLION OF AFRICANS. IN THE FIRST OF A FIVE-PART SERIES ON ISLAM IN AFRICA, V-O-A'S HILLETEWORK MATHIAS EXAMINES THE ARRIVAL AND SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE CONTINENT. TEXT: ISLAM IS AN ARABIC WORD WHICH MEANS SUBMISSION TO GOD. IT IS A RELIGION FOUNDED IN ARABIA MORE THAN 13-HUNDRED-YEARS AGO AND PREACHED BY THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD IN 600 A.D. MUHAMMAD PREACHED HE WAS GOD'S MESSENGER AND THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD -- CALLED ALLAH. ACCORDING TO ISLAMIC BELIEF, GOD'S WORD WAS REVEALED TO MUHAMMAD ORALLY, AND WRITTEN DOWN AFTER HIS DEATH IN MUSLIM'S HOLY BOOK, THE "KORAN". HISTORIANS SAY ISLAM FIRST CAME TO AFRICA BY WAY OF EGYPT AROUND 640 A.D. BY THE END OF THE CENTURY, THROUGH ARMED CONQUEST AND COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY, IT HAD SPREAD TO NORTH AND WEST AFRICA. TODAY, THE ISLAMIC FAITH PERMEATES ARAB NORTH AFRICA AND SIZEABLE AREAS OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN POLITICS AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY, SULEIMAN NYANG, IS THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK "ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY AND AFRICAN IDENTITY." // NYANG ACT // ISLAM ENTERED THROUGH EGYPT BY CONQUEST BECAUSE THE BYZANTINES WERE CONTROLLING EGYPT AND A SIZABLE PORTION OF NORTH AFRICA. THESE WERE WHAT WE CALL IN WORLD HISTORY -- THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE. THE BYZANTIUM CONTROLLED EGYPT, AND OF COURSE AMAR IBIN AL-AZ IS USUALLY CITED AS THE MUSLIM CONQUEROR OF EGYPT, WITH THE COLLABORATION OF SOME OF THE CHRISTIAN COPTIC GROUPS THERE WHO WERE NOT VERY HAPPY WITH BYZANTIUM RULE. THEN OF COURSE, ISLAM SPREAD ALONG THE EAST AFRICAN COAST AND ACROSS THE SAHARA THROUGH COMMERCE AND TRADE. // END ACT // THE ROLE OF TRADE IN THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA MAY BE LINKED TO THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD, WHO WAS ALSO A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMAN. HE IS PERHAPS THE ONLY FOUNDER OF A MAJOR RELIGION WHO WAS ONCE A MERCHANT. THE "KORAN" ASSURES BELIEVERS IT IS NOT REPREHENSIBLE TO SEEK LIVELIHOOD IN TRADE. TODAY ISLAM HAS BECOME THE MOST IMPORTANT RELIGION IN AFRICA. IT IS ESTIMATED NEARLY ONE-HALF OF AFRICA'S POPULATION OF 700-MILLION HOLD TO THE RELIGION. THE GREATEST CONCENTRATION OF MUSLIM MAJORITIES EXIST IN THE NORTHERN, WESTERN, AND EASTERN PARTS OF THE CONTINENT. PROFESSOR NYANG SAYS THIS IS DUE TO, AMONG OTHER THINGS, NON-POLITICAL ROLES ARAB TRADERS PLAYED AT THE TIME. // NYANG ACT // WHEN THE ARAB TRADERS CAME TO AFRICA THEY DID NOT HAVE POLITICAL CONTROL OVER AFRICAN STATES. THEY WERE MAINLY USED AS TECHNICAL ADVISORS BECAUSE THEY HAD LITERACY AND THEIR KNOWLEDGE WAS DEPLOYED IN THE SERVICE OF AFRICAN KINGS. SO THEY DID NOT HAVE POLITICAL POWER. // END OF ACT // OTHER ANALYSTS ATTRIBUTE THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN AFRICA TO WHAT THEY VIEW AS THE RELIGON'S EGALITARIAN NATURE. NOTED AFRICAN SCHOLAR ALI MAZRUI IS A PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN HISTORY AND POLITICS AT STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON. // MAZRUI ACT // ISLAM HAS BEEN FAR LESS COMPROMISED BY RACISM THAN CHRISTIANITY HAS BEEN, AS THE RESULT OF THE LEADERSHIP OF EUROPE IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. BECAUSE CHRISTIANITY BECAME AT ITS MOST SUCCESSFUL UNDER EUROPEAN HANDS, AND AS EUROPEANS BECAME RACIST THE WHOLE RELIGION BECAME COMPROMISED AS A RESULT. WHEREAS IN ISLAM THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS RACIALLY SEGREGATED MOSQUES. ON THE CONTRARY, FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, YOU HAD RACIALLY INTEGRATED PLACES OF PRAYER. SO ON THE ISSUE OF RACIAL EGALITARIANISM, THERE IS NO DOUBT AT ALL THAT ISLAM HAS A MUCH BETTER RECORD THAN EURO-CHRISTIANITY. AND THIS HAS BEEN ATTRACTIVE TO MANY BLACK PEOPLE BOTH IN AFRICA AND IN BLACK AMERICA. // END OF ACT // HISTORIANS SAY THE MOST RAPID ISLAMIZATION OF AFRICA TOOK PLACE IN THE 20TH CENTURY WHEN EUROPEAN COLONIALISM WAS AT ITS PEAK. THEY SAY EUROPEAN POLITICAL OCCUPATION LED AFRICANS TO SEEK ALTERNATE WORLD VIEWS, AND ISLAM PROVIDED ONE OF THEM. THEY SAY VARIOUS ANTI-COLONIAL MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA HELPED FACILITATE THE ISLAMIZATION PROCESS. CHARLES STEUART IS A PROFESSOR OF AFRICAN HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. // STEUART ACT // AND THERE WERE A NUMBER OF VERY ATTRACTIVE, VERY COMPELLING MOVEMENTS -- I AM THINKING OF THE MAHDIS IN SUDAN IN THE 1880'S, I AM THINKING OF THE NOTIONS OF JIHAD IN WEST AFRICA THAT CARRIED OVER EVEN IN THE EARLIER 20TH CENTURY -- VERY COMPELLING IDEOLOGIES THAT ATTRACTED INDIVIDUALS WHO THOUGHT THIS SORT OF RESPONSE TO EUROPEAN OCCUPATION WAS FAR MORE ATTRACTIVE, MORE SATISFYING THAN SIMPLY HUNKERING DOWN AND ACCEPTING DOMINATION. // END OF ACT // ISLAM HAS MADE NUMEROUS CONTRIBUTIONS TO AFRICA, ESPECIALLY IN THE AREA OF EDUCATION. WE WILL HAVE MORE ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THOSE CONTRIBUTIONS ON TODAY'S AFRICA IN THE NEXT PART OF OUR SERIES ON ISLAM IN AFRICA. (SIGNED) NEB/HM/RAE 01-Apr-97 2:56 PM EST (1956 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America
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