Understanding the Twists and Turns of Terrorism among Muslims in the Nigerian Experience: An Assessment

The history of humanity is replete with different acts of terrorism across ages and civilizations which takes  different forms but fundamentally, they reflect man‟s inhumanity to man. Basically, different ideologies form  the basis for such heinous acts. Nigeria, being a pluralistic society that is predominantly Muslims and Christians, has been faced with different forms of religious fundamentalism, extremism and terrorist attacks  in the past four decades especially arising from some sects under the guise of promoting Islamic ideology  for the establishment of „Islamic State‟ across the length and breadth of Nigeria. Engaging this issue through the historical, phenomenological and sociological research approaches, it was discovered that most  of these acts of religious radicalism, extremism and terrorism are often hinged on religious and ideological  manipulation, ignorance, poverty, absence of functional structure that promotes the operation of rule of law,  thus increasing the frequency of violence and its effects. The work therefore recommended among other  things the de-emphasizing of religious exclusivism, deconstruction of the age-long theologies of absolute  truth claim, e.t.c. The conclusion of the work is that, dignity of humanity must take precedence over every religious contravening ideology that often leads to brutality and dehumanization of fellow human beings.  

Keywords: Terrorism, Muslims, Radicalism, Development, De-radicalization, Ideologies.