Islam and Christianity in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan

Can Christianity and Islam coexist? Or are Muslims and Christians destined to delegitimize and even demonize each other? Tracing the modern history of the region where the two religions first met, and where they are engaged now in active confrontation, Haggai Erlich finds legacies of both tolerance and militancy. Erlich's analysis of political, military, and diplomatic developments in the Horn of Africa since the late nineteenth century is combined with an exploration of the ways in which religious formulations of the nearby "other" influenced policymaking and were also reshaped by it. His work demonstrates in a compelling way how initial Islamic and Christian concepts remain directly relevant in the region today.