the 500 most influential muslims - The Royal Islamic Strategic ...

Tunisia. He is also the president of the Islamic-Christian Research Group. His interfaith work
centers on theological similarities between the faiths.
94
SCHOLARLY
EAST AFRICA
ETHIOPIA
idris, his eminence hajji omar
Omar Idris is a mufti and leader in Ethiopian Muslim politics. A proponent of Muslim unity, he
is the current chair of the Addis Ababa Majlis and also the chair of the Addis Ababa Ulema Unity
Forum.
UGANDA
mamdani, mahmood
Mamdani is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Departments of Anthropology
and Political Science at Columbia University in the United States. Mamdani is also the director of
Columbia’s Institute of African Studies. He is a former president of the Council for Development
of Social Research in Africa in Dakar, Senegal. He is well known for his recent book Good Muslim,
Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, which became significant in liberal
policy circles in US politics.
WEST AFRICA
BURKINA FASO
dokori, dr abu bakr
Abu Bakr Dokori is the president of the Islamic University of Ouagadougu. He is a major scholar
and advisor to the Republican President. Dokori is also Burkina Faso's representative to ISESCO.
He is one of the leading Muslim scholars in a country with around 7 million Muslims.
COTE D’IVOIRE (IVORY COAST)
damboli, sheikh mohammad
Mohammad Damboli is an Imam and one of the most prolific Islamic missionaries in the Ivory
Coast region.
GAMBIA
jah, his excellency ambassador prof. dr omar
Jah is an important figure in the Muslim community of Gambia and in Gambian scholarship on
Islam. Jah was the former Gambian ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He is now the secretary of the
Muslim Scholars Council, Gambia; and a professor of Islamic Civilization and Thought at the
University of Gambia where he is the dean of the humanities faculty.
SOUTHERN AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA
esack, prof. farid
Esack is a professor at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, but was formerly a visiting
professor at the Harvard Divinity School. He was active in the struggle against apartheid, forming
the Muslim group Call of Islam. After the end of apartheid rule in South Africa Nelson Mandela
appointed him to the position of Gender Equity Commissioner. In 1996, he wrote a seminal work
on Islamic liberation theology.