While the Center of Islam, Mecca, is on the Arabian Peninsula and very close to Africa, scholarly attention and the media tend to focus on the Middle East and Asia in connection to the religion. Professor Mazrui eloquently re-centered its history, placing its core, not only in West Asia, but in North Africa as well.
Among other fascinating points, Dr. Mazrui shared that Major Islamic centers of theology and higher learning, AlAzhar University in Cairo, and Fez, Morocco, are in Africa, for example. Major contributors to the early history of Islam, such as Usman, the third Sunni Caliph, spent significant portion of his life in what was then Abbysinia.
He also pointed out that the Muslim population of Nigeria is actually
larger than that of Egypt and is one of the largest in the world. Africans and Muslims - two groups which are not mutually exclusive, but which overlap - have commonalities in regard to global struggles for power as well.
It was a stimulating and potentially controversial talk. One of the questions at the end was whether or not he faced hostility in the past at one of his public talks. At an earlier point he had said "Nuclear weapons are not for Africans, Muslims or children under 16." He explained that when he critiqued the actions of Israel he received complaints, but that he has the highest respect for Jewish people. That helped to address the pervasive stereotype that Muslims and Jewish people are against each other.
The talk was organized by the Columbus Council on World Affairs, The Center for African Studies and the Middle East Studies Center at OSU. We are very grateful to Professor Mazrui for agreeing to come as he is in demand all around the world for such engagements.
Link to view the talk: http://livestre.am/1iJYi
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