Posts tagged "alex thurston"
Al Shabaab: Where Do They Go From Here?
Joe McKnight Ever since Somali President Siad Barre’s government was removed from power in 1991, Somalia has lacked an effective central government.
Schooling Muslims in Northern Nigeria: Politics, Policies and Conclusions
by Alex Thurston Government-run Islamic schools, then, are to be a source of “counter-radicalization” as well as a means of moving almajirai into more “productive” schools. But the policy is unlikely to succeed.
Nigerian Universities: Islamic Studies in Secular Universities
By Alex Thurston
Nigeria has around 100 universities, most of them public, and many public and private colleges. Various tertiary institutions in Northern Nigeria offer Islamic Studies, sometimes conjoined with Arabic.
Nigeria’s Islamiyya Schools: Global Project, Local Target
By Alex Thurston
This is the fourth post in a series on Islamic education in Northern Nigeria. The first post gave an overview of the series, the second discussed Qur’anic schools, and the third talked about “traditional” advanced Islamic education, noting that traditions change over time.
This post examines “Islamiyya” schools,...
“Traditional” and Reformist Practices: Advanced Islamic Education in Northern Nigeria
This post is the third in a series on Muslim schooling in Northern Nigeria. The first post gave an overview of the series, and the second discussed Qur’anic schools.
by Alex Thurston
In Nigeria, advanced Islamic education--the step following one's basic instruction in the Qur'an--takes various forms. Here, I'll examine the traditional settings for advanced...
Northern Nigeria: Qur’anic Schooling and the Almajirai
by Alex Thurston
This is the second post in a series on Muslim education in Northern Nigeria. Read the first post here.
Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the word of God as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, a revelation that corrects and completes earlier Messages to Prophets such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims throughout...
Education as Battleground: Schooling Muslims in Northern Nigeria
by Alex Thurston
This post is the first of a series on Muslim schooling in Northern Nigeria.
Steady acts of violence carried out by Northern Nigeria’s rebel movement Boko Haram, whose name is often translated in the press as “Western education is forbidden,” has put issues of Muslim education in the region into the international news. Coverage...
Identity, Crisis: Shari’a Law in Nigerian Politics
by Alex Thurston
In 1999, Nigeria made global headlines when Northern states began re-implementing “full shari’a,” i.e. Islamic law codes that included criminal penalties for acts like theft, adultery, and drinking alcohol. The shari’a project in Northern Nigeria caused further controversy when...Boko Haram in National Perspective
By Alex Thurston
Violence by Boko Haram, a rebel sect in Northern Nigeria that claims to be waging an Islamic jihad against the Nigerian state, has killed over 900 people since 2009, including over 250 in 2012 alone. Domestic and international analysts...Our Daily Links: In the World Edition
Church and the Russian University. Fundamentalism as a result of secularization, not an expression of tradition. "Shifting Politics in the World's Newest Nation." "How Ethiopia's Adoption Industry Dupes Families and Bullies Activists." Thanks to a lingering hatred for Communism... The most significant Chinese political event of 2011. Getting arms around the cult of Kim Jong...
Shifting Politics in the World’s Newest Nation
By Alex Thurston
South Sudan, though less than six months old as an independent nation, already faces challenges to its political and cultural unity: rebels abound, opposition groups denounce the ruling party, and ethnic tensions simmer. Christianity has provided a powerful platform for political mobilization in the region’s past, and churches continue to represent the strongest...
After the Referendum:
Sudan Negotiates National and Religious Identity in the North
By Alex Thurston
The secession of South Sudan in July 2011 posed an existential question for (North) Sudan: what will be the political and cultural basis of the nation, which is in some ways a new country itself?
In December 2010, shortly before the referendum on Southern secession, President Omar al Bashir gave his answer:
“We’ll change...
