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10/5/09

Muslim West Africa Topic For SLU Talk

CANTON - John Hanson, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow and associate professor of history at Indiana University, will give a talk titled "The Greater and Lesser Jihad in the History of Muslim West Africa" on Thursday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Hepburn Hall at St. Lawrence University.

The event, part of the Contemporary Issues Forum and also the annual CLR James Lecture in African Studies, is open to the public, free of charge.

While the term "jihad" is often defined as "holy war," it actually refers to a range of religious activities, from the "greater jihad" of non-violent spiritual efforts to the "lesser jihad" of military action in defense of Islam. In this talk, Hanson will review these perspectives and discuss the ways West African Muslims pursued "greater" and "lesser" jihads during the past 200 years, using examples from Senegal, Mali and Nigeria.

The Contemporary Issues Forum brings experts and participants in the making of news to campus throughout the academic year.

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