Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how global Islamic politics, particularly one between Iran and Saudi Arabia, shapes the ambiguous religious pluralism approach embraced by the Shaykh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky-led Shia group and how that complicates and reshapes the local religious landscape in Nigeria.

Paper long abstract:

When Iran’s revolutionary army ousted Shah’s government in 1979, some members of the Yan’uwa Musulmi (Muslim Brotherhood), a Sunni religious movement in Nigerian universities dressed like Ayatollah Khomeini to show their support. It heralded a new motivation for their struggles to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. A decade later, a splinter group of Yan’uwa Musulmi led by el-Zakzaky converted to Shi’ism. With the help of the Iranian government, he led the propagation of Shi’i faith across Nigeria. The emergence of this Shia group amidst the growing influence of Saudi-backed Salafi groups marked a significant shift in the local, regional, transregional, and global entanglements in the activities of Muslim reform movements in Nigeria. In this paper, I examine how global Islamic politics shapes the ambiguous religious pluralism approach embraced by the el-Zakzaky-led Shia group and how that complicates and reshapes Nigeria’s religious landscape. Based on his view that there is a global Islamic movement led by Iran, el-Zakzaky considered his Shia group as its Nigerian branch and named it Harkat al-Islamiyah fi Nigeria (Islamic Movement in Nigeria). While the IMN opposes contemporary Sunni Islam leadership, it exploits the legacies of Usman dan Fodio, the iconic nineteenth-century Sunni reformer as its basis for promoting Shia ideologies. I also analyze how IMN’s approach of integrating groups within the movement (e.g., culturally marginal groups such as ‘yan gayu (a highly cosmopolitan youth category) and non-Muslims) that are in many ways opposed to mainstream Islam feeds into global Islamic politics and complicates local one