Nigeria is home to the largest Muslims population in Africa, where in a 2007 census showed that Nigeria has a population of approximately 148 million people; 50% of which are Muslims, the rest are Catholic Christians and of Indigenous beliefs.
Muslims in Nigeria
Muslims live throughout the country. However, the highest population of Muslims tend to center in Central and northern Nigeria, and the lowest Muslims population tend to be in southern Nigeria. This is perhaps natural because Islam spread in western Africa from northern Arab countries. Therefore, because Muslim merchants traded mostly with the northern part of the country, due to its close proximity, the southern part of the country was left for Christian missionaries coming in from the Atlantic Ocean.
Muslims in Nigeria are distributed throughout four main tribes:
· The Hausa tribe: represent the majority of Muslims in Nigeria- 80% Muslim.
· The Fulani tribe: close kin of the Hausa tribe- rarely any Christians or Pagans amongst them.
Both the Hausa and Fulani tribes are situated in central and northern Nigeria.
· The Yoruba tribe: largest tribe in Nigeria centered in south-western Nigeria- more than 60% of the tribe are Muslims.
· The Igbo tribe: centered in south-eastern Nigeria- The majority of this tribe are Christians and Pagans, although some claim to be Jewish.
This large disposition of Muslims throughout the county made Nigeria a target, whether in the colonization era, which attempted to obliterate the Muslims identity in the country, or through missionary establishments.
Christian conversion by missionaries is taking its toll in southern Nigeria, especially after the year 2000. This prompted many northern provinces (12 out of 16 provinces) to implement Sharia within their premises, while paying special adherence to non-Muslims, in an attempt to halt the missionary establishments from taking over the northern part of the county.
However, this did not stop Christian conversion in the south, inducing the rise of Islamist movements in the south.
Despite these advantages Nigeria is enjoying and this large Muslim population, it seems that this population is not put into practical use; the reason why a series of Christian presidents ruled the country. In fact, some Sufi leaders even backed Christian nominees against their Muslim opponents, because for them, a Christian president is always better than a Sunni president!
The Muslim map of Nigeria is split into two; a Sunni movement and a Shia movement. The Sunni movement is split into three categories; Sufi, Wahhabi, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Sufism in Nigeria
Sufism is generally predominant in West African countries, not just in Nigeria. This is perhaps because Islam was spread to those countries through merchants, not scholars. The majority of those merchants belonged to the Sufi sect.
The most prominent Sufi orders are the Qadiriyya order founded by Sheikh Abdul-Qadir Gilani and the Tijaniyya order founded by Sheikh Ahmad al-Tijani.
The Qadiriyya order
The Qadiriyya order is founded by Sheikh Abdul-Qadir Gilani. This order spread tremendously throughout the north, especially after Usman dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1809, a religious teacher, writer and Islamic promoter, adopted this order.
Usman dan Fodio jointed between Sufism and Jihad to liberate northern Nigeria from the rule of Pagan leaders. Therefore, Sufism for him was both an ideology and a practical way to implement political change and reform.
It should be mentioned that dan Fodio had a moderate ideology. He did not display Sufism as his way of thinking, but he did mention it while speaking about Islamic conduct.
His reform strategy was based on the existence of a socio-political revolution program that would take the place of the former regime. He also stressed the importance of Jihad in establishing an Islamic state.
The Wahhabi movement
This movement originally emerged to combat the spread of Sufism, mainly the Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya orders, in the northern part of the country. As a result, because Sufism spread prior to Wahhabism, Wahhabis in Nigeria to this day are not very well accepted, especially in the north.
Sheikh Abubakar Gumi was the founder of the Wahhabi movement, combating Sufism in Nigeria. His close relationship with Saudi Arabia was the aspect that influenced his ideology and provided him with support in spreading Wahhabism and combating Sufism in Nigeria.
It should be noted that Wahhabism is not a single trend, and is in fact multiple trends sharing the same ideology. Unlike the Muslim Brotherhood, it does not possess a single organizing body.
Wahhabism did not only attempt to combat Sufism, but the Shia sect as well, mainly the Imami and Ithna Ashariyyah sects.
Another aspect that is worth mentioning is that the Wahhabi movement does not give much consideration to political aspects, such as establishing an Islamic state, as it does to implementing the pure form of Islam and abandoning innovation. Therefore, it does not have any confrontations with the regime; its main confrontation is with Sufism.
To recapitulate, the first article of “Islamists in Nigeria…from Sufism to Boko Haram” mapped out Islam in Nigeria in general, and tackled Sufism and Salafism in particular. This article will now take on the existence of the Muslims Brotherhood, Shiites, and Boko Haram in Nigeria.
The Muslim Brotherhood
The Muslim Brotherhood in Nigeria was established before Nigeria’s British independence by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ilory, who met with Sheikh Hassan Al-Banna—founder of the Muslim Brotherhood—in the 1940’s while studying at Al-Azhar University. Its ideologies were wider spread during the 50’s and 60’s when some of the Muslim Brotherhood members from Egypt made their way to Nigeria during Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime.
During the 80’s and 90’s the Muslim Brotherhood established organized groups, yet each independent from the other, in all 36 states in the country. This lasted until 1995. Following that period, members of the Muslim Brotherhood who came from Egypt coordinated between the groups in all states and brought them all together under one umbrella.
The Muslim Brotherhood tends to be more prominent in northern and southern states, unlike the eastern states where indigenous beliefs tend to be more vital.
The Brotherhood in Nigeria carries moderate ideologies. It also attempts to bring Islamist movements together in order to confront missionary efforts.
Shiites
Shiites gradually seeped into Nigeria due to the Sufi and Salafi resentment of their ideology. In the beginning, they attempted to associate themselves with the Muslim Brotherhood by dissociating themselves from their Imamate beliefs and associating themselves with the Sunnis. To the point where some media sources would have difficulties differentiating between Shiites and the Muslim Brotherhood.
This however did not last very long. With the success of the Iranian revolution in 1979, Shiites formed a strong bond with Iran. With this strong support, they unveiled their true ideologies and began advocating it.
During the early 1980’s Shiites formed the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in the northern region of the country headed by Ibrahim Zakzaky, who was trained by Iran to encourage youth protests.
Leaders of this group tend to be higher educated youth. The purpose of this is to nurture an Islamic society that would lead to the establishment of an Islamic state based on the Iranian model.
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria demands the establishment of a fully Islamic constitution based on that of Iran. Due to this, the group is in a constant clash with the government, unlike the other Islamist groups in the country. Shiites also tend to clash with other Islamist groups, mainly Salafism, in areas they dominate.
Clearly, Nigeria is a multi-Islamist group society. However, due to ideological, internal and external factors, the relationship between these groups is classified as competitive rather than cooperative.
Boko Haram
Boko Haram was founded by Mohammed Yusuf, who was born in Girgir village, in Yobe State. In 1999 —the year Olusegun Obasanjo, Christian president, came into power— Yusuf began to spread his ideologies, gaining some popularity by the year 2002.
In 2004, he announced the founding of ‘Afghanistan’ headquarters in Yobe. The name ‘Afghanistan’ was in inspiration of forming an Islamic ‘princedom’ in Nigeria in tune with that established by the Taliban in Afghanistan. This in turn led many media sources to dub Boko Haram the Taliban of Nigeria.
Soon after, the group announced its armed defiance of the government. Inspired by the idea of Takfir wal-Hijra (Excommunication and Exodus), members of the group also isolated themselves from the ‘sinful’ general public.
The group, which took over the northern part of the country, began using armed insurgency to impose Islamic Sharia in the country. Due to the armed confrontations with the government in all 36 Nigerian states, the government took advantage of this situation to massacre members of this group without undergoing trials, amongst which is Mohammed Yusuf himself.
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