2018 CONFERENCE ON ISLAM IN NIGERIA

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    Theocracy and the Modern Nation-State: A Muslim Perspective (Download)

    Author(s):
    Prof. Is-haq Akintola, , +2348182119714 +2348033464974 +2348182119714

    Abstract: Mankind has been coming together from time immemorial. The basis has often been the need to benefit from communal living. Little hamlets grew into villages. The latter developed into cities or city-states which later grew into nations or nation states through the coming together of various nationalities. However, little consideration is given to the issue of religion in most cases. This informs the paucity of theocratic states in the world. Paradoxically, this absence of the divine correlate may have been responsible for the disintegration of several nation-states. But what is the Muslim perspective of theocracy and the modern nation state? How viable is the Islamic system of government as enunciated in Islamic political thought? Is the Muslim world witnessing a post mortem of the khilafah particularly in view of post-Ottoman lacunae? In other words, is the khilafah dead? What bulwarks does Islam provide against the emergence of the failed state phenomenon? These and other questions are what this keynote address seeks to answer.