scholarly journals Ending Religious Extremism in Northern Nigeria: A Study of Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Susan Dauda

Fundamentalism has been defined as an unwavering faith to a religious system. Although it could be applied to adherents of any religion, today it is mostly associated with Islam. Islam is said to have arrived Nigeria in the 11th century through the activities of mostly traders but it eventually took root and spread through the Fulani jihad of Usman Dan Fodio and the establishment of the Sokoto caliphate. From the late 1970s several reform movements have taken place but the most violent have been that of Maitatsine and currently the Boko Haram insurgency. Born on a Tuesday is a story about religious fundamentalism told by Dantala an almajiri. In telling the story we see the various issues that create an atmosphere in which fundamentalism thrives. Gladly in stating the issues we also note the solutions. This paper therefore discusses the problem of fundamentalism and highlights the solutions as evident in the book.

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Eze-Michael Ezedikachi. N

Sectarian crisis has been said to have erupted from groups with different ideological values and perspectives and had resulted into conflicts and brought about sectarian crisis especially in the northern Nigeria. The study examined the various causes of sectarian crisis in northern Nigeria, which included religious fundamentalism, religious extremism, and political manipulations. The study examined the effect of sectarian crisis in northern Nigeria with Kaduna state used for the case study. It was structurally analyzed with the use of quantitative method due to the nature of the research. The study developed fifteen (15) research questions, which were administered to 2 local government areas in Kaduna state namely Jema’a and Zagon kataf. Both primary and secondary data were used as sources of data. For primary sources data was gotten from the field work where research questionnaires were distributed and, for the secondary sources, data was gotten from journals, articles, published and unpublished books, libraries, works from the existing literature related to this study as well as from the internet. While the simple percentage technique was used in organizing and presenting the data collected. The data analysis revealed that sectarian crisis created ethnic differences and socio-economic problems. The study recommended that for sectarian crisis to be prevented, an elaborate process of depoliticizing ethnic groups must be put in place. The government also should take measures to shutdown religious group crisis by promoting peace and unity in the society. By this northern Nigeria will experience peace, oneness, good security and national Unity.


Author(s):  
David Cook

Since it erupted onto the world stage in 2009, people have asked, what is Boko Haram, and what does it stand for? Is there a coherent vision or set of beliefs behind it? Despite the growing literature about the group, few if any attempts have been made to answer these questions, even though Boko Haram is but the latest in a long line of millenarian Muslim reform groups to emerge in Northern Nigeria over the last two centuries. The Boko Haram Reader offers an unprecedented collection of essential texts, documents, videos, audio, and nashids (martial hymns), translated into English from Hausa, Arabic and Kanuri, tracing the group's origins, history, and evolution. Its editors, two Nigerian scholars, reveal how Boko Haram's leaders manipulate Islamic theology for the legitimization, radicalization, indoctrination and dissemination of their ideas across West Africa. Mandatory reading for anyone wishing to grasp the underpinnings of Boko Haram's insurgency, particularly how the group strives to delegitimize its rivals and establish its beliefs as a dominant strand of Islamic thought in West Africa's religious marketplace.


Author(s):  
Igboin Benson Ohihon

In recent times, the resurgence of critical security questions has gained prominence in global tabloid, consciousness and discourse. From Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen to Syria; the Nigerian experiences of the Golden Jubilee Independence bombing, for which MEND claimed responsibility, the Boko Haram incendiary that has gravitated into suicide bombing, among others are extant. The causes of these ‘security crises’ can be traced squarely to fundamentalisms: religious fundamentalism or religious nationalism; hegemonic fundamentalism, capitalist fundamentalism, ethnic fundamentalism, existential fundamentalism, ethical fundamentalism, etc. These explain the deepening and proliferation of conflicts in countries around the globe. The response to this state of affairs has been ‘sermon’ on tolerance in the face of aggressive terror. Tolerance may not have been properly conceptualized. The thrust of this paper, therefore, is to stimulate interest in the conceptualization of these terms so that their understanding would pave the way for long lasting solutions. In so doing, the paper will employ historical and philosophical approaches to situate the arguments.


2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Last

Abstract:The Sokoto caliphate in nineteenth-century northern Nigeria was an astonishing episode in the history of Africa: a huge, prosperous polity that created unity where none had existed before. Yet today its history is underexplored, sometimes ignored or even disparaged, both within Nigeria and in Europe and the U.S. Yet that history is extraordinary. Sokoto town was, and still is, an anomaly within Hausaland; built speedily on a “green-field” site as both a trading and a political center for the caliphate, it is a site of pilgrimage that to this day remains a rural town with no monumental buildings or fine edifices. As a by-product of a religious movement (jihad), Sokoto thus represents many of the dilemmas that faced and still face radically reforming Islamic groups if they expand rapidly and go to war. Thus Sokoto history remains deeply significant for modern Nigeria.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document