Praise Allah! Islam goes evangelical in Nigeria’s south
AFP People pray at the Nasfat Islamic Centre in Aseese, Ogun State, Nigeria. Image Credit: AFP Lagos: Sunday morning is usually the preserve of Christian pastors in the Nigerian megacity of Lagos but a new form of worship is emerging to challenge the monopoly. “Praise Allah!” shouts the imam of the Nasrul-lahi-li Fathi Society of Nigeria (Nasfat) before thousands of his faithful, gathered under tents on the outskirts of the city. Pacing up and down through the crowd, he punctuates his message with vigorous “Allahs” in the trademark bombastic style of Nigeria’s evangelical preachers. Entranced, men and women sitting on multi-coloured prayer mats, raise their hands to the heavens. Nasfat is one of a growing number of groups practising “charismatic Islam” in response to the massive success of pentecostal Christianity in Nigeria, said Ebenezer Obadare, a sociology professor at the University of Kansas. It has introduced “new modalities of prayer, modes of proselytising, a