Religion, Family Law, and Recognition of Identity in Nigeria

In this Essay, I discuss some of the key features of Muslim-Christian contestation in Nigeria as revealed in a recent survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religious Life, titled Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa. I then discuss some of the Pew statistics that bear on the family and gender issues at the heart of the Sharia controversy. Finally, I offer some concluding reflections on whether Muslim-Christian contestation in Nigeria should be construed as a matter of religion qua religion or of \u27religion by proxy,\u27 on the prospects for moderate Sharia and juridical pluralism in Nigeria, and on the importance of identity for understanding religious conflict in Nigeria and elsewhere