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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September 2007 Archives



September 2, 2007 10:50 AM

Faith and Doubt Fellow Travelers

Faith and doubt are twin brothers or sisters in the human condition. The Qur'an recognizes the capacity of the human being to believe or not to believe. Believing in the visible and the tangible is more widely acknowledged by most people when they are confined within their own mental estate. When they venture beyond their own world into the wide world of others where language and concepts rule, chances are one may claim belief when in actual fact belief is not the thing in place, social solidarity has become the mother of all faiths. This is true of religious belief as well as secular faith in ideologies.

There are a number of things to ponder about this revelation about Mother Theresa. To me such revelations are merely articulations of her spiritual journey which was unknown to all of us but a few who travel led along with her in their universe of fears and hopes, promises and anxieties. She was a human being and her belief is Jesus and Christianity most probably were reinforced by the element of doubt.

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September 17, 2007 2:20 PM

Politics of the Belly, Head and Soul

The Middle East Problem that plagues us today is rooted in history, but the intellectual and political forces that keep it going are territorial/demotic nationalism on the one hand and religion on the other. Contrary to the more widely distributed lie the Middle East people have learned to live and fight as all human beings have done since the days of Cain and Abel if you accept the Abrahamic narrative about human origins and the unfolding of history. People from a non-Abrahamic faith may look at the origins of human conflict differently. But regardless of their points of view, the fact remains that on the Middle East question many points can be made and such answers could serve as analytical tools guiding us as we unravel the critical nature of the problem and the intricacies that accompany the battle of wills in this theater of history.

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What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions

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