Nigeria has a small Shia population, estimated at 4 million, which is located mainly in northern Sunni Nigeria. The main Shia organisation is the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), active since the 1980s.
The population of Shias in Africa is composed of several communities: Persecuted Shia adherents in northern Nigeria, particularly the African Shia Islamic Movement called Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) headed by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky in Zaria, Kaduna State.
Muslims in Nigeria are predominantly Sunnis of the Maliki school of thought. However, there is a significant Shia minority, primarily in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Osun, Kwara, Yobe and Sokoto states (see Shia in Nigeria).
Islam is the dominant religion in the north-west and north-east regions, while Christianity is the dominant religion in the south-west, including the capital, Lagos, and south-east. Nigeria's constitution prohibits the adoption of a State Religion by either the Federal Government or state governments.
Credible estimates that its numbers range between 2 and 3 percent of Nigeria's population, which would amount to roughly four million. Zakzaky has claimed at different times to have followers ranging from a few hundred thousand to three million; not all Nigerian Shias are associated with IMN.
Shias comprise a majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain, and a plurality in Lebanon, while Sunnis make up the majority of more than forty countries from Morocco to Indonesia.
The majority of Nigerian Muslims are either Sunni or non-denominational Muslims. Many Sunni Muslims are members of Sufi brotherhoods or Tariqa. Most Sufis follow the Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah or Mouride movement. A significant Shia minority also exists (see Shia in Nigeria).
More than half of Nigeria's population is Muslim, predominantly Sunni. About 12% of Nigerian Muslims are Shiites. The main ethnic groups in Africa's most populous country are Hausa 30%, Yoruba 15%, Igbo (Ibo) 15%, and Fulani 6%. Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world.
Islam arrived in Nigeria in the 11th and 12th centuries through trade, migration, and through the travels of the scholar-mystic-wayfarer along trade routes, through the regions of Kanem and Bornu had been in contact with Muslim traders as early as the 9th century.
It is estimated that 50 percent of Nigerians are Muslim, 40 percent are Christian, and that the remaining 10 percent practice various indigenous religions.
According to Arab oral tradition, Islam first came to Africa with Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in the Arab peninsula. This was followed by a military invasion, some seven years after the death of the prophet Mohammed in 639, under the command of the Muslim Arab General, Amr ibn al-Asi.
Christianity came to Nigeria in the 15th century through Augustinian and Capuchin monks from Portugal. The first mission of the Church of England was, though, only established in 1842 in Badagry by Henry Townsend.
Colonial Nigeria was ruled by the British Empire from the mid-nineteenth century until 1960 when Nigeria achieved independence. British influence in the region began with the prohibition of slave trade to British subjects in 1807. Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884.
While almost all of Egypt's Muslims are Sunni, there are a small number of Shia. (Estimates of their number range from 800,000 to "at most" three million.)
In a poll conducted by Sabancı University in 2006, 98.3% of Turks revealed they were Muslim. Most Muslims in Turkey are Sunni Muslims forming about 90%, and Shia-Aleviler (Alevis, Ja'faris and Alawites) denominations in total form up to 10% of the Muslim population.
Even today, Egypt remains a country with strong Shia ties. Egyptian Sunnis especially followers of Sufi denominations visit revered Shia shrines and mosques dedicated to Hussein, Hasan, Zainab, Ali, and other Shia Imams, and unwittingly incorporate Shia practices into their traditions and funerary rites.
Trade routes jumping from city to city across the Sahara desert brought Islam into central Africa and then into the southern part of the continent. The trade routes through the Nile Valley helped Islam spread from Sudan through Uganda.
The Yoruba are one of the more religiously diverse ethnic groups in Africa. Many Yoruba people practice Christianity under various denominations while others are Muslims practicing mostly under Sunni Islam of the Maliki school of law.
An unforgettable event occurred across the ancient Hausa land in 1804 when Usman dan Fodio launched a jihad war that overran almost all northern and some parts of Yoruba land.
Legal status
Sharia used to be categorized as a customary law in Nigeria. This position has changed given the judicial pronouncement in the case of Alkamawa V Bello(1998) LPELR-SC. 293/1991 Hence, Sharia is now seen as a distinct and universal legal system.
While the population in the UAE is made up of 200 different nationalities and many faiths, Islam is the predominant religion in the UAE. Islam is based on five pillars: Profession of Faith, Prayer, Fasting, Charity and Pilgrimage.
Though the two main sects within Islam, Sunni and Shia, agree on most of the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam, a bitter split between the two goes back some 14 centuries.
Shi'a Islam, also known as Shi'ite Islam or Shi'ism, is the second largest branch of Islam after Sunni Islam. Shias adhere to the teachings of Muhammad and the religious guidance of his family (who are referred to as the Ahl al-Bayt) or his descendants known as Shia Imams.
Shia doctrine is based on the teachings of the imams, descendants of Muhammad who were the original and sole interpreters of the Qur'an and Islamic articles of faith. Most Shia adhere to the Ithna 'Ashariyah or “Twelver” tradition, which is the official state religion of Iran.