Conflict and Violence at the Crossroad of Religion and ‘New’ Media

Recent engagement in local cinema production by northern Nigerian Muslims (Kannywood) elicited numerous religious disapproval from Islamists and a section of ʾulamāʾ leading to contestations, and even persecutions, especially after the Sharia reintroduction in the year 2000. This article discusses the role of religious and media actors in a structural violence context. It elucidates on how the stance of Islamists on Kannywood, which is pervasive among youths, reproduces factors and actors in the region’s history of intolerance, physical conflicts and ‘structural’ violence. This new media forms of religious conflict and violence accentuates the role played by the intersection of religion and ‘new’ media in conflicts and violence. It analyses how youth engagement in the movie industry and the interference of Islamists provoke new and reignite old modes of religious tensions. The data used was collected during a 12-month period of ethnographic research in northern Nigeria between 2014 and 2016 which was part of a Doctoral programme.