The Rise and Proliferation of New Religious Movements (NRMs) in Nigeria
Murtala Ibrahim

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons behind the proliferation of new religious movements (NRMs) in Nigeria. This is because NRMs are growing in an environment in which mainstream religions have become highly institutionalized and dominate socio-politics of the state. The result of this research has shown that varieties of reasons have converged to make the proliferation of NRMs possible in Nigeria. The convergence reasons range from international factor such as globalization; national factors such as secularism, spread of education and urbanization and individual factors such as religious experience and existential crisis. It is also clear that members of NRMs are facing a lot of discrimination, accusations and negative stereotypes due to their unorthodox beliefs. However, after long time of ethnographic study among NRMs I came to the conclusion that the negative attitude toward NRMs is based on misinformation and misunderstanding.

Full Text: PDF