Early
religious conflict in Nigeria
Religious conflict in Nigeria goes as far back as 1953. The Igbo massacre of 1966
in the North that followed the counter-coup of
the same year had as a dual cause the Igbo officers' coup
and pre-existing (sectarian) tensions between the Igbos and the local Muslims.
This was a major factor in the Biafran secession and the resulting civil war.
Maitatsine
In the late 1970s and early 1980s,
there was a major Islamic uprising led by Maitatsine (Mohammed Marwa) and his followers, Yan Tatsine that led to several thousand deaths.
After Maitatsine's death in 1980, the movement continued some five years more.
In the same decade the erstwhile
military ruler of Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida enrolled Nigeria in the Organisation
of the Islamic Conference. This was a move which aggravated
religious tensions in the country, particularly among the Christian community.
In response, some in the Muslim community pointed out that certain other African member states have smaller
proportions of Muslims, as well as Nigeria's diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
Establishment
of Sharia
Since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999, Sharia has been instituted as a main body of civil and
criminal law in 9 Muslim-majority and in some parts of 3 Muslim-plurality
states, when then-Zamfara State
governor Ahmad Rufai Sani began
the push for the institution of Sharia at the state level of government. This
was followed by controversy as to the would-be legal status of the non-Muslims
in the Sharia system. A spate of Muslim-Christian riots soon emerged.
In the primarily Islamic northern
states of Nigeria, a variety of Muslim groups and populations exist, who favour
the nationwide introduction of Sharia Law. The demands of
these populations have been at least partially upheld by the Nigerian Federal
Government in 12 states, firstly in Zamfara State in 1999. The implementation
has been widely attributed as being due to the insistence of Zamfara State governor Ahmad Rufai Sani.
The death sentences of Amina Lawal and Safiya Hussaini attracted international attention
to what many saw as the harsh regime of these laws. These sentences were later
overturned; the first execution was carried out in 2002.
Blasphemy
and apostasy
Twelve out of Nigeria's thirty-six
states have Sunni Islam as the
dominant religion. In 1999, those states chose to have Sharia courts as well as
Customary courts. A Sharia court may treat blasphemy as deserving of several
punishments up to, and including, execution. In many predominantly Muslim
states, conversion from Islam to another religion is illegal and often a
capital offence.
Demographic
balance
According to a Nigerian study on demographics
and religion, Muslims make up 50.5% of the population. Muslims
mainly live in the north of the country; the majority of the Nigerian Muslims
are Sunnis. Christians
are the second-largest religious group and make up 48.2% of the population.
They predominate in the central and southern part of the country.
For reasons of avoiding political
controversy, questions of religion were forgone in the 2006 Nigerian census.
The Begging Issue
We all foresaw what was coming; but refused to do anything- hypocrisy and ignorance playing their part. Unfortunately enough, the daring consequence of our sheer negligence and myopia is the birth of the monster, Boko Haram.
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