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


No Religion is an Island

Love has to be the common thread that unites and links all of us together.

» Back to full entry

All Comments (43)

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Al Klaus:

Muslims and religion of Islam and law of Quran appear to be practices and beliefs in political and social traditional Muslim community values and customs.

Whereas, Christian teachings are based on faith and belief as follows: Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha, Chapter 11, Gospel of John, New Testament of Bible.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

Al Klaus:

Muslims and religion of Islam and law of Quran appear to be practices and beliefs in political and social traditional Muslim community values and customs.

Whereas, Christian teachings are based on faith and belief as follows: Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha, Chapter 11, Gospel of John, New Testament of Bible.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

Al Klaus:

Muslims and religion of Islam and law of Quran appear to be practices and beliefs in political and social traditional Muslim community values and customs.

Whereas, Christian teachings are based on faith and belief as follows: Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha, Chapter 11, Gospel of John, New Testament of Bible.

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."

pax58:

Someone ask Mr. Lami about compassion for gays.
Gay persecution is another thing many religions hold in common.

pax58:

Someone ask Mr. Lami about compassion for gays.
Gay persecution is another thing many religions hold in common.

Jonathan E. Brickman:

Mr. Nyang states: "No religion has ever appeared on this planet that advocates suicide, homicide and genocide. All of them, to the best of my knowledge, preach the language of peace between the creatures of the planet."

I fervently hope, that many will remember the religions of the Aztecs, the Maya, and many others. I fervently hope that many will also remember three such religions which were immensely powerful during the Second World War. I also hope that many will come to realize that there are several, not just one or two, such religions very powerful today. And I fervently hope that the wool is pulled from eyes concerning religions of this kind.

Jonathan E. Brickman
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(785) 233-9977
jonathan.e.brickman@gmail.com

Truth13:

The Dalai Lama says: "World peace is obtained by inner peace". This is a true saying, but only a nice saying without any meaning unless you believe in it. The Dalai Lama like so many other "religious leaders" before him says it is true, but obviously doesn't believe in his own words. How do we know that? Simple! You tell what a person believes by his actions. The Dalai Lama talks peace, but acts out war. He takes bribes (over a million dollars) from Shoko Asahara, the Tokyo subway killer and then gives photo ops and commendations to him. The Dalai Lama promotes books of people convicted of genocide such as Dr. Bruno Beger. The Dalai Lama promotes books and products of a recently exposed Death Squad Leader, Heinrich Harrer. This was recently exposed by German magazines. All the Dalai Lama is doing here is saying that you can talk peace, but show your support for war, violence and hatred, if enough money and fame is offered to you. This sets the example for the world to follow, such as the Chinese government. The Chinese government talks peace in Tibet, but has shown the opposite. The Dalai Lama does not help the cause of peace when he is shown to be such a hypocrite.

Hewitt:

Allison:

While it is correct to observe that neither Christianity nor Islam are monolithic, each having their share of the saintly and the murderous, it is incorrect to defend religion on grounds that only the saintly part is the "true" part. That commits the fallacy of the true Scotsman:

(1) All Scotsman love their porridge.
(2) But Angus McFee doesn't like porridge.
(3) Well then, Angus McFee isn't a "true" Scotsman.

The willful refusal to look at fact and evidence in preference for faith is intrinsic to a religion that motivates both good and evil. On balance, religion's emphasis on the next world and its refusal to deal with the world as it is leads to more evil than good. Just look around you for the proof.

V. Kelley:

I think it's about time for Mr. Nyang for a refresher course on the Crusades and how many lives were lost between the Muslims and the Christians battling over the Holyland.

Ismail Fayed:

A wonderful piece. As a muslim I like to add,
those extremists who blow up themselves had hurt us the muslims more than they hurt themselves and/or the victims. Our religin had survive lot of bad publicity by others, but I don't think another bad publicity as we practice now. I also think we will survive this stage. Our religin was directed to the MINDS, I don't thinks those extrimsts use their minds in this case.
Ismail Fayed Montreal Canada

syzito:

Peace and love???While Islam kills women and children because they donot believe in the Islamic moon god....Give me a break!!!!

WILLEM :

true no religion is an island because it poisons everything it touches!

Marcia:

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Norrie Hoyt:

The Dalai Lama does not speak of LOVE but of COMPASSION.

There's a huge difference.

LOVE is BLIND.

COMPASSION is CLEAR-SIGHTED.

Paganplace:

See, I live acros the street from this older lady.

I presume she's Christian. Never asked, actually.


So happens she's got a bunch of Pagans that are the only people trying to support her in keeping her own home against a bunch of people with money, power, and a couple Jesus fish on their pearl-white SUV's.

Now. It's hard not to draw the connection between these Jesus-loving profiteers harassing an old lady who can somehow drive a snowblower when I can't at half her age...... trying to drive her out of her home of fifty years over *a couple parking spaces*

In a place where parking ain't actually that hard to come by....

And some folks who feel entitled to something that was never theirs, whether they choose to believe the universe is 'ultimately just' over their actions or not.


Now, I'm not someone any of your monotheist universes might consider 'blessed' ...or even someone you ought to go out of your way to 'suffer to live,' but I do see what you do to each other.

You could do better.

And before you get too bold thinking there will be a carpet of roses when you invade ordinary people's lives.... with your money and your sense of entitlement.


Don't tread on us.

The lines may not come down where you think.


Paganplace:

" etus - indonesia:

Muhammad is a pedophilian. Do you trust him?
A religion that teach a sex harashment?
What is truth about islam? None!"

Yaknow, considering what I saw in Catholic school, if we wanna talk child molestation, how bout everyone just stop pretending it's the fault of gay people and find it in their hearts not to throw shots at each other?


Swear to the Gods, none of you monotheists got a leg to stand on if you want to go there.

How bout you are all adult people with too many Mother-lovin guns, and you own your fingers.

Now. Given one slightly-used but nice planet...


Anyone want to live?

etus - indonesia:

Muhammad is a pedophilian. Do you trust him?
A religion that teach a sex harashment?
What is truth about islam? None!

Such a religion that brings all muhammad obsesion!

BealaCalger:

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Allison:

Maybe some people here need to read up on Islam. Suicide is an abomination in the Quran. Nowhere does it say that if you blow yourself up, you will get 72 virgins. Islamic fundamentalism infects the Arab world, but only 20% of the world's 1 billion Muslims are Arab. I am a Christian but don't plan on bombing any abortion clinics anytime soon. Those pro-life nuts are fundamentalist zealots who are not real Christians, just as the animals that attacked on 9-11 are not real Muslims. Many Muslims died in the WTC towers that day. People need to distinguish between fundamentalism and authentic religion. I think Islamophobia is the reason why we are engaging in disastrous wars in the Middle East.

Allison:

Maybe some people here need to read up on Islam. Suicide is an abomination in the Quran. Nowhere does it say that if you blow yourself up, you will get 72 virgins. Islamic fundamentalism infects the Arab world, but only 20% of the world's 1 billion Muslims are Arab. I am a Christian but don't plan on bombing any abortion clinics anytime soon. Those pro-life nuts are fundamentalist zealots who are not real Christians, just as the animals that attacked on 9-11 are not real Muslims. Many Muslims died in the WTC towers that day. People need to distinguish between fundamentalism and authentic religion. I think Islamophobia is the reason why we are engaging in disastrous wars in the Middle East.

dulttetoure:

Oups...

Arif:

I don't think Rahaman means love. It means merciful, having said that Islam has no place for Love, it's simply not there. Mohammed your prophet never loved anyone but himself (what we call a narcissist), also he had many wives and his "Favorite" was Aisha the child bride. The Koran has nothing for the human emotion of Love in it. I suggest you go back and learn more on Islam without the help of your "experts" and let your own mind do the figuring out.

hollywoodheidi:

Hi! I just found this forum and it looks really cool.

Now, I gotta run off and read some posts. :)

BGone:

"No Religion is an Island" but there is "Devil's island" too. And then there is land that looks good but is really bad, rotten even called quick sand.

Maybe you could explain how almighty Allah needs people to do His work? Couldn't Allah just "will" the WTC away? Why did He need or even use people to hijack and fly airplanes into it?

Beware of Devils claiming to be God. http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul is the correct reading of sacred scriptures that clearly shows Moses made a deal with Devil, that the supernatural being, angel in the burning bush was really the biggest Devil of them all, Lucifer.

Did Muhammad make a deal with another "fallen angel" named Gabriel? How sure are you that Gabriel is on God's side?

The one distinguishing characteristic of almighty God that all can understand is that almighty God gets everything IT wants, all by ITself, no help needed from people. Looks an awfully lot like Muslims are Devil worshipers just like Christians and Jews.

Neither Christian expert, (doctors of divinity types) nor Jewish Rabbi have been able to refute the above argument. Do Muslims have any evidence it's wrong? What is it? Maybe you have something secret that shows God lives in fire, the same type of fire found in hell, the fire that burns but does not consume, like the supernatural being Moses made the deal with?

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