Islam inNiger accounts for the vast majority of thenation's religious adherents. The faith is practiced by more than 99.3% of the population,[1] although this figure varies by source and percentage of the population who are classified asAnimist. The vast majority ofMuslims inNiger areMalikiteSunni. Many of the communities who continue to practice elements of traditional religions do so within a framework ofsyncretic Islamic belief, making agreed statistics difficult. Islam in Niger, although dating back more than a millennium, gained dominance over traditional religions only in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and has been marked by influences from neighboring societies.Sufi brotherhoods have become the dominant Muslim organization, like much of West Africa. Despite this, a variety of interpretations of Islam coexist—largely in peace—with one another as well as with minorities of other faiths. The government of Niger is secular in law while recognising the importance of Islam to the vast majority of its citizens.
Majority of Muslims areSunni with many of those being linked to the Tijaniya Sufibrotherhoods. Approximately 7% areShi'a and 6%Ahmadi.[2][3] Hammallism andSanusiya sects have had historic influence in the far west and far northeast of the county in the colonial period, while sections of Nyassist Sufi orders and Arab Wahhabite followers have appeared in the last thirty years.[4]
Islam was spread into what is now Niger beginning in the 15th century, by both the expansion of theSonghai Empire in the west, and the influence of theTrans-Saharan trade traveling from theMaghreb andEgypt.Tuareg expansion from the north, culminating in their seizure of the far eastern oases from theKanem-Bornu Empire in the 17th centuries, spread distinctivelyBerber practices. BothZarma andHausa areas were greatly influenced by the 18th and 19th centuryFula led Sufi brotherhoods, most notably theSokoto Caliphate (in today's Nigeria).[5]
The region around Say, on theNiger River was a center of Sufi religious instruction and Maliki legal interpretation, imported byFulani clerics in the 1800s. While theQadiriyyah Sufi orders were dominant in Northern and eastern Niger in the 19th century, as well as those areas under the sway of the Sokoto Caliphate, the first two decades of the 20th century saw the rise of theTijaniya, especially in the west of the country. Militantly anti-colonial Hammallism spread fromMali in the northwest in the 1920s, while much of theKaocen Revolt of Tuareg groups was inspired by Sanusiya sects in what is todayLibya. More recently, SenegaleseNyassist Sufi teachers, especially in theDosso area have gained converts, while some small ArabWahhabite teaching is funded in Niger—as in much of Africa—throughSaudi Arabian missionary groups.[4]
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The government does not directly fund religion and is legally separated from religious practice, but has funded several Muslim-oriented programs, such as a Muslim radio ministry and given US$18.5 Million in 1982 towards the establishment of theIslamic University of Niger inSay, itself founded and partially funded through donations from the Arab world.[6]
The government has made three Muslim feasts national holidays, as well as two Christian holidays.[7]
In the 1990s there surfaced agitation for a move to the institutionalization of aSharia legal system or even anIslamic Republic, attributed to elements of the Hausa-based Islamist movements across the border inNigeria. The Maradi-basedMovement for Suppressing Innovations and Restoring Sunnah (IZALA), allegedly funded by clerics fromJos, Nigeria,[8] pushed for greater adherence to their interpretation of Muslim law, and the conversion of those practicing other religions or holding Muslim interpretations inconsistent with these clerics.[9][10][11] Tensions between these groups rose during the political instability marking the end of the Third Republic (1993–1996), attributed also to population movements of rural syncretic Muslims because of food shortages and political involvement of Nigerian groups and of the Niger military government who seized power between 1996 and 1999.[12][13] Tensions culminated in a series of November 2000 riots surrounding a French run Niamey based fashion show which they deemed immoral. Violence in Niamey andMaradi, the center for most fundamentalist groups, spread to attacks on government, western, and Christian missionaries. The Nigerien government under both the Third Republic and (current) Fifth Republic has been swift and harsh in crackdowns on groups suspected of promoting religious intolerance, banning a number of religious groups and imprisoning leaders. Niger maintains its status as asecular state enshrined in the constitution of the Fifth Republic.[14]
These events were seen then and now as more exception than rule, with interfaith relations deemed very good, and the forms of Islam traditionally practiced in most of the country marked by tolerance of other faiths and lack of restrictions on personal freedom.[15]Divorce andPolygyny are unremarkable, women are not secluded, and head coverings are not mandatory—they are often a rarity in urban areas.[16] Alcohol, such as the locally producedBière Niger, is sold openly in most of the country.
Despite a long history in what is today Niger, Islam did not become the dominant faith of many rural areas until the 20th century. The continuation of some elements of traditional beliefs continue both is small isolated pockets, and in practices of larger groups of nominal Muslim Nigeriens. Communities who continue to practice elements of traditional religions are often marked out as ethnic sub groups of theSonghay, theKanouri (theManga sub group), or Hausa (theMaouri/Azna/Mawri). The distinction between these groups and their Muslim neighbors is often a gradient. As well, elements of some Muslim communities continue to practice traditional spirit possession cults, active in the late 19th century. These include the "holey" cults of the Djerma and theBori cult of the Hausa.[17]
