In Section 2 we provide a historical narrative of the significance of trade for the spread of Islam. An offshoot of Islam called the ‘Yan Tatsine’ violently rebelled against the authorities and non-members. Nigerian Islam has become heterogenous with the springing up of many Islamic sects. Some Nigerian Muslims emphasize asceticism and mysticism and form Sufi groups called tariqas, orders, or brotherhoods. The Shia Muslims of Nigeria are primarily located in Sokoto State. Nigeria is officially a secular state with no official state religion. Cardinal Francis Arinze is a Catholic cardinal from Nigeria. Krok, D.; Falewicz, A.; Szcześniak, M. Do Catholic Religious Practices Attenuate the Deconversion of Emerging Adults in Poland? This has brought controversy due to its discriminatory practices towards religious and sexual minorities. Before the British colonization (1884), there were no inter-religious conflicts, Nigeria in its present borders did not exist as a single nation and the Muslim populations of northern Nigeria lived peacefully in mutual tolerance with the local animist and even Christian minorities. The bulk of religious violence exists mainly in impoverished urban centers in the northern regions of the country, although coastal centers in the south are also prone to instances of political violence based on religious beliefs, as this is where the non-Hausa Christian minorities reside that are disfavored by the predominantly Hausa Muslim government.

The British colonial government therefore established indirect rule in Northern Nigeria based on the structure of this government. When pastors questioned why he would risk our government challenging that very important tax benefit afforded them, the pastor’s staff replied that the pastor’s “lifestyle is very modest in every respect.” Of course, that pastor is quite influential among the readers of Forbes. What do they do, why do we have them, and how did they become royalty in the first place? For example, members of Sufi orders, members of the Jama‘atul Izalatul Bid’ah Wa’ikhamatul Sunnah (or Izala) movement, and members of Boko Haram might all identify as Sunni, but the Izala and Boko Haram movements have had strong anti-Sufi components. Many Sunni Muslims are members of Sufi brotherhoods. Figures in the most recent edition of The World Christian Encyclopedia (Johnson and Zurlo 2020) draw on figures assembled and updated as part of the World Christian Database (WCD); these put those who identify as Christians at 46.3%, and Muslims at 46.2 and ‘ethnic religions’ at 7.2%. WCD figures predict that both Muslims and Christians will continue to grow as a proportion of the population through to 2050. Their projections predict Christians at that point will make up on 48% of the population and Muslims at 48.7%, both growing at the expense of ethnic religions, down to 2.9% of the population.

Shia Muslims make up between two and four million of Nigeria’s population. The majority of Nigeria’s approximately 70 million Christians are either Catholic (at least 18.9 million) or Anglican (18 million), but a diverse group of Protestant churches also claim significant members, including Baptists (the Nigerian Baptist Convention claims 6 million worshipping members), Presbyterians, Assemblies of God, Methodists, the Evangelical Reformed Church of Christ, and what are known as the Aladura churches (Pentecostal and Spiritualist independent churches which emerged from the Anglican Church during colonialism). There are over 300,000 Early Pentecostal Apostolic Churches parishes in Nigeria having about 4.2 million adherents. He was a Cameroonian preacher who slammed the government, something which led 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. The group followed the Maharishi to Bangor, Wales to learn more about meditation. As of 2018, 19 of the EU’s 28 members – a group called the eurozone – use the euro.

Ahmadiyyas have also established a weekly newspaper called “The Truth” which is the first Muslim newspaper in the country. The British wanted to procure certain products, such as oil and palm nuts, and to introduce cotton cultivation, and they built railroads through the country with local labor starting in 1893. They administered the country indirectly, strengthening local elites when they were able to represent power. Shia movement, and many local Islamic sects that have limited expansion. All previous religious texts have lost their Substance in the vision of Ayyavazhi at the very moment Kaliyan came to the world. Nigeria has the largest Christian population in Africa according to Pew Research Center and it has the sixth largest Christian population in the world although the Christians in Nigeria are roughly about 40%-49.3% of the country’s population. In a 2020 estimate released by Pew Research Center, the Muslim population was estimated to be 51.1% while the Christian population was estimated to be 46.9% while the remaining 2% was other.