Conversion to Islam and Modernity in Nigeria: A View from the Underworld

Since September 11, conversions to Islam have worried strategic analysts, as neophytes are usually considered to be more extremist than traditional Muslims. From Asia to Africa, the issue is now a question that deserves commentary. We have to distinguish (1) conversion from one religion to another, (2) "internal" conversion (a "born-again" phenomenon for Christians), and (3) the discovery of God, especially for animists in Africa or atheists and agnostics in the West. When we consider these types together, the expansion of Islam in Africa remains mysterious, not only because its appeal would need further investigation to be fully understood, but also because it raises doubts on the reality of its growth. Hence this paper challenges common assumptions. We have no scientific measurement of the progression of Islam in Africa. Nigeria, the most populous country on the continent, is an interesting case-study in this regard, because it has experienced many religious confrontations between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South. In the first part of this article, we show that there are no rational proofs about the growth of Islam, only clues. In the second part, we question the development of Islam among non-Muslim societies, as compared to the rapid propagation of Christianity in the Middle Belt. In the third part, we study political conversions to Islam in the South, where Muslims constitute a minority of the population. By studying Asari Dokubo and his Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, we attempt to understand the attraction of Islam for gangsters or warlords who oppose a Christian elite. Their conversion seems quite paradoxical because it can repulse their non-Muslim followers. And one wonders what is radical in such a process: Islam or the converted?