Nigeria, the most populous African country (with a population of over 182 million in 2015), is nearly equally divided between Christianity and Islam, though the exact ratio is uncertain. There is also a growing population of non-religious Nigerians who accounted for the remainingخمسة percent. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni and are concentrated in the northern region of the country, while Christians dominate in the south. The Pew Forum in a 2010 report compared reports from several sources. The 1963 Nigerian census found that 36% of the population was Christian, 38% Muslim, and 26% other; the 2008 MEASURE Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) found 53% Muslim, 45% Christian, and 2% other; the 2008 Afrobarometer poll found 50% Christian, 49% Muslim, and 1% other; Pew's own survey found 52% Muslim, 46% Christian, and 1% other.

Most of Nigeria's Christians are Protestant (broadly defined) though about a quarter are Catholic. From the 1990s to the 2000s, there was significant growth in Protestant churches, including the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Winners' Chapel, Christ Apostolic Church (the first Aladura Movement in Nigeria), Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Evangelical Church Winning All, Mountain of Fire and Miracles, Christ Embassy, The Synagogue Church Of All Nations, The CommonWealth Of Zion Assembly (COZA), the Aladura Church (indigenous Christian churches being especially strong in the Yoruba and Igbo areas), and of evangelical churches in general. These churches have spilled over into adjacent and southern areas of the middle belt. Denominations like the Seventh-day Adventist

الديانات الإبراهيمية

الإسلام

منطق رئيسي: الإسلام في نيجريا

Nigeria has one of the largest Muslim populations in West Africa, with under 56% of Nigeria's population being Muslim. Islam was introduced to northern Nigeria as early as the 11th century and was well established in the major capitals of the region by the 16th century, spreading into the countryside and toward the Middle Belt uplands. Shehu Usman dan Fodio established a government in Northern Nigeria based on Islam before the advent of Colonialism. The British Colonial Government therefore established indirect rule in Northern Nigeria based on the structure of this government. Islam also came to South Western Yoruba-speaking areas during the time of Mansa Musa's Mali Empire. The Yoruba colloquially referred to Islam as "Esin-Mali" or some will say "Esin-Mole", which means religion from Mali.

السنة

The vast majority of Muslims in Nigeria are Sunni belonging to Maliki school of jurisprudence; however, a sizeable minority also belongs to Shafi madhhab. A large number of Sunni Muslims are members of Sufi brotherhoods. Most Sufis follow the Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah and/or Mouride movement. Nigerian Islam has become heterogenous with the springing up of many Islamic sects. Notable examples are the Izala movement, the Shia movement, and many local Islamic sects that have limited expansion.

الشيعة

The Shia Muslims of Nigeria are primarily located in the Sokoto State. Shia Muslims make up between two and four million of Nigeria's population.Ibrahim Zakzaky introduced many Nigerians to Shia Islam.

الصوفية

Some Nigerian Muslims emphasize asceticism and mysticism and usually form groups called "tariqas", "Sufi orders" or "Sufi brotherhoods". These Sufis mix Islam with music and dancing. Most Sufis follow the Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah and/or Mouride movement.

الأحمدية

The Ahmadiyya movement established itself in Nigeria in 1916, and make up approximately 3% of the Muslim population. There are numerous Ahmadiyya centres in Nigeria including the Baitur-Raheem Mosque in Ibadan inaugurated in 2008, the Mubarak Mosque in Abuja, which is the last Ahmadiyya mosque, built in the first century of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate. Ahmadiyyas have also established a weekly newspaper called "The Truth" which is the first Muslim newspaper in the country.

القرآنيون

The Kalo Kato are a Nigerian group of Quranists. Their name means "a mere man said it" referring to Muhammad. The Kalo Kato rely entirely on the Quran and they are found among poor communities across northern Nigeria.

بوكوحرام ودار الإسلام

Islam in Nigeria has witnessed a rise in the numbers of radical Islamic sects notably among them, the Boko Haram, Maitatsine, Darul Islam among others.

These sects have sometimes resorted to the use of violence in a bid to realizing their ambitions on the wider Islamic and Nigerian populations as a whole.

The rise of this radical movements has been attributed partly to the poor socio economic infrastructures and poor governance in Nigeria.Poverty has been seen as the major catalyst leading to the rapid increase in the membership of these religious extremist groups. The rise of these sects has also been linked to the increase and aiding of religious extremist by politicians for their selfish ambitions.

During the 1980s religious riots occurred in and around the five cities of Kano in 1980, Kaduna in 1982, Bulum-Ketu in 1982, Jimeta in 1984 and Gombe in 1985. These riots were caused by the migration of the rural poor into urban towns during the dry seasons. An offshoot of Islam called the ‘Yan Tatsine’ violently rebelled against the authorities and non-members. These radical Muslims were inspired by Alhaji Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine. He was a Cameroon preacher who slated the government, something which lead to his arrest in Nigeria in 1975, yet by 1972 many people followed him across society, ranging from the elite to Koranic students called almajiral or gardawa and unemployed migrants. Maitatsine and his followers became separate from orthodox Islam, condemning the corruption of the religious and secular elites and the wealthy upper classes’ consumption of Western goods during the petrol boom in 1974-81. The Boko Haram movement has been connected to the Maitatsine movement. They want to implement sharia law across the whole of Nigeria.

البهائية

منطق رئيسي: Bahá'í Faith in Nigeria

After an isolated presence in the late 1920s, the Bahá'í Faith in Nigeria begins with pioneering Bahá'ís coming to Sub-Saharan West Africa in the 1950s especially following the efforts of Enoch Olinga who directly and indirectly affected the growth of the religion in Nigeria. Following growth across West Africa a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1956. As the community multiplied across cities and became diverse in its engagements it elected its own National Spiritual Assembly by 1979 and Operation World estimated 1000 Bahá'ís in 2001 though the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying mostly on the World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 34,000 Bahá'ís in 2005.

المسيحية

نطقب:Denominations of Nigeria

المعتقدات التقليدية

Alongside the main religious sect is the traditional belief system that without contradicting civil law manages to also govern ethics and morality amongst much of the population.

الديانة التقليدية بين اليوروبا

منطق رئيسي: Yoruba religion

In the city-states of Yorubaland and its neighbors, a more reserved way of life remains, one that expresses a theology that links local beliefs to a central citadel government and its sovereignty over a hinterland of communities through the monarch. The seat of the king (oba) is responsible for the welfare of its jurisdiction, in return for confirmation of the legitimacy of the oba's rule over his subjects.

الممارسات

In addition to ensuring access to, and the continual fertility of, both land and people, seasonal carnivals act as a spectacle for "tourism" contributing to regional productivity.

"Society in general has more gradually and selectively expanded to accommodate new influences, it is fairly certain that they will continue to assert their distinctive cultural identity in creative and often ingenious ways".

Inter-religious conflict

In the 1980s, serious outbreaks between Christians and Muslims occurred in Kafanchan in southern Kaduna State in a border area between the two religions, propagated by extreme leaders who were able to rally a young, educated group of individuals who feared that the nation would not be able to protect their religious group. The leaders were able to polarize their followers through speeches and public demonstrations.

The activities of some of these sects has in recent times led to the loss of lives and properties as they move about destroying government facilities which they see as legacies or replica of western cultures in their various communities. These religious campaigns have seen an increase in gun battles between the members of these sects and security forces with loss of lives witnessed on both sides. Although direct conflicts between Christians and Muslims were rare, tensions did flare between the two groups as each group radicalised. There were clashes in October 1982 when Muslim zealots in Kano were able to enforce their power in order to keep the Anglican House Church from expanding its size and power base as they saw it as a threat to the nearby Mosque, even though the Anglican House Church had been there forty years prior to the building of the Mosque. Additionally, there were two student groups in Nigeria who came into contestation, the Fellowship of Christian Students and the Muslim Student Society. In one instance there was an evangelical campaign organised by the FCS and brought into question why one sect should dominate the campus of the Kafanchan college of education. This quarrel accelerated to the point where the Muslim students organised protests around the city and culminated in the burning of a Mosque at the college. The Christian majority at the college retaliated on Marchتسعة when twelve people died and several Mosques were burnt and a climate of fear brews. The retaliation was pre-planned.

Exploitation of the media used to propagate the ideas of the conflict, thereby radicalising each force even more. Media was biased on each side so while places like the federal radio corporation discussed the idea of defending Islam during this brief moment of terror but does not report the deaths and damage caused by Muslims, galvanising the Muslim population. Similarly, the Christian papers did not report the damage and deaths caused by Christians but focused on the Islamic terror. Other individuals leading these religious movements use the media to spread messages which gradually became more intolerant of other religions and because of these religious divisions radical Islam continues to be a problem in Nigeria today.

Recently, there has been an upsurge in attacks targeting Christians in northern Nigeria, culminating in the Christmas Day massacre at a catholic church near the Federal Capital Territory. The radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the bomb blast.

"أسلمة نيجريا"

الاتحاد المسيحي النيجيري يطالب نائب رئيس نيجريا، يمي أوسنباجو(القس)، بالكف عن تشويه سمعة الاتحاد لإشعال الفتنة الطائفية بين المسلمين والمسيحيين، وذلك لخطب ود الرئيس محمد بخاري، الذي يفوض الدكتور أوسنباجولينوب عنه في الرئاسة لمعظم فترة رئاسة بخاري. الانتقاد اتى بعد تصريح أوسنباجوأنه "لا يوجد جهد لأسلمة نيجريا، ولا أحد يستطيع ذلك." وهوما يدحض الانادىء الرئيسي للاتحاد المسيحي.

في خلال العشر سنوات الماضية، يشكوالمسيحيون اليوروبا في القطاع الأوسط من نيجيريا من تحول أكثر من نصف مليون مسيحي إلى الإسلام. بينما يشكوالمسلمون في الشمال من تحول ما يزيد عن 2 مليون مسلم إلى المسيحية. ومنظمة "بوكوحرام" هي ردة عمل لجهود التبشير في الشمال الإسلامي، حيث حتى حدثة "بوكو" تشير إلى كلٍ من "الكتاب المقدس المسيحي" و"الكتاب الغربي" عموماً. وكانت أبرز عمليات بوكوحرام هي خطف 200 تلميذة من عائلات حديثة التنصر في بلدة تشيبوك، وتزويجهن من مسلمين.

الإلحاد

اللادين

منطق رئيسي: Irreligion in Nigeria

ديانات أخرى

الهندوسية

منطق رئيسي: Hinduism in Nigeria

Hinduism spread to Nigeria mainly by immigration of Hindus from India and of Hare Krishna Missionaries. Many Nigerians have converted to Hinduism mainly due to efforts of ISKCON Missionaries. ISKCON has inaugurated the Vedic Welfare Complex in Apapa.

Altogether including Nigerians of Indian origin and NRIs there are 25,000 Hindus in Nigeria. Most of them live in Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria

Chrislam

منطق رئيسي: Chrislam (Yoruba)

Chrislam is a blend of Christianity and Islam that takes practices from both the Bible and the Quran. It hopes to quell religious feuds among Nigerians.

The Grail Movement

منطق رئيسي: Grail Movement

Nigeria has become an African hub for Grail Movement, inspired by the work of Abd-ru-shin, principally In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message.

The Reformed Ogboni Fraternity

A fraternity incorporating references and insignia from the original Ogboni, is based on ancient rites, usages and customs. Established in 1914 by the Ven. Archdeacon T. A. J. Ogunbiyi. Membership is open to all adults who embrace a non-idolatrous faith in God. The fraternity is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. In 1996 it had about 710 conclaves/Lodges or Iledi in Nigeria and overseas.

انظر أيضاً

الهامش

This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.