This book investigates the ways in which the war on terror has transformed the postcolonial state in Africa. Taking American intervention in Islamic education in Uganda as the entry point, the book demonstrates how state control over Islamic truth production and everyday Muslim life has increased.
During the colonial period, the Muslims in Uganda were governed in two ways: partly as lesser citizens within the Christian-dominated civil sphere and partly as members of a distinct Muslim domain. In this domain, a local system of Islamic education developed with a degree of autonomy that reflected the limits of the colonial state in shaping the Muslim subject. In the subsequent postcolonial period, systems of patronage and clientalistic networks dominated, and Muslim leaders were co-opted by the state, but without much real interference in the day-to-day lives of ordinary Muslims. However, as part of the war on terror, the US State Department seeks to bring the mechanisms of Islamic truth production, especially the madrasa, under direct state control and civil society scrutiny. This book argues that the "Muslim domain as a separate entity is coming to an end as it is being absorbed into the civil sphere, unifying the state’s domination of society." The book also analyzes local Ugandan Muslim initiatives to modernise and contextualize their own education and religion and how these initiatives are shaped by and transcend the dominant power.
A thorough exploration of US foreign policy and Islamic education, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of Political Studies, African Studies and Religious Studies.
Author(s): Yahya Sseremba
Series: Routledge Studies on Religion in Africa and the Diaspora, 10
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 202
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgment
Acronyms
Glossary
Transliteration
1 Introduction
The Postcolonial State
Local Muslim Initiatives
Method: Africa as Conceptual Model
Sources
Organization of the Book
Notes
References
2 Islam and the Limits of Centralization in Late Precolonial Buganda
Buganda Before the Late Precolonial Era
Islam, Power, and Authority in Late Precolonial Buganda
Notes
References
3 Exclusion By Inclusion: The Ugandan State and the Muslim Subject
The Colonial Era
Exclusion By Inclusion and the Making of a Muslim Domain
Muslim Education and the Limits of the Colonial State
Notes
References
4 The Madrasa as a Site of the War On Terror
Underlying Assumptions of War On Terror Discourses
Rwakafuzi’s Thesis: “The Muslims Are Being Profiled”
Legitimizing State Intervention in the Production of Islamic Truth
The US State Department and Its Consultants
Notes
References
5 The Diminishing Muslim Domain: America’s Prescriptions for Islamic Education Reform
Notes
References
6 Question Formulators and Data Collectors: The Production of Knowledge About the Madrasa
Muslim Response
Muslim Resistance
Notes
References
7 Salafism: The Boogeyman of the War On Terror
What Is Salafism?
Salafism in Uganda
Religious Innovations
The Spread of Salafism
Tracking the Graduates
Darasa
Schools
Violence: the Struggle for Mosques and the Making of a Rebel Group
The 1991 Incident
Another Path: Formation of a Muslim Political Party
Notes
References
8 Africa as Conceptual Model: Ugandan Thought and Contemporary Islamic Reform
Who Is Kisuule?
Kisuule’s Formulation of the Problem of Islamic Knowledge
Kisuule’s Methodology
Commendable “Bid’a” (Innovation): Kisuule’s Philosophy of Change
Notes
References
9 Conclusion: Islam and Decolonization
Notes
References
Index
