Demographic correlates of Christians’ and Muslims’ interfaith insensitivity when communicating with African Traditional Religion adherents in Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Religion, Christianity, Islam, Interfaith sensitivity, CommunicationAbstract
Interfaith insensitivity is one of the manifestations of prejudice towards adherents of other faiths, and the challenge of interreligious crises in Nigeria is often directly or indirectly linked to it. While interreligious crises have received much scholarly attention, studies are rare on the relationship between interfaith insensitivity and the demographic characteristics of Nigerians. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between interfaith insensitivity and selected demographic characteristics (gender, age, level of education, average monthly income, and religious hierarchy) of Muslims and Christians in Iwo, a Muslim-dominated town in Southwest Nigeria. The study was a survey where 436 Muslims and 422 Christians participated. The majority of the participants (88.3% Muslims and 91.2% Christians) were youths. The study’s independent samples t-test findings affirmed that Muslim males had higher levels of interfaith insensitivity than Muslim females (t = 3.63; p < .01); however, there was no significant difference between Christian males’ and females’ levels of interfaith insensitivity. The Pearson correlation matrix results showed that as Muslims’ age, levels of income, and religious hierarchy increased, their levels of interfaith insensitivity reduced (Age r = -.21, Sig (p) < .01; Average monthly income r = -.35, Sig (p) < .01; and Religious hierarchy r = -.23, Sig (p) < .01). However, contrary to expectation, the results also showed that as Muslims’ levels of education increased, their levels of interfaith insensitivity increased (r = .11, Sig (p) < .05). For the Christian participants, levels of interfaith insensitivity reduced with increasing age (r = -.14, Sig (p) < .01), but it had no significant relationship with their levels of education, average monthly income, or religious hierarchy
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