ABSTRACT

Muslims are equally included in the new global horizon where technology has shaped the landscape. The crucial test for Muslims, according to Locke, was whether they, too, would abjure the judicial and political weapon in religious life and accept that "nobody ought to be compelled in matters of religion either by law or force." The late Ayatullah Khumayni of Iran once complained that Muslims have been robbed of their heritage through the connivance of the West. A similar consideration has led many other Muslims to question whether even under Islamic territoriality it is wise to employ force and coercion to propagate religion. The attempt was made many times in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to create theocratic governments in Muslim West Africa, and each time it failed from the prevailing unfavorable qui-etist climate of opinion.