Nigeria
The populations of Christians and Muslims in Nigeria are nearly equal in number. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni and are concentrated in the northern area of the country, while Christians dominate in the middle belt and south.
The Islamist insurgency, or the Sharia conflict in Nigeria, began in 1999 with the establishment of the Islamic law in several Muslim-majority northern states, despite the secular Constitution of Nigeria and the disapproval of the Christian minority.
From 2000 onward, occasional riots between Christians and Muslims have resulted in thousands of deaths. Since 2009, when the Islamist group Boko Haram began an armed rebellion against the secular government, the conflict has spiraled into a more violent phase.
Many Nigerians argue that the real reason for the violence is not the ethnic or religious differences, but the scramble for land, scarce resources and political clout.
Andrew Kakabadse, professor of international management development at the U.K.-based Cranfield School of Management, blames a lethal combination of outside oil interests, longstanding local conflicts, and poverty, for the sectarian strife.
“In Nigeria, the Christian-Muslim thing is the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “What’s underneath the water is a much more complex sociopolitical situation, which cannot be explained just in terms of the religious divide. You have a recipe ripe for conflict, and it just so happens to be Christian-Muslim.”
