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.

Characterization of Bipartite Begomoviruses from Cotton and Evaluation of Transgenic Plants for Broad-Spectrum Resistance Against Begomoviruses

Cotton leaf curl disease (CLCuD) is the major biotic constraint to cotton production on the Indian subcontinent, and is caused by monopartite begomoviruses accompanied by a specific DNA satellite, Cotton leaf curl Multan betasatellite (CLCuMB). Since the breakdown of resistance against CLCuD in 2001/2002, only one virus, the “Burewala” strain of Cotton leaf curl Kokhran virus (CLCuKoV-Bur), and a recombinant form of CLCuMB have consistently been identified in cotton across the major cotton growing areas of Pakistan. Unusually a bipartite isolate of the begomovirus Tomato leaf curl virus was identified in CLCuD-affected cotton recently. In the study described here we isolated the bipartite begomovirus Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) from CLCuD-affected cotton. To assess the frequency and geographic occurrence of ToLCNDV in cotton, CLCuD-symptomatic cotton plants were collected from across the Punjab and Sindh provinces between 2013 and 2015. Analysis of the plants by diagnostic PCR showed the presence of CLCuKoV-Bur in all 31 plants examined and ToLCNDV in 20 of the samples. Additionally, a quantitative real-time PCR analysis of the levels of the two viruses in co-infected plants suggests that coinfection of ToLCNDV with the CLCuKoV-Bur/CLCuMB complex leads to an increase in the levels of CLCuMB, which encodes the major pathogenicity (symptom) determinant of the complex. A recently developed genome engineering platform, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat / CRISPR associated9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system, was evaluated to engineer broad-spectrum begomovirus resistance. The results indicated that CRISPR/Cas system can be efficiently used to target CLCuKoV and also to engineer broad-spectrum resistance. Plants expressing AZP-G5-GroEL were also evaluated for the confirmation of transgenes. The significance of these results are discussed.