Center for Global Islamic Studies

Abstract: The talk is about how Sunni ulama initially put aside their theological differences to start a sharia censorship project against the emerging local Muslim cinema in northern Nigeria, and how they subsequently imported their ideological contestations into it. The objective is not only to show how the actors differently respond to, adapt, and contest new media-driven changes, but also how ‘Islam’ and Muslims are shaped and reshaped by the media.

Musa (Abba) Ibrahim is a postdoctoral research fellow for the “Islam in Africa in Global Context” project, which is funded through a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Initiative on Religion in International Affairs. He is jointly hosted by the UF Center for African Studies and The UF Center for Global Islamic Studies. Ibrahim specializes in Islam and media and writes about Kannywood, northern Nigeria’s film industry, sharia, and censorship, as well about Islam and media in Ghana. He also writes about Boko Haram. Ibrahim acquired his Ph.D. at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, and his MA at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.