NIGERIA 1979
CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM RELATIONS IN NIGERIAHISTORY
Early history of the two communities
The Muslim community in Nigeria is very important. The various census figures are controverted, but all of them list Muslims somewhere under 50% The Christian total is slightly less than the Muslim. In the states which were part of the former Northern Region Muslims are a little more than half the population. They are heavily concentrated in the extreme north, and are very numerous along the routes to Lagos. The southeastern parts of the country are virtually untouched by Islam.
Islam took root in the Kanem empire in the late 11th century. Kanem (in Chad) absorbed Borno, the northeast of Nigeria, in the 13th century. Islam spread to the Hausa states in the late 15th century, brought by Malian missionaries. Malian, or "Wangara", traders and missionaries also penetrated the old y (Yoruba) empire and were found along the coast by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Yet Islam was rather stagnant in Nigeria after its initial introduction until the jihad of `Uthmân an Fodiye at the beginning of the 19th century. Throughout the 19th and 10th centuries Islam has grown stronger.
Nubian and Coptic Christianity seems to have influenced Nigeria in the middle ages; so various evidence suggests. Even Benin City seems to have derived its formée cross from Nubia via the north of Nigeria and Ida. Written documentation is available for evangelization of the Benin area beginning in 1486 and for missionary journeys across the Sahara to the north of Nigeria in 1688, 1710 and 1850. The solid establishment of the Church in Nigeria, however, had to wait for the second part of the 19th century. Christian-Muslim relations under the British
The early C.M.S. missionaries were optimistic that the Muslims of the North would easily embrace Christianity. Yet failure met both G.W. Brooke's Sudan Party mission of 1890-92 and Bishop H. Tugwell's Hausa Party mission of 1900. When Bishop Tugwell and Walter Miller began to preach in Kano the Emir told them: "We do not want you: you can go, I give you three days to prepare: a hundred donkeys to carry your loads back to Zaria, and we never wish to see you here again." The missionaries thought that the ordinary Muslims were ignorant and only held to their religion from fear of their Fulani overlords. Evangelization would be simpler, they advocated, if these Fulani rulers were removed.
From 1900 to 1902 the British conquered the north of Nigeria, but they did not depose the Fulani rulers. Instead Lugard instituted the system of indirect rule, and gave the emirs a solemn pledge that he would not interfere with the Muslim religion. Lugard himself was a personal friend of Miller and favoured his C.M.S. mission work, but later colonial officers used Lugard's pledge as an excuse to keep missionaries out of Muslim and even some pagan areas, and generally restricted their activities in the North. In the meantime Miller and his associates had a chance to get to know ordinary Muslim people, and were surprised to learn how well they understood Islam and how deeply they were attached to it. They then began to adopt Bishop Crowther's method of the 1870s of patient and tactful contact with the emirs, gaining their friendship in order to preach to the pagan population subject to them.
Apart from British restrictions on Christian missionaries, Muslim leaders themselves discouraged their people from going to Christian schools, which were practically the only schools, and were extremely hesitant about even government schools providing Western education. In the North Christian schools arose among the colonies of Southerners living in the northern cities, and in newly christian areas in the Middle Belt. The few Muslim students who attended these schools rarely attended Christian religion classes. In a very few instances (such as in the short-lived Catholic secondary school of Gusau) Islamic religion classes were provided for the Muslim students. As a result of Muslim hesitations about Western education there is a great educational imbalance between Muslim and non-Muslim areas of the country today, which Muslims are only beginning to overcome. In the South Yoruba Muslims had few scruples about attending Christian schools and following the religious instruction as well (from which they usually could be excused), and many Muslim students became Christians as a result. To meet this situation Yoruba Muslim societies, such as the Ahmadiyya, Ansar-ud-deen etc., opened Muslim schools combining Islamic and Western education.
The government schools of the North, which turned out a small well educated elite of northern Muslims, generally included Islamic religious knowledge in their curriculum. The few Christian students in these schools came under pressure to become Muslims.
During independence preparations
Muslim and Christian differences affected the independence movement in Nigeria. In the South movements were founded for independence, such as the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1934, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in 1944 and the Action Group in 1953. In the North, however,the emirs and politicians were not eager for early independence. The response to the demands of the West African Students Union in 1942 for cooperation in gaining self-government was: "Holding this country together is not possible except by means of the religion of the Prophet. If they want political unity let them follow our religion." A similar response was met by the N.C.N.C. delegation that toured the North in 1946 campaigning against the "Richard's constitution" drafted by the then Governor of Nigeria. Awolowo openly started that the fanatical and static nature of Islam was the main force that retarded the achievement of self-government. Replying, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the later Prime Minister of Nigeria, threatened that if the Southern politicians, who were all considered Christians, did not stop their attacks on the North, the Muslim North would be forced to continue its "interrupted conquest to the sea", that is, to the South. The Northern leaders amended a motion demanding independence for 1956 to read "as soon as practicable". Their fear of independence was that the more developed South would swamp the North and dominate it.
If the Muslims of the North had trouble dealing with the South, they and equal trouble dealing with non- Muslim peoples in the North, many of whom refused to join the Northern People's Congress (N.P.C.), the ruling party, whose leaders openly identified the party with Islam, despite the N.P.C. motto of "One North, one people, irrespective of religion, rank or tribe". Opposition movements formed, such as the Northern Nigeria non- Muslim League in 1950, and the Middle Zone League in 1951. Later these fused to become the United Middle Belt Congress (U.M.B.C.), which supported Northern Christian interests. Consequently the first Northern Nigerian government in 1951, dominated by the N.P.C., appointed no Christians as ministers and even took steps to curtail missionary activities in the educational and medical fields.
The predominantly Christian Benue and Plateau provinces agitated strongly for a separate state, and the 1957 constitution Conference set up a Commission of Inquiry. At the sitting fears of religious persecution, forceful conversion to Islam and discrimination in the North were openly and strongly expressed by Tiv and other minority leaders. No state, however, was created because of the strong opposition of the Muslim rulers and because the British thought that the creation of states would delay the independence of the country. After the North was granted self-government in 1959, Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Northern Region, stated on several occasions that the North was for all Northerners, and that his government had no intention of spreading one religion at the expense of the other. Yet it took the Tiv riots on the very eve of independence to bring the Northern government to assure any real pluralism in the North.
The first years of independence
The mood in both the North and the South after October 1960 was to make Independence work. It became a political slogan to "bridge the gap" between the North and the South. After the 1961 election in the North two Christians from the Middle Belt were appointed ministers and another two were appointed provincial commissioners. Moreover Northern Muslims received many appointments in the national administration in Lagos, which they once regarded as a foreign centre of power. Both sides made magnanimous gestures of cooperation.
Yet this euphoric mood soon gave way to new tensions. christian Churches, especially the Catholic, the Sudan Interior Mission, the Sudan United Mission and the Anglican, expanded their mission work among the non- Muslims of the North and achieved tremendous success. The Muslim rulers became afraid that they would lose the upper hand in the North, especially since the Northern Christians had more zeal for education. They therefore began to harass and curtail the work of the churches in many different ways. Religious feelings were part of the Tiv revolt in 1964 against the imposition of N.P.C. leaders in their area. Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the North as well as the Vice-President of the World Muslim League, launched a "bloodless jihad" throughout the North, conducting Billy-Graham-style rallies to make on-the-spot mass conversions, and building mosques and Qur'ânic schools with grants from Arab states. Promotions went only to leaders who cooperated with the N.P.C. government and its Islamic policies, while areas such as Benue and Plateau provinces, which did not cooperate, were denied development allocations. to meet strictly religious harassment, the Northern Christian Association was formed in 1965. Also the Protestant organization "New Life for All" launched a counter-campaign to evangelize Muslims.
At the same time in most parts of the country a movement began for the government to take over church schools. In the South this was motivated partly by American secular influence, but the main supporters were groups who felt they were at a disadvantage: the Muslims everywhere, and in particular areas one Christian sect against another. In some places the education ministries were exasperated by the rivalry of one church wanting to set up a school where another church had one instead of going to other places where schools were needed. A separate and final source of tension was the N.P.C.'s successful effort to have S.L. Akintola elected Premier of the Western (Yoruba) Region in 1965. He himself was a Baptist, but courted Muslim support and was regarded as a tool of the Sardauna. Riots broke out protesting against rigged elections and the imprisonment of Awolowo, and the West remained in a state of conflict until the coup of January 1966. In the North tension grew because of the growing numbers and influence of Igbos who did most of the technical and professional work and had the upper hand in wholesale trade through their national commercial networks. When army officers killed the Sardauna and other national leaders in January 1966 and made an Igbo, J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi, the military head of state, the Igbos in the North made no secret of their glee, and taunted the Hausa. The massacre of May, the coup of July which brought Yakubu Gowon to power, and the massacre of September which sent the remaining Igbos out of the North put the Eastern Region in a situation of all but official secession.
The Gowon regime, 1966-1975
One of Gowon's first actions was to divide the nation into 12 states, satisfying Middle Belt Christian aspirations, but also splitting the Eastern Region into 4 states. Chukwumeka Ojukwu refused to let the East be divided, thereby making secession official and creating the proximate reason for the civil war. Ojukwu construed the war as a "jihad of Muslim hordes" invading Christian Biafra. The religious overtones of the conflict had foundation in that the rioters in the North directed their fury particularly against Christian churches and no compensation was ever made or action taken against the organizers of the riots. Moreover during the massacres any Igbo who declared himself a Muslim had his life and property spared. Yet the federal government was in the hands of Gowon, a Christian, and the majority of the soldiers and officers of the Nigerian army were Christians. The religious policy of the federal government during the Gowon regime did not fully please either Christians or Muslims, but at least it was even-handed.
During the civil war the necessity of national solidarity made religious tensions in Nigeria drop very low, except for the embarrassing situation of the Catholic church, which was reputed to be identified with Biafran interests. Yet the war provided the Catholic Church in the North the occasion to develop a viable Northern constituency for the first time, whereas before it was predominantly a church of Southerners living in the North. After the war evangelism in the North continued quietly; so did Muslim efforts to spread, together with subtle restrictions on Christianity, such as not giving land for building churches in the growing cities. The near total stop put on the entrance of new missionaries (since the civil war was blamed on missionaries) gravely hampered the Catholic Church for a short time, but a vocation boom followed, together with a rapid indigenization of the episcopacy.
A Universal Primary Education (U.P.E.) scheme was introduced in 1975; at the same time religious education was made an obligatory subject in all primary and secondary schools, with the Muslim and Christian teachers paid by the government but chosen by their respective religious leaders. The spoils of this move were the vast numbers of pagan children who effectively were herded into either Christianity or Islam. As a whole, the Muslims were better prepared and took greater advantage of the situation, even though universal primary education has not yet been fully realized, and many schools do not have religious teachers. One result of the new educational policy is to see religiously mixed student bodies and teachers of both Muslim and of Christian religious knowledge in the same school. In assessing the benefits of pluralism, exchange and dialogue in such schools, however, we have to remember that government schools usually have poorer discipline and academic achievement, and the students do not receive a good formation in understanding and living their own faith. In Yorubaland the government took over all schools, but let religious bodies continue to administer them. These schools usually teach only the religion of the denomination, either Christian or Muslim, yet the administration has no control over the intake or the appointment of teachers, and the quality of these schools has gone down. There has been strong pressure to take away the denominational character of such schools entirely, but lately a strong counter-pressure has developed to return the schools to complete denominational control.
Since Independence, Yoruba Islam has become more politicized, and Muslim groups have become more vocal in protesting against any form of discrimination. A very strong protest was made in 1967 by the Muslim Students Association in a paper entitled "Case for unbiased religious education in our schools". They complained that the government policy gave Christianity an advantage over Islam, that Christian religious instruction and worship were forced upon Muslim students and no provision was made for Islamic instruction and worship; even public holidays declared for Muslim feasts were not observed by Christian schools. The students concluded by demanding the government to take over the schools. Since 1967 most of these grievances have been remedied, but Muslims still alleged that discrimination is rampant in the South.
Christian-Muslim polemics have been another source of the hatred, fear and suspicion which still exist between Muslims and Christians, at least on the organizational level. Polemics carried on by Christians in the South - it would be impossible for them in the Muslim dominated northern states - is principally the work of the Jehovah Witnesses and various Aladura preachers, who spare no blows in attacking and ridiculing the teachings of Islam. The Anglican lay preacher Fawole in Ibadan and the Apostle Adetoro in Lagos quote the Qur'ân and adîth in Arabic and translation, and equate with paganism such Muslim practices as the use of charms and amulets and the sacrifice of rams. The Scripture Union, strong especially among university students, openly preaches and tries to convert Muslims. They have had some success, but Aladura rallies with emphasis on healing, such as those of Prophet Obaderi (from the Christ Apostolic church of Ilesha), attract more converts. Muslims on the other hand, both in open wa`z sermons (such as those of Alhaji Ajagbemkeferi) and writings, ridicule Christian teachings and attack the foundations of Christian belief. Alhaji Bolaji Akwukewe's True light (1965) and Alhaji A. Dirisu Ajijola's Myth of the cross (Lahore, 1975) are particularly hostile. They utilize not only 19th century rationalist arguments against Christianity, but also those developed by the Ahmadiyya and other Pakistani groups, such as attacking the person of Jesus as described in the gospels. As a matter of fact, wherever Muslim books are sold literature printed in Pakistan is abundant.
The final years of military rule
Muslim-Christian relations took a new turn after Gowon was ousted in July 1975. Murtala Muhammad came to power in a bloodless coup and carried out many needed reforms which made his regime popular; moreover he established diplomatic relations with the Vatican, a move that the Christian gowon, even though Protestant, could not make without risking charges of partiality by the Muslim community. Rumours that Murtala Muhammad had plans to promote Islam in Nigeria never could be verified.
After the assassination of Murtala Muhammad in February 1976 Oluegun Obasanjo, a Baptist, was appointed Head of State, but the general impression was that Shehu Yar'adua, a Muslim from Katsina, was really running the country. Since the assassination party, which failed to gain power, was composed of officers from Plateau, Gowon's home state, reprisal measures were taken against any Plateau leaders who were implicated or could be charged with any form of corruption. church hospitals were suddenly taken over without consultation,and the policies of the state government gave the Christians a feeling that they were being punished. The creation of an unreal myth around Murtala Muhammad and the simultaneous condemnation of Gowon without trial strengthened the impression that Islam makes the difference for being an acceptable head of state. The government built a mosque and Qur'ânic school in Kano in memory of the deceased head of state, but no Christian monument. Only the retaining of Joseph Garba, a Catholic, as foreign minister soften the anti- Christian impression. Nevertheless tensions subsided after a short time, and even disturbances later on in Jos, the Plateau capital, resulting from street preaching by Muslims and Christians, did not develop into a crisis situation.
The next event was the debate about providing for a federal Sharî`a court in the new constitution. Although a few Muslims, such as Yusufu Bala Usman and A.B. Ahmad, argued against establishing such a court on grounds that it would be giving a special preferential position to Islam in the country, the prevalent Muslim voice supported Sharî`a. A typical moderate opinion was put forwards by the Etsu Nupe, Umaru Sanda Ndayako maintained that the Sharî`a courts simply provide for the needs of the Muslim community and do not place Islam in a privileged position. He added that Nigeria, as a secular state, should respect the needs of all groups and care should be taken that Muslims do not infringe on the rights of non-Muslims.
A more official Muslim view was expressed at the National Seminar on Islam and the Draft constitution at the beginning of August 1977, and the National Conference on Freedom of the Press and the Sharî`a at Minna at the end of the same month. At these meetings demand was made for Sharî`a in toto, not just for religious matters (a "truncated Sharî`a"), but all matters of life. A Constitution is valid only in so far as it reflects the Sharî`a, while any other law (imported English law, based on pagan Roman law) is alien and has no binding force for a Muslim. This is true even for a Muslim minority but, while the 1963 census says that Muslims are 45%, the National Seminar on Islamic Law said they are 75%. Accordingly at the Minna seminar Malam Ma'aji Shani suggested that the Constitution should make Islam the state religion, with the Sharî`a applied in toto to any citizen who believes in God and the Qur'ân. The Draft Constitution in fact opened the door to total Sharî`a in nos. 184 (3) e and 186 (2) with the phrase "any other questions". This was one step to the declared ultimate objective of making the full Sharî`a the supreme law of the land.
In public debate the discriminatory provisions against non-Muslims in classical treatises on Islamic statecraft, such as Mâwardî and urûshî, were passed over in silence. Yet not only were the treatises of Mâwârdî and urûshî at the basis of `Uthmân an Fodiye's jihad of 1804, but Christians in the North today still experience what Sharî`a discrimination means in practice. Only ignorance or hypocrisy could have led the former British colonial officer Martin Dent to argue in favour of Sharî`a in Nigeria, saying that it concerns only personal law between Muslims. Elsewhere, Dr. Shittu Nibi argued for total Sharî`a as if it were not prejudicial to the rights of non-Muslims,and pointed out what a concession the Muslims were making by demanding at this time only the limited provisions of the Draft Constitution.
When the Constitutive Assembly came to vote on the Sharî`a question in April 1978 the proposal for a Sharî`a court at the federal level was defeated. The states, however, were allowed to provide for Sharî`a courts as they saw fit. Most Muslim members walked out and boycotted the Assembly for a time, but in the end agreed to abide by the new Constitution for the time being, with the intention of reviving the issue in the future. In the politicking for the national elections in 1979 the political parties left the question of Sharî`a in the background, because it was too inflammatory.
In the meantime many aspects of Sharî`a were being introduced at the state level. For instance there is a Sokoto State bureau to control the orthodoxy of preaching, and threats of police action have been made against preachers who do not abide by the Qur'ân and adîth. At Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria the Muslim Students Association was very vocal during the Sharî`a debate and threatened an armed jihad if the provisions of the Draft Constitution were not passed. Immediately after the Sharî`a provisions were rejected by the Constitutive Assembly demonstrations took place at many universities protesting the introduction of certain fees. At Ahmadu Bello University the demonstrations were suspected to be connected with circulars distributed at the same time calling for an attack on Christian establishments, and the army was called in; several students were killed. In April 1979 the A.B.U. Muslim Students Association attacked the Kegites, a palm-wine drinking club, in order to ban liquor from the campus; they even burned down the Vice-Chancellor's house. Various ulterior motives were ascribed to this action, but it had widespread support simply because it was done in the name of Sharî`a. Nevertheless the student leaders were punished, and the public statements of the political candidates reflected the desire of most people to see religious strife averted.
Passage to the Second Republic
The political parties campaigning for the July-August 1979 elections kept religious issues strictly in the background. All parties were required to have a national rather than a regional, tribal or religious constituency; so only five qualified. Nevertheless much of the electorate was persuaded that Shagari's Sokoto based N.P.N. (National Party of Nigeria) represented conservative Islamic interests, even though it won Benue, Cross Rivers and Rivers states, where the Muslims have no political influence. P.R.P. (People's Redemption Party), based in Kano, represents Aminu Kano's Islamic-Socialist tendencies; Waziri Ibrahim's Maiduguri based G.N.P.P. (Great Nigeria People's Party) has a populist Islamic appeal, and won Borno and Gongola states. Nnamadi Azikwe's N.P.P. (National People's Party) was mainly supported by the Igbos and the Plateau Christians. Obafemi Awolowo's U.P.N. (Unity Party of Nigeria) won most of the Yoruba vote, except in the northern- looking Muslim area of Ilorin in Kwara State; it also won Bendel State. The declaration that Shagari won the presidency was based on a surprise post-election interpretation of the rules. It remains to be seen how an acceptable civilian government can take over and assure justice and peace in the country.
EFFORTS AT DIALOGUE
Protestant initiatives
The Anglican and Methodist churches in 1952 sponsored a survey of Islam in West Africa carried out by J.S. Trimingham; the results were published in the pamphlet The Christian Church and Islam in West Africa (London: SCM, 1955). He made another visit in 1961, and published as well Islam in West Africa (Oxford: Clarendon, 1959) and A history of Islam in West Africa (Oxford: Clarendon, 1962). Kenneth Cragg also visited and conducted workshops in many places in West Africa; the report of his visit was published as "West African Catechism," Muslim World, 48 (1958), pp. 237-247. As a result of these visits several Protestant Churches met in 1958, and in 1959 launched the "Islam in Africa Project" in order to assist the Churches to understand Islam. Dr. W.A. Bijlefeld was the first director; others who dedicated themselves to this project were Dr. Robert Stade, the Revs. John Crossley, Hans Haafkens, E.O. Oyelade and T.A. Akinlade. A Northern branch was led by P. Ipema, Emory Van Gerpen and E.M. Smith.
The Islam in Africa Project always aimed at peaceful relations with Muslims based on a positive and accurate understanding of Islam, but to gain the widest cooperation of Churches with many different views the project subscribed to no theological position concerning Islam. For the same reason the project is not part of the World Council of churches or any national council. but such neutrality proved to be a liability, since neither the government nor the Churches were much in favour of an international organization that was not responsible to the Nigerian Churches. Since 1977 the study centre in Ibadan has been closed. Its library was moved to the Institute of Church and society, and any further activities are hoped to come under the Institute's auspices. The problem of ideology will remain for some time, because the Northern Nigerian branch is oriented towards ways of converting Muslims, while the all-African leadership meeting in Legon in 1977 was strongly latitudinarian in tendency.
The Institute of Church and Society in Ibadan has been interested in Islam since it was founded by the Nigerian Council of Churches in 1964 and has sought the cooperation of the I.A.P. study centre for its own seminars. At the one on evangelism in 1973 Rev. Oyelade presented the paper, "Christian-Muslim involvement in evangelism". In March 1974 at a seminar on "Christianity in Independent Africa" Rev. Oyelade with J. Kenny, O.P., presented a paper, "Changes in Christian-Muslim relations since independence". The Institute of Church and Society has also hosted several W.A.A.T.I. (West African Association of Theological Institutes) meetings, which have included discussion on Islamic studies. At the August 1979 meeting J. Kenny presented a paper, "Muslim use of Christian Scriptures," and a workshop of Islamic studies was held with Protestant, Catholic and Muslim participation.
One strength of Protestant involvement in Christian-Muslim relations is the presence of lecturers on Islam in university faculties of religious studies, such as S. Babs Mala at the University of Ibadan, E.O. Oyelade at Ife, G.O.M. Tasie at Jos, and T.A. Akinlade at Abraka College of Education, University of Benin. The University of Ibadan Religious Studies Department (under Methodist leadership) has been particularly interested in promoting inter-religious dialogue at the academic level. It sponsors an annual Religious Studies Conference, considering Christian, Muslim and Traditional Religion approaches to a particular theme. The papers of these conferences are usually published in the department's journal Orita.
Catholic initiatives
In 1961, during the Second Vatican Council, the Apostolic Delegate to Nigeria, Archbishop Sergio Pignedoli (now the Cardinal head of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Christians) toured the North and took special interest in the problem of relations with Muslims. one of the things he noted among the clergy of the North was the absence of any specialists on Islam and the general lack of knowledge about Islam and the Nigerian Muslim situation. His efforts to remedy this situation resulted in two achievements:
First, Victor Chukwulozie, a young priest of the (now) Archdiocese of Kaduna, who for some time was interested in relations with Muslims, was encouraged to organize two meetings between Catholics (with some other Christians) and Muslims. The first took place in Kano on 11 October 1962, and the second, on "Ecumenism and the undergraduate", at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, on 7 March 1963. These meetings were between private individuals on both sides, and neither side was sponsored or had official backing by its higher authorities. Fr. Chukwulozie went to Oxford for Islamic studies in 1963 and returned to Nigeria in 1970, when he took up the post of lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is also the national Correspondent with the Secretariat for non-Christians.
The second result of Archbishop Pignedoli's efforts came from his contact with the Dominicans who since 1953 staffed the Prefecture Apostolic of Sokoto. archbishop Pignedoli asked the Prefect, Msgr. Lawton, O.P., if the Dominicans could provide personnel to conduct research and dialogue as the Dominicans in Cairo were doing. Msgr. Lawton then asked the Cairo Dominican to send someone to look at the situation and make recommendations. Fr. Anawati was to come, but could not get an exit visa. In July 1963 Fr. Jacques Jomier came and recommended that at least two Dominicans be trained in Islamic studies. While visiting his home country in January 1964, Msgr. Lawton spoke of his needs to the Dominicans of his province and was promised that Fr. Joseph Kenny, just finishing his theological studies, would be sent. In November Fr. Kenny came and spent two years in Nigeria before leaving for studies in Rome, Tunisia, Cairo and Edinburgh, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Arabic and Islamic studies. In 1967 Fr. James Kelly was sent to London to do an M.A. at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the area of African Islam. Fr. Kelly returned to Nigeria in 1969, and Fr. Kenny in 1970.
In the meantime a significant step was taken at the major seminary of SS. Peter and Paul in Ibadan. In 1966 the rector, Fr. L. Nadeau, O.P., introduced courses on Islam taught by lecturers from the University of Ibadan Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 1967 the introductory courses became part of the program of the external diploma in religious studies offered by the University of Ibadan Department of Religious Studies; a pastoral course on appraisal of non-Christian religions was also provided for the final year. When the major seminary of St. Augustine was founded at Jos in 1967, the same diploma programme was adopted. The courses on Islam at Ibadan and Jos have been taught by university lecturers such as Drs. El-Gar (Egyptian), Abdul, and Shittu Nibi (both Nigerian), and Frs. Kenny and Kelly. The Bigard Memorial Seminary at Enugu and Ikot-Ekpene, with its 800 some students, as yet does not offer any courses on Islam. Courses on Islam are also taught at other Christian institutions, such as the National Institute of Moral and Religious Education at Lagos (Project T.I.M.E.), which was started by Catholics and is now run jointly by Catholics, Protestants and Muslims, and at the Catechetical Training Institute for the northern dioceses at Malumfashi.
Efforts to promote Christian-Muslim relations have been helped by the visits of outside Catholic specialists, such as Fr. Jacques Jomier, O.P. (in 1963, 1971, 1973 and 1975), Fr. Franz Schildknecht, W.F. (at the invitation of Msgr. Lawton in 1966), and Fr. Jacques Lanfry, W.F. (in 1971).
Some Catholic bishops have had personal contacts with Muslim leaders, but official overtures, in the North at least, have been disappointing. For instance, greetings sent to emirs on the occasion of Islamic feastdays are not acknowledged or reciprocated. The bishop of Sokoto has brought many visitors to see the Sultan, but no Muslim official has ever set foot on the Church compound, and invitations are ignored. Only when Archbishop Jatau was ordained in Kaduna in 1972 was a high ranking Muslim present; Archbishop Jatau spoke special words of greeting and good will for the Muslim community on that occasion. Bishop Sanusi of Ijebu-Ode, who has Muslim parentage, is another noted supporter of Christian-Muslim dialogue. He and Fr. Kenny attended the Vatican-Libyan dialogue at Tripoli in February 1976.
More has been accomplished in relations with Muslims at an informal level, especially through medical services while there were Catholic hospitals and dispensaries, and later when sisters were working in government hospitals. Discussions between priests and Muslim religious leaders have not gone very far; Muslim reserve, especially in the North, is evident whether the Christian representative is a foreigner or not, but the fact of being a foreigner is a particular obstacle. When some local Muslim officials attended the church wedding of an army officer in Yelwa in 1975, the Fathers were privately amazed a such a historic event.
The first "official" Christian-Muslim dialogue was organized by Fr. Chukwulozie on 28 November 1974 at the Pastoral Institute in Ibadan, under the joint chairmanship of Bishop F.A. Job of Ibadan and Dr. Lateef Adegbite, the Western State Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice. Several papers were given on the dignity of man and the role of religion in society, and an interesting discussion took place. A defensive atmosphere which built up at the beginning was broken when one lawyer said that in his long experience in court a Muslim or a Christian swearing on the Qur'ân or Bible could perjure himself without scruple, but let him sear by Ifa (a Yoruba divinity) and he will never tell a lie. At the end of the meeting a committee of five was set up to continue dialogue activities, and the journal Nigerian Dialogue was launched to publicize the content of dialogue meetings. The committee never met, although two issues of Nigerian Dialogue have appeared under Fr. Chukwulozie's editorship, and a third is at press.
Another attempt at dialogue took place in December 1978 at Jos where, under the auspices of the National Catholic Bishops' conference, Fr. Chukwulozie organized a dialogue on a national level, involving especially Northern Muslims. Many prominent Muslims were invited and accepted, but all of them either sent excuses or did not show up. The fifteen or so participants (eight of them Dominicans), however, discussed the papers that were presented by the Christian representatives.
Muslim initiatives
It is not surprising to find more Muslim participation in dialogue in the more open Yoruba society than in the North of Nigeria. One of the most prominent Muslim spokesmen in Muslim-Christian relations has been Dr. M.O.A. Abdul, of the University of Ibadan Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies. His pamphlet Islam and Christianity united (Lagos: Islamic Publications Bureau, c. 1971) was somewhat simplistic in suggesting that Christians should stop worshipping Jesus etc., but he developed a more nuanced approach to Christianity later. He attended the W.C.C. sponsored Broumana dialogue in 1972, and was co-chairman of the W.C.C. Legon dialogue of July 1974, where he delivered the paper, "A community of religions". He participated in the Catholic sponsored dialogue in Ibadan in November 1974, where he presented the paper, "The dignity of man vis-a-vis Islam". Only confusion in the airline baggage department prevented him from taking part in the Islam in Africa Project seminar in Legon in July 1977. He has attended various inter-religious international meetings besides these, and taught for several years at SS. Peter & Paul Seminary, Ibadan.
Dr. I.A. Balogun was another lecturer at the University of Ibadan Arabic and Islamic Department who has shown an interest in Muslim-Christian dialogue. Originally an Ahmadiyya member, he welcomed Fr. Kenny to speak in his mosque. He also addressed a gathering of Christians at Agbeni Methodist Church, Ibadan, in 1972, reading the paper, "Has Christianity failed in Nigeria?" Now head of the Department of Religions, University of Ilorin, he organized a dialogue between Muslims and Christians under the auspices of his department at Ilorin, 7-11 August 1978. At the University of Ibadan Religious Studies seminar of February 1979 Professor Balogun delivered an interesting paper, "The concept of `and in Islam", relevant to the political situation in Nigeria. In the discussion he emphasised a Muslim ruler's duty to abide by his electoral commission rather than to impose Sharî`a on unwilling subjects.
Dr. D.O. Shittu N'ibi lectured for a time at Jose University and returned to Ibadan in 1978. His involvement in Muslim-Christian relations took practical shape when he substituted for Dr. Abdul (who was in Saudi Arabia on Sabbatical) in teaching "Introduction to Islam" at SS. Peter and Paul Seminary. In the North a number of Muslim lecturers in Islamic, historical or cultural studies have shown a genuine personal interest in cooperating with Christian researchers and in dialogue, but the delicate political situation of the Northern states has prevented any public exchange from taking place.
Among political or traditional rulers some can be characterized as appreciative of and friendly to the Christian churches, while others are simply just and proper, and still others are opportunists or definitely hostile. Over the years the Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar III, has shown himself not only just, but genuinely concerned to curb fanaticism and protect the interests of all who live in the North and particulary in Sokoto. His son, Muahmmadu Maciddo, who has held various high posts, is likewise respected by Christians. Sheikh Ahmed Lemu, now chief qâî of Niger State, has, in spite of his stand on Sharî`a, been open to contact and cooperation with Christian groups.
We should not pass over non-Nigerian Muslims who have been in the forefront of dialogue. The first of these is the Egyptian Dr. M.S. El-Garj, Head of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Ibadan. He was the first lecturer on Islam at SS. Peter and Paul Seminary, and at any private or public occasion where Muslim-Christian relations have come up he has shown himself to be very judicious and sensitive, reflecting his own deeply interiorized Islam.
Another spokesman is the Indian Dr. Abdurrahman I. Doi, who was in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Ife from 1967 to 1977, when he moved to the Institute of Administration at Zaria. He was a founding member of the Conference of Muslim Lecturers and Administrative Staff of Nigerian Universities, and has edited its journal, The Nigerian Journal of Islam, beginning in 1970. Notable articles, from the standpoint of dialogue, have been his review of the Vatican Secretariat fro no-Christians's book guidelines for a dialogue between Muslims and Christians (1:2, January-June 1971), and the article he invited Fr. Kenny to write, "Towards better understanding of Muslims and Christians" (2:1, July 1971 - January 1972). Dr. Doi has also written with sympathy about Yoruba traditional religion and its interaction with Islam and Christianity.
Present problems in dialogue
Dialogue so far has been restricted to a very few formal meetings and personal contacts of interested individuals. Most often it has taken place without close involvement or encouragement from the leaders of the respective communities. Dialogue, in the sense of mutual listening and speaking in order to achieve greater understanding of the other without the immediate aim of winning the other to one's own side, has received more encouragement from Catholic leaders, especially because of pressure from Rome. The preoccupation of most christian and Muslim leaders is to defend their own side and if possible conquer the other. While a limited amount of dialogue has been going on among intellectuals and university people, a great amount of practical dialogue goes on among the ordinary people in their daily lives. Most ordinary people are defensive about their religion, if only because it marks them off in a social category. yet when they are in a situation where they must share their lives and work, they quickly make practical accommodations, without any guiding principles, in all sorts of matters affecting religion. Intellectual leaders are often unaware of the day to day interaction of Muslims and Christians, and the theoretical knowledge they have which could guide the people does not reach them.
Besides these problems strictly concerned with dialogue, there are problems affecting general Muslim-Christian relations in the country. On the christian side there is the fear that Muslim political power is becoming the predominant force on the federal level. In the North, besides the well known difficulties that the Churches continue to experience, the take-over of their institutions has often resulted in replacing their Christian character with an Islamic one, starting with their names. For instance, the Baptist Teachers' College, Minna, is not Ahmadu Bahago College (after an emir of Bida), while Queen of Apostles College, Kaduna, is no Queen Amina college (after a 16th century queen of Zaria, but echoing Muammad's mother). At an education meeting in Sokoto which I attended, the Christian primary schools of the state were all given new names, but the Ansar ud-deen school in Chafe was left with its original name. Christian religion is still not taught in many schools in the North; a complaint of this to the state governments was made by the National Association of Bible Knowledge Teachers of Nigeria at its meeting in Jos in 1976.
Government Arabic schools are established throughout the northern states, and there are departments of Arabic and Islamic studies in the universities at Ibadan, Kano, Zaria (A.B.U. Institution of Administration, for Islamic law), Sokoto and Maiduguri. These are in fact government seminaries for Islamic religious leaders; private Islamic training institutes are very few. Religious Studies departments, combining Islam, Christianity and African traditional religion, exist in Ibadan, Ife, Nsukka, Jos, Ilorin and Calabar; one was organized for Ahmadu Bello University, but cancelled when a Muslim vice-chancellor took over after the coup ousting Gowon. Christians also complain that many northern states still proceed as if they were Islamic states governed by the Sharî`a, and that they give official encouragement to Islam and its spread. The amount spent by the Federal government to finance Pilgrims' Boards and provide free amenities for the annual hajj is also seen as official encouragement of Islam.
On the Muslim side, the whole idea of dialogue is suspicious and seems only a subtle attempt to convert Muslims. Muslims in Yorubaland complain that Christianity is favoured by the state governments, and note that Islamic religious knowledge is still not taught in most primary and post-primary schools, especially in former Christian schools. Some Muslims insist that Christians must drop certain doctrines such as the Trinity, Incarnation and Redemption if dialogue is to be possible, and complain of misrepresentation of Islam on the part of Christians. During 1977 and 1978 many Muslims voiced severe criticism of Christians who opposed the inclusion of federal Sharî`a courts in the Constitution. Yet the aftermath of the revolution in Iran in February 1979 has been a cause of embarrassment for proponents of Sharî`a.
In spite of these drawbacks on both sides, the good will of many people gives reason for hope in the future. Neither side advocates complete secularity in the government; their complaints have been directed rather against unequal treatment. True equity can only be guaranteed if the government is neutral with regard to religion as such, not trying to judge the theological worth of any religion, but concerned only with the rights of citizens to whatever conveniences are necessary for the practice of their religion.
Various manifestos have been issued about what needs to be done to promote dialogue in future years. The dialogue meetings at Ibadan in 1974 and at Jos in 1978 made statements; recommendations were made in other papers. All such statements include: 1) the necessity to understand and be committed to one's own religious tradition, 2) openness to understand sympathetically and accurately the other's religious tradition, 3) the promotion of toleration and equitable treatment of the nation's religious communities, together with inter- religious cooperation involving people at every level, 4) the need for an organism to identify and voice complaints about statements, publications or actions which aggravate tension between the religious communities, 5) the need for a similar mechanism to promote cooperation in facing problems of the nation as a whole and to provide opportunities for common research and dialogic exchange.