The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya

This paper argues that the lack of serious attempts to incorporate Islamic studies in Kenya’s academic culture can best be understood by looking at the colonial and postcolonial policies toward university education there. The early missionary influence that shaped the nature of the indigenous educa...

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Autor principal:	Mohamed Bakari
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	International Institute of Islamic Thought 2014
Materias:	Islam BP1-253
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/2f2f5f78c4504276ba154e2d563d9f1f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:2f2f5f78c4504276ba154e2d563d9f1f2021-12-02T17:26:12ZThe Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya10.35632/ajis.v31i3.2852690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/2f2f5f78c4504276ba154e2d563d9f1f2014-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/285https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 This paper argues that the lack of serious attempts to incorporate Islamic studies in Kenya’s academic culture can best be understood by looking at the colonial and postcolonial policies toward university education there. The early missionary influence that shaped the nature of the indigenous educational system had a farreaching impact upon creating a culture of resistance among Muslims toward western education. In the postcolonial period, the new governments tried to create a level playing field for all of their citizens, regardless of religious orientation. But the colonial imapct had already left its mark on Muslims in terms of their visibility at the university level. The Kenyan government did not interfere in what academic programs should be prioritized at this level. But because Christians outnumbered Muslims in academia, their influence created a dearth of indigenous university-generated information and knowledge on Muslim institutions and society. This gap was left to foreign researchers to fill. As a result, Kenya has no indigenous Islamic intellectual culture. If this status quo does not change, Kenyan Muslims will remain vulnerable to foreign Islamist influences. Mohamed BakariInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 31, Iss 3 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Islam BP1-253
spellingShingle	Islam BP1-253 Mohamed Bakari The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya
description	This paper argues that the lack of serious attempts to incorporate Islamic studies in Kenya’s academic culture can best be understood by looking at the colonial and postcolonial policies toward university education there. The early missionary influence that shaped the nature of the indigenous educational system had a farreaching impact upon creating a culture of resistance among Muslims toward western education. In the postcolonial period, the new governments tried to create a level playing field for all of their citizens, regardless of religious orientation. But the colonial imapct had already left its mark on Muslims in terms of their visibility at the university level. The Kenyan government did not interfere in what academic programs should be prioritized at this level. But because Christians outnumbered Muslims in academia, their influence created a dearth of indigenous university-generated information and knowledge on Muslim institutions and society. This gap was left to foreign researchers to fill. As a result, Kenya has no indigenous Islamic intellectual culture. If this status quo does not change, Kenyan Muslims will remain vulnerable to foreign Islamist influences.
format	article
author	Mohamed Bakari
author_facet	Mohamed Bakari
author_sort	Mohamed Bakari
title	The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya
title_short	The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya
title_full	The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya
title_fullStr	The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya
title_full_unstemmed	The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya
title_sort	historical and political backdrop to islamic studies in kenya
publisher	International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/2f2f5f78c4504276ba154e2d563d9f1f
work_keys_str_mv	AT mohamedbakari thehistoricalandpoliticalbackdroptoislamicstudiesinkenya AT mohamedbakari historicalandpoliticalbackdroptoislamicstudiesinkenya
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The Historical and Political Backdrop to Islamic Studies in Kenya

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