Religious conflict resolution in Nigeria : an Islamic perspective

Abstract

The dissertation discusses religious conflict resolution in Nigeria, the biggest country in Africa in terms of population. It starts with a historical background of religions, namely Islam and Christianity in the country. It depicts their advent and from where they come, and who are the instruments in propagating them. These two religions have their majority adherents in the big cities. Meanwhile, since there is diversity of religions there must be conflicts, which sometimes do not necessarily develop into violence. However, the country is one of the countries with a highest number of religious conflicts or violence since its independence in 1960. Thus, dissertation analyzes some serious and recent religious conflicts in some major cities or states of the country. It focuses on the years 2000 to 2008, which is a democratic rule era. It traces the root causes of these conflicts and concentrates on the ways in which IslÉm has put in place in settling these conflicts. It also finds possible solution to the causes of these conflicts from the Islamic point of view, based on Qur’Énic injunctions, sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h), Islamic history, Islamic literatures and some related items. It concludes by finding possible solutions to the problem and what is the way forward to actualize co-existence.