The role of religion in national life: Reflections on recent experiences in Nigeria

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Book chapter

Title:	The role of religion in national life: Reflections on recent experiences in Nigeria
Author:	Gambari, Ibrahim
Book title:	Religion and national integration in Africa: Islam, Christianity, and politics in the Sudan and Nigeria
Year:	1992
Pages:	85-99
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Christianity Islam rebellions Muslim-Christian relations
Abstract:	The frequency and destructiveness of intra and interreligious riots have undermined domestic peace and threatened political stability in Nigeria, particularly in the 1980s. This paper examines the recent crisis dimensions of the relationship between the major Nigerian religions, Islam and Christianity. It looks at the controversy between Christian and Muslim elites generated by the debate over Sharia in the Constituent Assembly which preceded the Second Republic; the religious riots in Kano (December 1980), Maiduguri (1982), Yola (1984), and Gombe (1985), in which radical Muslims of the Yan Tatsine sect organized riots and killings of fellow Muslims outside the sect; and the most recent religious riots in Kaduna State in March 1987, when the poor turned on the rich, and the Muslims on the Christians. Attention is also paid to the sharp national division over Nigeria's membership of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1986, and to the class dimension of the religious conflict in Nigeria. Note, ref.