Islam in Niger accounts for the vast majority of the nation's religious adherents. The faith is practiced by more than 99.3% of the population, although this figure varies by source and percentage of the population who are classified as Animist. The vast majority of Muslims in Niger are Malikite Sunni with Salafi influences. Many of the communities who continue to practice elements of traditional religions do so within a framework of syncretic Islamic belief, making agreed statistics difficult. Islam in Niger, although dating back more than a millennium, gained dominance over traditional religions only in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and has been marked by influences from neighboring societies. Sufi brotherhoods have become the dominant Muslim organization, like much of West Africa. Despite this, a variety of interpretations of Islam coexist—largely in peace—with one another as well as with minorities of other faiths. The government of Niger is secular in law while recognising the importance of Islam to the vast majority of its citizens.
Demographics
Majority of Muslims are Sunni with many of those being linked to the Tijaniya Sufi brotherhoods. Approximately 7% are Shi'a and 6% Ahmadi. Hammallism and Sanusiya sects have had historic influence in the far west and far northeast of the county in the colonial period, while sections of Nyassist Sufi orders and Arab Wahhabite followers have appeared in the last thirty years.
History
Islam was spread into what is now Niger beginning in the 15th century, by both the expansion of the Songhai Empire in the west, and the influence of the Trans-Saharan trade traveling from the Maghreb and Egypt. Tuareg expansion from the north, culminating in their seizure of the far eastern oases from the Kanem-Bornu Empire in the 17th centuries, spread distinctively Berber practices. Both Zarma and Hausa areas were greatly influenced by the 18th and 19th century Fula led Sufi brotherhoods, most notably the Sokoto Caliphate (in today's Nigeria).
The region around Say, on the Niger River was a center of Sufi religious instruction and Maliki legal interpretation, imported by Fulani clerics in the 1800s. While the Qadiriyyah Sufi orders were dominant in Northern and eastern Niger in the 19th century, as well as those areas under the sway of the Sokoto Caliphate, the first two decades of the 20th century saw the rise of the Tijaniya, especially in the west of the country. Militantly anti-colonial Hammallism spread from Mali in the northwest in the 1920s, while much of the Kaocen Revolt of Tuareg groups was inspired by Sanusiya sects in what is today Libya. More recently, Senegalese Nyassist Sufi teachers, especially in the Dosso area have gained converts, while some small Arab Wahhabite teaching is funded in Niger—as in much of Africa—through Saudi Arabian missionary groups.
Contemporary Islam
Government support
The government does not directly fund religion and is legally separated from religious practice, but has funded several Muslim-oriented programs, such as a Muslim radio ministry and given US$18.5 Million in 1982 towards the establishment of the Islamic University of Niger in Say, itself founded and partially funded through donations from the Arab world.
The government has made three Muslim feasts national holidays, as well as two Christian holidays.