Revising Islamic Studies Courses for Improving Cordial Interfaith Relations in Nigeria: A Case Study of Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina, Nigeria

Nigeria has been, for the last four decades, struggling with the menace of inter-religious hostilities between Christians and Muslims who formed the largest religious groups in the country. Numerous policies and programs brokered by various Governments and non-Governmental organizations to curtail the situation failed to yield the desired result. Islamic studies as one of the widely offered programs in the Nigerian universities has the prospect of offering solution to the predicament. However, the courses taught in the program are mainly studies on the Qur’an, Hadith, Tauhid, Ibadat, Fiqh, Islamic civilization, thought and history without single course on interfaith relations. Taking Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina (UMYUK)-Nigeria, as a study case, this paper attempts to draft and propose the inclusion of interfaith relations courses in the curriculum of Islamic Studies programs at the university level in Nigeria for realization of peaceful coexistence in the country. The researcher uses primary data from the Qur’an and sunnah as well as secondary data from different sources. The paper employs exegetical methods and adopts content analysis in the process of conducting the research. The article recommends merging of duplicated courses in the existing curriculum and inclusion of the proposed courses by the Nigerian universities and other institutions of higher learning that offer various Islamic studies programs for the attainment of peaceful interfaith relations in the country.

Combinatorial Design, Synthesis, Bioevaluation and Sar Studies on Some Small Drug‐Like Molecular Libraries

A combinatorial synthesis of small libraries of a variety of amino chalcones has been carried out in solution phase under standard Claisen Schmidt conditions. The compounds were tested for their potential as antibacterial and cytotoxic agents as well as phosphatase inhibitors and the leads were identified in each bioassay. Chalcone 7 was found to have strongest potential as cytotoxic agent, while chalcone 11 be the most potent PGM inhibitory agent. Parallel synthesis of a 120 member chalcone library was carried out as mixture synthesis following the positional scanning protocol. The identification of lead in this library was carried out by deconvulution and chalcones 22 and 41 were found to be the most potential candidates to be developed as antibacterial agents. Following the same strategy of mixture synthesis, another 175 member chalcones library was synthesized and most potent anticancer chalcones 31, 61 and 78 were identified by deconvolution through position scanning protocol. Peptidyl α,β- unsaturated ketones were synthesized as novel bis- electrophiles susceptible for 3+2 and 3+4 annulations. As a result, peptidyl oxazoles, pyrazolines, pyrazoles, benzothiazepines and benzodiazepines were synthesized. Potent antidiabetic chalcones were docked into the PGM active site and a rationale was found for greater antidiabetic activity of chalcones over the other. Rational design and synthesis of some cytotoxic chalcones was based on 3DQSAR studies using CoMFA as a tool. 3DQSAR studies were also carried out on a library of 30 chalcones as potential antitumor agents.