A timely publication when the need for greater understanding between Islamic and Western cultures is sharper than ever, the papers in this book are the result of an international conference entitled 'the Shari'ah debate and the shaping of Muslim and Christian identities in Northern Nigeria'. The conference was convened by the University of Jos in northern Nigeria in the wake of the religious/civil strife in the area in 2001 and 2002. The conference, which brought together scholars from Nigeria and overseas considered recent developments in law and religion, and shari'ah from local and global perspectives. The publication is intended to serve as an example of constructive dialogue in an academic setting between Muslims, Christians and those of neither religion, and as a permanent contribution to the literature on law and religion in Nigeria.

When democracy was introduced to Nigeria in 1999, one-third of its federal states declared that they would be governed by sharia, or Islamic law. This work argues that such a break with secular constitutional traditions in a multireligious country can have disastrous consequences

In November of 1999, Nigerians took to the streets demanding the re-implementation of shari'ah law in their country. Two years later, many Nigerians supported the death sentence by stoning of a peasant woman for alleged sexual misconduct. Public outcry in the West was met with assurances to the Western public: stoning is not a part of Islam; stoning happens "only in Africa"; reports of stoning are exaggerated by Western sensationalism. However, none of these statements are true. Shari'ah on Trial goes beyond journalistic headlines and liberal pieties to give a powerful account of how Northern Nigerians reached a point of such desperation that they demanded the return of the strictest possible shari'ah law. Sarah Eltantawi analyzes changing conceptions of Islamic theology and practice as well as Muslim and British interactions dating back to the colonial period to explain the resurgence of shari'ah, with implications for Muslim-majority countries around the world.

This timely collection offers new perspectives on Muslim-Christian encounters in Africa. Working against political and scholarly traditions that keep Muslims and Christians apart, the essays in this multidisciplinary volume locate African Muslims and Christians within a common analytical frame. In a series of historical and ethnographic case studies from across the African continent, the authors consider the multiple ways Muslims and Christians have encountered each other, borrowed or appropriated from one another, and sometimes also clashed. Contributors recast assumptions about the making and transgressing of religious boundaries, Christian-Muslim relations, and conversion. This engaging collection is a long overdue attempt to grapple with the multi-faceted and changing encounters of Muslims and Christians in Africa.

Islam in Africa South of the Sahara: Essays in Gender Relations and Political Reform draws together contributions from scholars that focus on changes taking place in the practice of the religion and their effects on the political terrain and civil society. Contributors explore the dramatic changes in gender relations within Islam on the continent, occasioned in part by the events of 9/11 and the response of various Islamic states to growing negative media coverage. These explorations of the dynamics of religious change, reconfigured gender relations, and political reform consider not only the role of state authorities but the impact of ordinary Muslim women who have taken to challenging the surbodinate role assigned to them in Islam. Essays are far-ranging in their scope as the future of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa falls under the microscope, with contributing addressing such topics as the Islamic view of the historic Arab enslavement of Africans and colonialist ventures; studies of gender politics in Gambia, northern Nigeria, and Ghana; surveys of the impact of Sharia law in Nigeria and Sudan; the political role of Islam in Somalia, South Africa, and African diaspora communities. Islam in Africa South of the Sahara is an ideal reader for students and scholars of international politics, comparative theology, race and ethnicity, comparative sociology, African and Islamic studies.

In view of the explosion of violent conflicts in many parts of the world and the hasty, but prevailing, assumption that ethnicity is the source of these conflicts, this book is encompassed to highlight, describe and examine how ethnicity is politicized in many of these current conflicts. By deploying the instrumentalist approach and the theory of identity and difference in ethnicity, the author identifies the actors involved and depicts how religion is exploited as an instrument of division by reflecting it on the Nigerian situation, exploring the examples of the Jos conflicts and the Warri Crisis within a twenty years period, 1990 to 2010.