KANO, Nigeria— In a room next to the open-air student mosque at Bayero University, Abubakar Imam Ali-Agan nudged his red felt cap up off his forehead. A Koran, the edges of its pages blackened from use, lay on the table before him.

''We ought to be a Moslem state,'' he declared.

''Inshallah,'' murmured the two dozen students crowding around Mr. Ali-Agan. ''God willing.''

Here in the northern heartland of Nigeria, agitated demands for the gradual Islamization of the country are impassioned and growing louder. Calls to impose Islamic sharia courts in the largely Christian and animist south have been increasing. And the same voices are urging the Government to accept membership in the Islamic Conference Organization, a 45-member group of predominantly Islamic countries.

Islam binds this section of the country together, crossing ethnic and linguistic boundaries, defining the soul of the north. But across the south, from the eastern Ibo to the preserve of the Yorubas around Lagos, Islam is seen as a shadow spilling across Nigeria's shaky secularism. 'Potential to Destabilize'

''This really does have the potential to destabilize the country,'' said a banker here who is to move to Lagos soon. ''I think it is fair to say there is tension. It has always been there, but it's been on a more subdued level. It's always been there, but it's never been the real issue it is now in Nigeria.''

Most experts on Nigeria agree that Moslems constitute close to half of the total population of more than 80 million and that Christians make up roughly one third. Most of the rest are animists. The experts acknowledge that census information is not reliable and is out of date.

In Lagos, anxiety over the burst of Islamic fervor is acute. ''It's a dangerous, explosive trend,'' said Dele Giwa, editor of the influential weekly magazine News Watch. ''In the worst case, I see a situation where die-hard Christians and die-hard Moslems are fighting in the streets.''

For more than a month, northern religious leaders and traditional rulers, editorial writers and students have been campaigning for the establishment of sharia courts - religious courts for settling disputes between Moslems according to the dictates of the Koran - in the country's south.

Already, sharia courts in the north hear some civil and domestic matters. Criminal cases remain the province of government courts. 'Part and Parcel of Our Life'

''Sharia is part and parcel of our life,'' said Mr. Ali-Agan, who is the secretary of the Moslem Students of Nigeria at Bayero University. ''If you tell me there is no sharia, then I have no right to live here. If you are telling me sharia has no right to come to Nigeria, I cannot live in Nigeria as a Moslem.''

When Arab traders first started journeying by camel across the Sahara, one of the desert's tracks ended in what is now Kano. With them, the traders brought architectural styles and a flare for commerce. They also brought Islam.

Today the small modern portion of the city is jigsawed by sweeping boulevards intersecting in huge ''roundabouts'' echoing British colonial road design. Vespa drivers, the sleeves of their white robes billowing in the wind, dart between battered taxicabs. City workers in long pink cotton shirts sweep the gutters.

But it is behind 10-foot-high ocher-colored mud walls that the old city lies, the center of Kano life. Inside the old city, the ancient Kano market is still the scene of trading, a place where craftsmen embroider the multicolored pillbox hats, or fula, typical of this area, where money-changers squatting on mats will accept Swiss francs, Japanese yen or Canadian dollars, where metal workers under low mud arcades hammer silver stirrups and bridles. The Call to Prayer

Every day at 1 P.M., the call of the muezzin summoning Moslems to prayer strains faintly from the mosques scattered about. Trading slows. Women with jugs of water balanced on their heads trundle through the alleys that channel among the shops.

Plastic prayer mats, made at a factory in town owned by an Indian, are rolled out in darkened shops, next to piles of vegetables. In narrow side streets, thousands of faithful turn eastward and touch their foreheads to the ground.

''If you are looking for a perfect typical Hausa city, a Moslem city, it's Kano,'' said Abba Dabo, the managing director of The Triumph, the only daily newspaper published here. ''Here is a more traditional town, an older town.''

There is a widespread feeling here that the south has somehow sprinted ahead of the north in education, business and industry, that the south has made greater strides in escaping the restraints of tradition and that it is, as a consequence, unfairly prospering.

''Historically, the Hausa have not embraced Western education,'' Mr. Dabo said, referring to the ethnic group that dominates the north. ''Even here, so many people have come from villages to urban areas. They see that the reality is you have to speak English to get decent work. You have to have your education to get a job. They come from their villages and hate it. There was a tendency not to follow the rest of the country.'' Leaders Are From the North



http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/21/world/a-burst-of-moslem-fervor-in-nigeria-the-north-stirs-and-the-south-frets.html?pagewanted=all

Now I'm back from a lengthy ban, what did I miss!

[size=18pt]May Sango and Amadioha deal decisively with these air-headed fanatics simultaneously and spontaneously[/size]

d zoo must collapse. one nigeria na scam!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that the disintegration of Nigeria is gradually getting a push by the western media outfit. Huffington post reported on Biafra and now nytimes is writing an article about the subtle approach to islamization of Nigeria.
Why the sudden interest in Nigeria
What the hell is happening?
Following closely.

imhotep:
May Sango and Amadioha deal with these air-headed fanatics simultaneously and spontaneously

www.nairaland.com/attachments/3521335_babacalmdown_jpeg076babf1a4d8c993bdc283b59738857c
Shey dem offend u personally before ni

If ar hear

Though 1986 article the feeling has always being that way

McCarlito:

www.nairaland.com/attachments/3521335_babacalmdown_jpeg076babf1a4d8c993bdc283b59738857c
Shey dem offend u personally before ni

We don't need a fanatical religion that perpetuates illiteracy and shallow-mindedness.

TheArchangel:
I think that the disintegration of Nigeria is gradually getting a push by the western media outfit. Huffington post reported on Biafra and now nytimes is writing an article about the subtle approach to islamization of Nigeria.
Why the sudden interest in Nigeria
What the hell is happening?
Following closely.

You have a point though.
The sudden interest is highly suspicious.

Although that article is from way back in 1986

Na woah for this our con3.

imhotep:

You have a point though.
The sudden interest is highly suspicious.

Although that article is from way back in 1986

The general idea behind my resurfacing of this article is to show how much progress (as regards national integration and tolerance), if any, that we have made as a nation since 1986.

Ok

A Koran, the edges of its pages blackened from use, lay on the table before him.

Koran = Anarchist Cookbook

BushidoBlue:

The general idea behind my resurfacing of this article is to show how much progress (as regards national integration and tolerance), if any, that we have made as a nation since 1986.

This is from the 1950s

 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHDaHlTaHJw

TheArchangel:
I think that the disintegration of Nigeria is gradually getting a push by the western media outfit. Huffington post reported on Biafra and now nytimes is writing an article about the subtle approach to islamization of Nigeria.
Why the sudden interest in Nigeria
What the hell is happening?
Following closely.

it's only somebody who's 'dead-headed' that will take this useless and fake piece to heart. Very dry article. He even quoted Dele Giwa as if he's alive.
*modified*
this was dug up from the archive by the children of hate.

Just imagine. Their intolerance and hatred for other people have pushed them to exhume articles as old as their great grand parents to validate their idiotic propaganda.

The kind of Christianity some people practice makes me wonder what kind of bibles they read...

I regret sharing a common country with these "humans".

Tufiakwa!!

Caseless:
it's only somebody who's 'dead-headed' that will take this useless and fake piece to heart. Very dry article. He even quoted Dele Giwa as if he's alive.

The person who is dead headed would be someone who sees an article from 1986, reads about Dele Giwa and not draw a connection to the fact that the underlying issues are as alive in 2016 in the Nigerian polity as they were in 1986.

omenka:
Just imagine. Their intolerance and hatred for other people have pushed them to exhume articles as old as their great grand parents to validate their idiotic propaganda.

The kind of Christianity some people practice makes me wonder what kind of bibles they read...

I regret sharing a common country with these "humans".

Tufiakwa!!

I can bet the reason why this thread hit your radar was because it began with NY Times.



To think that you see no correlation between the issues of 1986 - the intolerance experienced then and the issues faced in 2016 makes you, wait... we're you born then?


Besides I have one word for you Omenka...


No make the two...

Benue.

Agatu.

This was dangerous then, and it is still dangerous today.

Islam and hate agenda are like bread n butter.

omenka:
Just imagine. Their intolerance and hatred for other people have pushed them to exhume articles as old as their great grand parents to validate their idiotic propaganda.

The kind of Christianity some people practice makes me wonder what kind of bibles they read...

I regret sharing a common country with these "humans".

Tufiakwa!!

you don't need to regret man.... the regret is ours for using our oil to feed the illiteracy beheading north and the terrorist clan, without the north the south will be like dubai God knws

Following...

omenka:
Just imagine. Their intolerance and hatred for other people have pushed them to exhume articles as old as their great grand parents to validate their idiotic propaganda.

The kind of Christianity some people practice makes me wonder what kind of bibles they read...

I regret sharing a common country with these "humans".

Tufiakwa!!

I have said it, Nigerian christians are the most vindictive and hateful christians on planet earth.

PMBisaterrorist:


you don't need to regret man.... the regret is ours for using our oil to feed the illiteracy beheading north and the terrorist clan, without the north the south will be like dubai God knws

shut up! What's oil to a notherner? What do u do with ur huge allocation down south?

Caseless:
shut up! What's oil to a notherner? What do u do with ur huge allocation down south?

The SS people who actually have rights to the oil don't make as much noise as the SE that has none.

Let them continue screaming about the oil as they've been doing for the past 50 years, while those that actually own the oil blocs and manage its administration smile to the bank in their Kaftans.

fulanimafia:


The SS people who actually have rights to the oil don't make as much noise as the SE that has none.

Let them continue screaming about the oil as they've been doing for the past 50 years, while those that actually own the oil blocs and manage its administration smile to the bank in their Kaftans.

I don't know why the land-grabbers from the 'land-locked' region of SE claim what's not theirs.

imhotep:
[size=18pt]May Sango and Amadioha deal decisively with these air-headed fanatics simultaneously and spontaneously[/size]

That was 1986 and we are yet to be islamised; anyone with sense would see this is a scheme by foreign powers to divide Nigeria.

Since that time Christianity in places like kaduna, Kogi and Benue has increased , Christians and Muslims in SW have continued to exist like it is not a factor(which truly it ain't)

I was reading it till I got to "dele giwa" and then gave up, even the dele giwa himself is long dead and gone. R.I.P

Where too much hatred abides, war is inevitable. If war is effected by stupidity, allowing hatred to get the better of you is monumental folly. No religious/ethnic war is smart.

NY times must be gullible like Biafrans for penning down this truth.

I am a Sai baba zombie and i know gullible people when I see one. If you believe our APC lies you are sensible but if you belive truth like this you are Gullible.

Caseless:
it's only somebody who's 'dead-headed' that will take this useless and fake piece to heart. Very dry article. He even quoted Dele Giwa as if he's alive.
*modified*
this was dug up from the archive by the children of hate.

I agree with you, because you are a muslim it is fake and anyone who believes it must be 'gullible' like Ipod. I'm sure that if Ipods say it is 'fake' because you want it to be fake, ipods suddenly will become sensibl to you.

Nigeria is going down whether you like it or not. Go and do unity with your chadian brothers.

omenka:
Just imagine. Their intolerance and hatred for other people have pushed them to exhume articles as old as their great grand parents to validate their idiotic propaganda.

The kind of Christianity some people practice makes me wonder what kind of bibles they read...

I regret sharing a common country with these "humans".

Tufiakwa!!

So it is no longer 'fake' it is 'old'?
@bold The feeling is mutual buddy.

What do we do to make you unite with your fulani masters ONLY.