RELIGIOUS FANATICISM: A THREAT TO NIGERIA’S UNITY

Abstract

Religious fanaticism is an irrational practice of religion in which religionists make use of violence to promote their religious faith and teachings and give this evil practice a religious backing. Fanaticism remained a source of conflict which has brought about loss of lives, destruction of property, political instability, and social unrest. The paper is aimed at reducing the level of religious crises in Nigeria. The paper adopted descriptive phenomenological method. The paper identifies poverty, corruption, colonialism, ethnic and religious politics, and non-acceptance of secular nature of Nigerian state as the causes of religious fanaticism in Nigeria. After a logical analysis of some written work, the paper concluded that religious fanaticism hasdestroyed social peace, security, and disruption of order in Nigeria, many lives and properties were destroyed. The paper recommends among others that government should be separated from religious matters.