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Thread: The Competition for Believers in Africa Is Transforming Christianity and Islam

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    The Competition for Believers in Africa Is Transforming Christianity and Islam

    An interesting article about how both Islam and Christianity are transforming as they compete with one another for members.

    The Competition for Believers in Africa Is Transforming Christianity and Islam

    On a recent Sunday morning in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, members of the faithful clutched their hymn books and chanted God’s praises as they danced to the beat of tambourines. A preacher led the congregation in praying for the health of their children and success at work.

    The service resembled Pentecostal Christianity, a movement that originated in the U.S. and has swept Africa in the last few decades. But the participants weren’t Christians. They were Muslims, practicing an ecstatic style of worship that has developed in response to the challenge posed by Pentecostalism. Across sub-Saharan Africa, religion today is in ferment as different versions of Christianity and Islam vie for believers—a contest that is transforming both faiths and disrupting long-established terms of coexistence.




    Owing to population growth and the intensity of their religiosity, Africans are now one of the more important constituencies of both Islam and Christianity worldwide, and sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s most active and contested religious markets. The region was 59% Christian and 30% Muslim in 2020, according to the World Religion Database. “There is a new scramble for Africa,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Lethome of Jamia Mosque in Nairobi, Kenya, drawing an analogy with the colonization of the continent in the late 19th century. “Christianity is growing, Islam is growing, and there is competition.”

    On a continent where indigenous religions dominated just a century ago, Christian missionary efforts, associated with European colonization, have borne fruit in massive conversions. By 2020, there were 643 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, a quarter of the world total, up from 7.4 million in 1900. By 2050, it is projected that there will be 1.3 billion Christians in the region, or 38% of all the Christians in the world.

    Islam, which first came to sub-Saharan Africa in the 7th century, long had a more substantial presence than Christianity. Today, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for an increasing share of global Islam, and by 2037 is expected to have more Muslims than Islam’s historical heartland of the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Pew Research Center.
    Last edited by Peter1469; 06-24-2023 at 06:53 AM.
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    Pentecostal Muslims? Interesting

    It'll be interesting to see whether this competition creates a gentler society based on mutual respect or divides the people further.

    We live in interesting times.
    ""A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul" ~George Bernard Shaw

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    Quote Originally Posted by FindersKeepers View Post
    Pentecostal Muslims? Interesting

    It'll be interesting to see whether this competition creates a gentler society based on mutual respect or divides the people further.

    We live in interesting times.
    They can't get any more divided that they are in parts of Africa where machetes are used to settle differences between religions.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    They can't get any more divided that they are in parts of Africa where machetes are used to settle differences between religions.
    Disputes in Africa are far more often tribal than religious.

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    Quote Originally Posted by XavierOnassis View Post
    Disputes in Africa are far more often tribal than religious.
    That is likely correct. But was that true in Darfur?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    They can't get any more divided that they are in parts of Africa where machetes are used to settle differences between religions.
    Those stories are horrific. The US pumps so much money into Ukraine but we hear nary a whisper about the innocents being sliced and diced in Africa.
    ""A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul" ~George Bernard Shaw

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    Quote Originally Posted by FindersKeepers View Post
    Those stories are horrific. The US pumps so much money into Ukraine but we hear nary a whisper about the innocents being sliced and diced in Africa.
    True.
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