RELIGIOUS ISSUES IN A DEMOCRATIZING SOCIETY: AN ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVE

Abdur-Rahman Olalekan Olayiwola

Department of Political Science

Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria

E-mail: nusramurana@yahoo.co.uk

ABSTRACT

Fifty years of research into the political cultures and societies of democratizing developing countries, especially those of Africa, has demonstrated the vital importance of religion in shaping their politics, society and economy. Religion has been both a disintegrating and an integrating factor in those societies. Religion permeates all aspects of the society.  In Nigeria, the three main recognized religions-Christianity, Islam and Traditional -have followers that cut across all the six geo-political Zones of North-West, North –East, North-Central, South-West, South-East and South-South as well as the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. In addition, there are pockets of adherents of other religious as well as atheism. Religion has served historically as a primary glue in democratizing societies and as a primary motivator in their Socio-politico-economic development. Religions have served both a positive force in nation-building and a negative major line of social and political tensions in the past and the present. What are the religious issues in a democratizing society such as Nigeria from the Islamic view point? What is the relationship between religions and the state? This paper attempts to provide some answers