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Janson, Marloes (2020) 'Crossing Borders: The Case of NASFAT or “Pentecostal Islam” in Southwest Nigeria.' Social Anthropology, 28 (2). pp. 418-433.

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Abstract

The Pentecostal movement in Nigeria, with its emphasis on this‐worldly blessings and healing, has become so vibrant that today even Muslim organisations appear to be increasingly ‘Pentecostalised’. Nasrul‐Lahi‐il Fathi Society of Nigeria or NASFAT is a case in point. In an effort to compete with Pentecostalism on Yorubaland‘s religious marketplace, NASFAT has copied Pentecostal prayer forms, such as the crusade and night vigil, while emphasising Muslim doctrine. As such, the case of NASFAT illustrates that religious borrowing does not imply that religious boundaries do not matter: indeed, NASFAT is a powerful example of the preservation of religious differences through the appropriation of Pentecostal styles and strategies. In this spirit, religiously plural movements such as NASFAT prompt us to unlock analytical space in the nearly hermetically sealed anthropologies of Islam and Christianity and to develop a comparative framework that overcomes essentialist notions of religious diversity.

Item Type: Journal Article
Additional Information: This is a journal article that is part of a special issue of Social Anthropology, entitled 'Religiosity and its Others: Lived Islam in West Africa and South India', co-edited by Ammara Maqsood, Leslie Feysenmeyer, and Giulia Liberatore. The issue will come out in Spring 2020. This is a revised version of a chapter in my forthcoming book.
Keywords: comparative religion, religious pluralism, Muslim-Christian relations, Islamic reform, Nigeria
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Department of Anthropology & Sociology
ISSN: 09640282
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12769
Date Deposited: 27 Feb 2020 16:45
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/32196
Funders: Other

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