Religious Texts as Models for Exclusion

Abstract

In the autumn of 1999, a major national crisis erupted in Nigeria. The governor of Zamfara State, one of the predominantly Islamic states of northern Nigeria, declared that from January 2000 Shar’ia law would form the legal basis of the state. This led to serious political confrontations between Christians and Muslims. Muslims argued that the Nigerian constitution secured them freedom of religion and that being a practicing Muslim implied the right to live in society based on Islamic law. Christians argued that since Nigeria was a secular country, neither the Qur’an nor the Bible could form the basis for the organization of the state. In their view, religion and politics were two separate spheres, and any religious influence on the foundation of the state would violate its secular nature (Imo 2008).

This chapter, based on revised and renewed synthesis of Kastfelt (2003 a, 2003b) and Kastfelt (2005a), is the result of a parallel and related work on religion and war in sub-Saharan Africa.