Sulayman Nyang

Sulayman S. Nyang

Scholar of African and Muslim affairs

"On Faith" panelist Sulayman S. Nyang teaches in the Department of African Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A scholar of African and Muslim affairs, Nyang, who is a native of the Republic of the Gambia, also served as his homeland's deputy ambassador to seven Middle Eastern and North African countries from 1975-78. Except for those three years, Nyang has taught at Howard since 1972, serving as acting director of the African Studies Program from 1973-75 and from 1986-1993, as chairman of the Department of African Studies. In 1993, he became senior consultant on the African Voices Project of the Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution..In 1997, Nyang became the first scholar to be named the Henry Luce Professor for Abrahamic Religions at the University of Hartford and Hartford Seminary. From 1999 to 2002 Professor Nyang served as a principal investigator and co-director of the Muslims in the American Public Square (MAPS) project sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust and housed at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Now a U.S. citizen, Nyang has written extensively on African, Islamic and Middle Eastern affairs .His most widely-known book is Islam, Christianity and African Identity. He has also authored or co-edited Religious Plurality in Africa, with Jacob Olupona; A Line in the Sand: Saudi Arabia's Role in the Gulf War, with Evans Heindricks; and Islam:Its Relevance Today, co-edited with Henry Thompson. Nyang also wrote Islam in the United States of America (1999). His latest work is Muslims' Place in the American Public Square. Hopes, Fears, and Aspirations (2004), jointly edited with Zahid Bukhari and John Esposito of Georgetown University, and Mumtaz Ahmad of Hampton University). Nyang, who holds a doctorate in government from the University of Virginia, also serves on the advisory boards of several national African and Muslim organizations and was the first American Muslim president of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Close.

Sulayman S. Nyang

Scholar of African and Muslim affairs

"On Faith" panelist Sulayman S. Nyang teaches in the Department of African Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. A scholar of African and Muslim affairs, Nyang, who is a native of the Republic of the Gambia, also served as his homeland's deputy ambassador to seven Middle Eastern and North African countries from 1975-78. more »

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Unitl Recently, It Was Widely Assumed God is a 'He'

The gender question in the field of religion cannot be separated from the political and cultural progress of humankind. Regardless of whether one is a believer in the Abrahamic or World religions or not, the fact remains that the primacy of men over religious and political affairs of humankind conspired to keep men at the top.

Until recently when feminist scholars and activists started editing the use of the personal pronoun "He" to refer to God, it had always been assumed by both men and women in the West and beyond, wherever the Abrahamic religions prevailed, that God is a He.

This masculinization of the Divine is not only a reflection of the power order among humans, but it is also a factor in the evolution of the race. Since men were the ones who ventured beyond the cave and served as hunters in larger numbers than women, this elevation through the constant encounter with violence and danger and the sedentarization of women in the family hearth and home conspired to create the social and cultural orders of our ages.

Great debates have taken place among various scholars in the West regarding this role differentiation. What we can say is that science and technology have together created a uni- sexual universe where old concepts and notions have been subjected to serious scrutiny and challenges.

I would argue here that the gains made by women owe a great deal to the revolution of the post-industrial world and the kind of capitalism that went with it. Similarly, the intellectual transformations that accompany modernity have changed our reading and interpretation of the holy texts. This total re-engagement with text and context have created changes in certain branches of the Abrahamic faiths.Others have not accepted the growing and revolutionary changes ushered in by the industrial revolution and the labor transformation in the job markets and beyond.

In concluding this brief response, let me give three points to remember. First, it should be noted that the female has fared better in the post-Industrial Age before the impact of technology on the unisexualization of human life and culture.This global unisexualization of human matters and affairs is responsible for many of the controversies in our societies.

Secondly, the political inclusion of women into the highest levels of human power is making it clear that changes in the human realm could also be registered in the heavenly kingdom.

Thirdly, it should be pointed out that industrialization has a great impact in changing the role of women in both secular and religious matters. We have to wait patiently for the total revolution of modernity and postmodernity in the struggle between the genders in the field of religion.

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Posted by Sulayman Nyang on January 17, 2007 5:41 PM

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