Nigeria : Islam in Nigeria

[Sekhemu]

"Their long-term strategy is apparent from the opening communique of the Islam in Africa Organization, (IAO) founded at a conference in Abjua in Northern Nigeria in November 1989. It insists on "re-instateing a strong and united umma' (Islamic Community in Africa and on "restoring the use of Arabic script in the vernacular."

Hmmm, is this a democracy or a theocracy, in Nigeria no less? what do you say to this Dual?

"THe conference notes the yearning of Moslems everywhere onthe continent who have been depraved of their rights to be governed by the Sharia and urges them to INTENSIFY efforts in the struggle to reinstate the application of the sharia."

Sounds like a religious campaign to me.

The implication is that once there had been an umma in Africa, within which the local languages were written in Arabic lettering, and that Africans were under sharia. This is not true; it is fantasy history. The conference also demanded "the appointment of ONLY MOSLEMS into strategic national and international posts of member nations." It pledged.

WOW! that's mighty white of them.

"To eradicate in all its forms and ramifications all NON-MOSLEM religions in member nations (such religions shall include Christianity, Ahmadiyya and other tribal modes of worship unacceptable to Moslems) Talk about religious chauvanism uke2:

The members pledged to pursue those objectives not only in Islamic states, but also in those with Moslem minorities. The IAO had huge funds at its disposal from the very first day, including $21 billion which was "generously donated by the goverment and people of Nigeria' for the Islamic Fund.

To say the least, measures like this will potentially precipitate civil war, and guess who will reap the spoils of war? Arabs and Europeans

 

[Aqil]

How come it is forbidden to practice ATR's in Saudi Arabia?

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Saudi Arabia bans "all forms of public religious expression other than that of the government's own interpretation of one school of Sunni Islam."

http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewForeign...gnBureaus\\archive\\200505\\FOR20050519b.html

Islam's Response to African Traditional Religion in Nigeria

The history of Islam in Nigeria has examples of a wide range of interaction with African traditional belief systems and practices. At certain times, particularly when Muslims constituted a minority, a pluralist response to other cultures and religions occurred. Muslims took the view that different forms of primal religion could exist side by side with them in the same society. Coupled with this was the recognition that the social and political structure of the wider society could be accommodated. Individual Muslims and whole communities throughout Nigeria have incorporated into Islam to varying degrees different aspects of traditional life.

In as much as the primal religions of Nigeria are, by definition, not world religions with mission and expansion as goals, they are not competitors with Islam or Christianity. On the other hand, their tenacity and the resilience of their traditional ritual and spiritual life pose a challenge to a religion like Islam, with holistic demands on its adherents. The elimination of "pagan practices" has therefore been a theme of Muslim renewal as much as the theme of early mission diaries. It has been the remarkable ideological achievement of Islam in Nigeria to present itself convincingly as more essentially "African," despite a history of repudiation - sometimes militant - of many aspects of African cultures.

As a universal religion, Islam has confronted indigenous religious systems whose "solutions" to problems of explanation, social structure, and fertility have often appeared more effective to the local community. The relevance and immediacy of masked cults and the figurative art of shrines, which at least in theory Islam rejects, have clearly not diminished under the impact of Muslim practice. Indigenous religious systems, embedded in particular social formations and economic activities, have therefore rarely been eliminated in contact with Islam. The process of Islamization has more often produced creative adaptations of traditional categories (the Bori cult in northern Nigeria is an example), or wider socio-economic changes have more abruptly destroyed the cultural nexus in which forms of primal religion thrived. In the latter case Islam is often the beneficiary, but rarely the sole cause.

Islam does not, of course, reject as false every aspect of belief and practice found in indigenous religions...it accepts a spirit world, and the Holy Qur'an sanctions the belief in mystical powers. In consequence, it has been able to accommodate itself to many of the spirit forces found within the primal religions of West Africa. Moreover, a number of other important traditional practices, like divination, or magic accepted as sihr, are with qualification and modification recognized by Islam as legitimate. Practioners of divination and experts on traditional spiritual categories bridge the gap between Islam and primal religions burring the edges of Muslim orthopraxis to create a form of popular religion. In this huge penumbra, malams and teachers are able to refine popular understanding of Islam in a progressive process of Islamization.

The complexity of this process and the capacity of individuals to practice a type of personal religious pluralism is inevitably denied in Muslim discourse, which tends toward normative assertions. Thus most Nigerian Muslims would want to stress that they...have a "right" and a duty to convert "pagans" from primal religions to the universal religion. Furthermore, the Qur'an gives a collective obligation (Surah At-Taubah, ayah 5) to the Muslim community to wage holy war - jihad against polytheists and unbelievers in order to subject them to Muslim rule.

(Excerpted from P.B. Clark & I. Linden, Islam in Modern Nigeria, (Munchen, 1984), pp.138-149.)

 

[Omowale Jabali]

"Furthermore, the Qir'an gives a collective obligation (Surah At-Taubah,ayah 5) to the Muslim community to wage holy war- jihad against polytheists and unbelievers in order to subject them to Muslim rule."


This is exactly why Nigeria one day may find itself involved in another civil war which may be far bloodier than the tragedy of Biafra.

 

[Aqil]

"But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful."
(Surah At-Taubah, ayah 5)

 

[Sekhemu]

According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Saudi Arabia bans "all forms of public religious expression other than that of the government's own interpretation of one school of Sunni Islam."

http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewForeign...gnBureaus\\archive\\200505\\FOR20050519b.html

Islam's Response to African Traditional Religion in Nigeria

The history of Islam in Nigeria has examples of a wide range of interaction with African traditional belief systems and practices. At certain times, particularly when Muslims constituted a minority, a pluralist response to other cultures and religions occurred. Muslims took the view that different forms of primal religion could exist side by side with them in the same society. Coupled with this was the recognition that the social and political structure of the wider society could be accommodated. Individual Muslims and whole communities throughout Nigeria have incorporated into Islam to varying degrees different aspects of traditional life.

In as much as the primal religions of Nigeria are, by definition, not world religions with mission and expansion as goals, they are not competitors with Islam or Christianity. On the other hand, their tenacity and the resilience of their traditional ritual and spiritual life pose a challenge to a religion like Islam, with holistic demands on its adherents. The elimination of "pagan practices" has therefore been a theme of Muslim renewal as much as the theme of early mission diaries. It has been the remarkable ideological achievement of Islam in Nigeria to present itself convincingly as more essentially "African," despite a history of repudiation - sometimes militant - of many aspects of African cultures.

As a universal religion, Islam has confronted indigenous religious systems whose "solutions" to problems of explanation, social structure, and fertility have often appeared more effective to the local community. The relevance and immediacy of masked cults and the figurative art of shrines, which at least in theory Islam rejects, have clearly not diminished under the impact of Muslim practice. Indigenous religious systems, embedded in particular social formations and economic activities, have therefore rarely been eliminated in contact with Islam. The process of Islamization has more often produced creative adaptations of traditional categories (the Bori cult in northern Nigeria is an example), or wider socio-economic changes have more abruptly destroyed the cultural nexus in which forms of primal religion thrived. In the latter case Islam is often the beneficiary, but rarely the sole cause.

Islam does not, of course, reject as false every aspect of belief and practice found in indigenous religions...it accepts a spirit world, and the Holy Qur'an sanctions the belief in mystical powers. In consequence, it has been able to accommodate itself to many of the spirit forces found within the primal religions of West Africa. Moreover, a number of other important traditional practices, like divination, or magic accepted as sihr, are with qualification and modification recognized by Islam as legitimate. Practioners of divination and experts on traditional spiritual categories bridge the gap between Islam and primal religions burring the edges of Muslim orthopraxis to create a form of popular religion. In this huge penumbra, malams and teachers are able to refine popular understanding of Islam in a progressive process of Islamization.

The complexity of this process and the capacity of individuals to practice a type of personal religious pluralism is inevitably denied in Muslim discourse, which tends toward normative assertions. Thus most Nigerian Muslims would want to stress that they...have a "right" and a duty to convert "pagans" from primal religions to the universal religion. Furthermore, the Qur'an gives a collective obligation (Surah At-Taubah, ayah 5) to the Muslim community to wage holy war - jihad against polytheists and unbelievers in order to subject them to Muslim rule.

(Excerpted from P.B. Clark & I. Linden, Islam in Modern Nigeria, (Munchen, 1984), pp.138-149.)

This is an excellent article brotha Aqil

Peace