THE 500 MOST INFLUENTIAL MUSLIMS - CESD

Scholarlyof the highest authorities on Islamic scholarship for South Africa’s large and affluent Muslimpopulation.East AfricaETHIOPIAidris, his eminence hajji omarOmar Idris is a mufti and leader in Ethiopian Muslim politics. A proponent of Muslim unity, heis the current chair of the Addis Ababa Majlis and also the chair of the Addis Ababa Ulema UnityForum.KENYAmazrui, dr ali al’amin [new]Dr Mazrui is a prominent scholar of African and Islamic studies and an outspoken commentatoron Islam. Noted for his stance on the applicability of sharia law within a democratic system andhis denunciations of violence in the name of religion, he is a widely-respected academic. A prolificwriter, Dr Mazrui is an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of theInstitute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton.UGANDAmamdani, mahmoodMamdani is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Departments of Anthropologyand Political Science at Columbia University in the United States. Mamdani is also the director ofColumbia’s Institute of African Studies. He is a former president of the Council for Developmentof Social Research in Africa in Dakar, Senegal. Mamdani is well-known for his book Good Muslim,Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, which became significant in liberalpolicy circles in the US.West AfricaBURKINA FASOdokori, dr abu bakrAbu Bakr Dokori is the president of the Islamic University of Ouagadougu. He is a major scholarand advisor to the president. Dokori is also Burkina Faso’s representative to ISESCO. He is one ofthe leading Muslim scholars in a country with around 8 million Muslims.GAMBIAjah, his excellency ambassador prof. dr omarJah is an important figure in the Muslim community of Gambia and in Gambian scholarship onIslam. Jah was the former Gambian ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He is now the secretary of theMuslim Scholars Council, Gambia, and a professor of Islamic Civilization and Thought at theUniversity of Gambia where he is the dean of the humanities faculty.NIGERIAahmed, dr ibrahim datti [new]Dr Ibrahim Datti Ahmed is the president-general of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria(SCSN). The SCSN is the focal Islamic religious institution that deals with sharia in Nigeria, and isalso a representative body of Nigeria’s Muslim scholars. Recently, the SCSN has petitioned for fairtreatment of Muslim military officers and has spoken out against prejudice and violence againstMuslims, especially in light of the violent clashes between Christians and Muslims near the city ofJos in January 2010.100