The Challenges of Islamization of Knowledge in Nigerian Islamic Universities

A sort of revolution seems to have occurred in the education sector of the Muslim world consequent upon the First World Conference on Muslim Education held at Makkah in 1977, followed by others in different parts of the Muslim world. Part of the successes of these conferences was the establishment of international Islamic universities in some countries, as well as proliferation of intellectual institutions and organizations championing the course of Islamization of knowledge programme. In Nigeria, since 1999 at least four private Islamic universities have received licences of operation. Muslim owned universities tend to pursue the Islamization of knowledge programme rigorously. Nevertheless, certain stumbling blocks seem to have made this a mirage. This paper therefore intends to expose some of the stumbling blocks against the implementation of the Islamization of knowledge programme in Nigerian Islamic universities. To do justice to this, visitations were paid to the concerned institutions in Nigeria while libraries were consulted to have insight into the programme at international levels. Among the challenges encountered are: lack of a universally accepted model of Islamization; shortage of staff who are capable of doing Islamization; problems with funding the Islamization programme; many students not being interested in Islamization; and challenges related to the language of instruction. Based on our findings, some suggestions were made to facilitate effective implementation of the programme in the institutions that are believed to be fertile land for the development and execution of the Islamization of knowledge programme.