¹ In African conditions, what is a “Muslim country”? The first thing to be noted is that a Muslim country need not be an “Islamic state”. The latter is a country which proclaims Islam as a state religion. An African example of such a state is Mauritania. A Muslim country, however, need not have a state religion. It is “Muslim” only by reference to census figures. We can therefore see that while all Islamic states in the world are Muslim countries by virtue of population, not all Muslim countries are Islamic states. But need a country have a majority of Muslims before we can describe it as a Muslim country? This would be our normal criterion in this paper. Yet African conditions are such that we should perhaps look not for an over-all majority of Muslims but for a clear preponderance of Muslims over Christians. The largest single group might still consist of animists. But if we are sure that there are significantly more Muslims than Christians in a particular country and that there is a diffuse Neo-Islamic culture generally, we might, for certain purposes, regard that country as primarily “Muslim”.

² There is, incidentally, another Muslim country which did not have to break off relations with Britain on December IS for the simple reason that she had broken them off earlier — for different reasons. This additional Muslim country was Somalia.

³ “The Islamic Factor in African Politics”, Orbis, VIII, No. 2 (Summer 1964), pp. 425–426Google Scholar.

⁴ For a recent critical look at this school of thought see LaPalombara, Joseph, “Decline of Ideology: A Dissent and an Interpretation”, The American Political Science Review, LX, No. 1 (March 1966), pp. 5–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Seymour Martin Lipset's comment on LaPalombara in the same issue, pp. 17–18.

⁵ See Berkes, Niyazi, The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal, McGill University Press, 1964), esp. pp. 253–324Google Scholar; Ahmed, J. M., The Intellectual Origins of Egyptian Nationalism (London, Oxford University Press, 1960), pp. 85–112Google Scholar; Hourani, Albert, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (London, Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 170–181Google Scholar and 245–259; Adams, Charles C., Islam and Modernism in Egypt (London, Oxford University Press, 1933Google Scholar); and Gibb, H. A. R., Modern Trends in Islam (Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1947CrossRefGoogle Scholar). For stimulation and research suggestions, I am grateful to Abu-Lughod, Dr. Ibrahim personally and to his paper “Retreat from the Secular Path? Islamic Dilemmas of Arab Politics”, Review of Politics, Vol. 28, No. 4 (October 1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ Blyden, , Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (London, 1888), p. 26Google Scholar.

⁷ The Review went on to add “It is a reform which has chained down every nation which has accepted it at a certain stage of moral and political growth.” See Ibid., pp. 26–27.

⁸ Lewis, Bernard, “Communism and Islam” in Laqueur, Walter Z. (ed.), The Middle East in Transition (New York, Frederick A. Praeger, 1958), p. 318Google Scholar.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Ibid., p. 323

¹¹ Dike, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830–1885 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956), p. 5Google Scholar.

¹² The quotation is from Sangharakshita, Bhikku, A Survey of Buddhism (Bangalore, India, Institute of World Culture, 1957), pp. 52–53Google Scholar. Cited by Wichmann, Arthur A., “Buddhism, Economic Development, and Neutralism in Burma”, The Southern Social Science Quarterly, 46, No. 1 (June 1965), p. 23Google Scholar. For the effect of Hinduism on social change outside India see Jayawardena, Chandra, “Religious Belief and Social Change: Aspects of the Development of Hinduism in British Guiana”, CSSH, VIII, No. 2 (January 1966), pp. 211–240Google Scholar. For a collection of recent studies on the relevance of religious beliefs for modernization in Asia consult Bellah, Robert N. (ed.), Religion and Progress in Modern Asia (New York, Free Press, 1965Google Scholar). Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism as well as Islam are discussed in relation to problems of modernization.

¹³ Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans, by Parsons, Talcott, (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958), p. 81Google Scholar.

¹⁴ See Sir Mitchell, Philip, African Afterthoughts (London, Hutchinson, 1954), p. 144Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Ibid., p. 142.

¹⁶ See Hodgkin's, article in Manchester Guardian, November 28, 1956Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Gellner, Ernest, “Tribalism and Social Change in North Africa”, in Lewis, William H. (ed.), French-Speaking Africa, The Search for Identity (New York, Walker and Company, 1965), pp. 117–118Google Scholar.

¹⁸ For a contrary view to Gellner's about collectivism in North Africa see Gallagher, Charles F., The United States and North Africa (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1963), p. 17CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Of the Berbers Gallagher says: “A collective mode of life is common”. Gellner was disputing precisely this view.

¹⁹ See her Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1964), p. 258Google Scholar.

²⁰ Ibid., pp. 264–265; 263. Dr. Morgenthau has Mali specially in mind, but seems to find much of this assessment generalisable to some extent.

²¹ “Changing Cultures and New Loyalties in North Africa”, in William H. Lewis, French-Speaking Africa, op. cit., p. 98.

²² Ibid., p. 97.

²³ This particular formulation is by Nabih Amin Faris, “The Islamic Community and Communism”, in The Middle East in Transition, op. cit., p. 356.

²⁴ This is a statement from Hasan al-Banna in Al-Ikhwan al-MusIimun, p. 79. Cited by Nabih Amin Faris, ibid.

²⁵ For an analysis of some of the implications of this last point see Heubel, J. H., “Church and State in England: the Price of Establishment”, The Western Political Quarterly, XVIII, No. 3 (September 1965), pp. 646–655Google Scholar. Consult also The Free Church Federal Council, Commission on Church and State, The Free Churches and the State (London, 1953Google Scholar), and Garbett, Cyril, Church and State in England (London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1950)Google Scholar. On India, see Smith, Donald E., India as a Secular State (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1963CrossRefGoogle Scholar) and Flint, John F., “India as Secularizing State”, CSSH, VII, No. 2 (January 1965), pp. 133–165Google Scholar.

²⁶ See Martin A. Klein, “The Relevance of African History: A Case Study from Senegal”, mimeographed paper delivered at the 1965 annual meeting of the African Studies Association of the United States, at Philadelphia, October 28,1965. Klein says: “Islam has long been the dominant religion. It today commands the loyalties of over 80 per cent of Senegal's people and probably has a majority of all the major ethnic groups.” p. 2.

²⁷ Crowder, , Senegal, A Study of French Assimilation Policy (London, Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 86Google Scholar. This does not mean that there has been a complete absence of suspicion between Muslims and Christians either in Senegal or Tanzania. Disaffection with the existing regimes has sometimes been expressed in religious terms. The triumph of the Catholic Senghor over the Muslim Dia has on occasion been resented on semi-religious grounds. And the government of Tanzania has also been on the alert against the possibility of religious rivalry in politics. See, for example, Tanganyika Standard (Dar es Salaam), September 20, 1963Google Scholar; East African Standard (Nairobi), October 15 and 18, 1963Google Scholar; the Sunday Nation (Nairobi), October 20, 1963Google Scholar. But the basic climate of religious tolerance is still present in both Senegal and Tanzania.

²⁸ Op. cit., p. 5. On the interaction between Islam and nationalist ideas in East Africa see Watt, W. Montgomery, “The Political Relevance of Islam in East Africa”, International Affairs (London), Vol. 42, No. 1, January 1966, pp. 35–44Google Scholar.

²⁹ Engels, , “On the History of Early Christianity”, f.n. See Marx and Engels on Religion, with an Introduction by Niebuhr, Reinhold (New York, Schocken Books, 1964), p. 317Google Scholar.

³⁰ See Lofchie, , Zanzibar: Background to Revolution (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1965), pp. 270–271Google Scholar.

³¹ See al-Tiqtaqa, Ibn, Fakhri, ed. Ahlwardt, (Gotha, 1860), pp. 33 and 39Google Scholar.

³² Levy, Reuben, The Social Structure of Islam (Cambridge University Press, 1962), p. 54Google Scholar.

³³ Levy points out that Muhammad soon proclaimed that birth counted for nothing and that zeal for the faith was the only criterion of honour. As the Qur'an put it, “O ye folk, verily we have created you of male and female… Verily the most honourable of you in the sight of God is the most pious of you.” See Levy, Ibid., pp. 54–55.

³⁴ For a brief but penetrating discussion of the coming of communism in the Middle East, and its interaction with Islamic reformism, see Batatu, John, “Some Preliminary Observations on the Coming of Communism in the Arab East” in Islam and Communism, Proceedings of a Conference sponsored by the Institute for the study of the USSR at the Carnegie International Center (New York, June 25, 1960), pp. 46–69Google Scholar.

³⁵ Weber, Max, The Sociology of Religion, trans, by Fischoff, Ephraim with an introduction by Parsons, Talcott (Boston, Beacon Press, 1964), p. 264Google Scholar.

³⁶ Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa, op. cit., p. 96. But Dr. Morgenthau warns against taking this generalization “too far”.