Islam and Ethnicity in Africa and the Middle East State University of New York, Binghampton, NY Shawwal 10-12, 1411/April 25-27, 1991

Abstract

This three-day seminar, sponsored by the State University of New York
at Binghampton's Schweitzer Chair in Humanities, the South Asian and African
Studies Program, the Department of African Studies, and the African American
Institute, discussed the African experience, the Middle East experience, and
crosscultural comparison.
The opening presentation was made by Ali Mazrui, who holds the
Schweitzer Chair in Humanities at Binghampton. He discussed the interaction
of Islam and ethnic cultures in Africa and pointed out that Islam and ethnicity
are essentially contradictory concepts, one being a universalist and the other
a particularist view of society. "But," according to him, "Islam has become
ethnicized and ethnicity tends to become Islarnized." The resulting tensions
can be overcome only by a strong sense of human solidarity, such as the
one which the Prophet talked about when he said that nobody excels in faith
unless he loves for his brother what he loves for himself ...