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 »

Main Page | Sulayman S. Nyang Archives | On Faith Archives


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...

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yoyo:


All I know is that Falwell was the one they buried a coupla months ago,so I assume he was the one who died.

Jihadist:

Yoyo

Holy Toledo! Holy Mackerel!

Don't ask me how, why and when a town and a fish became holy, but Pat Robertson is still alive after all. I'd forgotten it was Jerry Falwell who died last month.

Anonymous is right. I can't tell the difference anymore from Robertson to Falwell to Ahmadinejad. Those fellows who speak of Armageddon, End of Days, Judgement Day. Even Robert Spenser and Bernard Lewis spoke of Armageddon last year.

Gotta to build that bomb shelter below the basement now, stock up on 20 years' supply of food and water, and to practice holding my head under the table. As if all that will help.

Thanks again for reminding that Pat Robertson is still with us.

Best regards as ever
J

yoyo:

Jihadist

I tried to break it to you gently
that Pat Robertson is still alive.
I kid you not.
Check his website or something. He's alive!
Honest to god.

Anonymous:

Jihadist

You've really forgotten who died last month. Don't care whether it's Robertson or Falwell? They are all the same to you?

Jihadist:

Yoyo

Now that's terrirying! Upcoming resurrections of Robertson and Falwell that I don't know of? Is the Apocaplypse, the Armageddon soon to be? And Robertson and Falwell the Messiahs?

But wait, I saw a sighting of Elvis again at 7/11.

Best regards
J

yoyo:

Jihadist

Reports of Pat Robertsons death are greatly exaggerated. If you run a check on him,i think
you'll find he is still breathing and has a pulse.

Jerry Falwell on the other hand is in bad shape eversince they buried him last month.

Steve W:

"The faithful believer is someone who has learned to make the distinction between information, knowledge and wisdom".
So well said and so rarely said. Thank you.

Even Christ experienced despair on the cross. That's one of the things that make his story so believable. Mother Theresa once said she did what she did because she had found a Hitler living inside her. That kind of excruciating self honesty is a hallmark of what it means to be a true believer. If Faith is easy, you're not doing it right.

Jihadist:

Yes, may Mother Teresa, a very human being, finally lie in peace. I can see where the vents many expressed in On Faith threads when Pat Robertson died are coming from. But on Mother Teresa's doubts and her life, it is a bit excessive. She committed no murder, no genocide, no war among others. Nor did she ever urge on Armageddon among her fellow believers.

It does not take anyone much to see that an arrogant, stubborn, reckless head of state or head of government full of certainties instead of doubt, is more dangerous to the world than Mother Teresa.

It seems that some atheists/humanists have lost a bit of their cool reason on Mother Teresa, crucifying her for being both a selfish and selfless human being. We all are both selfish and selfless in varying degrees.

The notion of doubt about faith and beliefs was first espoused by believers, not atheists. Are some atheists extremist doubters, militant sceptics, blinkered cynics and/or closet misanthropes in demanding believers have 100% doubt? Ignoring a thinking human's propensity and tendency to have doubts about everything, and even to have doubts on their own doubts too is rather unrealistic.

Shame on some atheists for showing believers how far away they really are, from the humanism they claim they cherish when it comes to accept Mother Teresa as one who is human.

Thank you and best regards.
J

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