While we know that Christians and Muslims may apply their religions to politics in various ways that encourage or discourage peaceful political participation, support for democratic processes, and tolerance for ideological and religious differences, we have yet to understand and explain this variation very well. Based largely on research conducted in Nigeria, and to a lesser extent on other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, this book points to qualitative data (i.e. narrative accounts of events and in-depth interviews) and quantitative data (i.e. mass survey research) to suggest that Christian and ... More

While we know that Christians and Muslims may apply their religions to politics in various ways that encourage or discourage peaceful political participation, support for democratic processes, and tolerance for ideological and religious differences, we have yet to understand and explain this variation very well. Based largely on research conducted in Nigeria, and to a lesser extent on other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, this book points to qualitative data (i.e. narrative accounts of events and in-depth interviews) and quantitative data (i.e. mass survey research) to suggest that Christian and Islamic religious communities tend to become more conducive to actions and attitudes compatible with liberal democracy in religiously diverse and integrated settings than in religiously homogeneous settings or religiously diverse settings that are highly segregated along religious lines. While many analysts have thought that religious diversity in developing countries is most often an obstacle to liberal democracy, this book concludes just the opposite. Religious diversity, if followed by religious integration, is good for liberal democracy and, in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, Christian and Islamic religious communities have contributed more effectively to the formation of a liberal democratic political culture in settings that have long been religiously diverse and integrated than in those settings that have long been religiously homogeneous or highly segregated.