question: why are there no Ibo / Igbo Muslims

I reflected during the weekend on our Muslim brothers/sisters, they had their festival(last 27^th, 28^th) – the remembrance of when a ram was miraculously provided for father Abraham to use in sacrifice instead of his son.

I had to greet a couple of people, neighbors, passers by around me Happy Holidays, Barka de Sala (thats the only Islamic greeting I know). And especially the Muslims, I watched as they went to pray last Friday, and I quite loved the idea that entire families trooped to the prayer ground near my house, decked in new and colorful outfits. It struck me that I didn’t find any Ibo/Igbos among those trooping to the prayer ground. I began to wonder if there are / if there aren’t any Muslims who are Ibos/Igbos, and vice-versa – or perhaps, if there are, and they are not the serious type.

I’ve done a 3–day(Friday, Saturday, Sunday) question and answer and the general conclusion is that the average Ibo/Igbo is a Christian. With the word ‘average’ quite notable, I asked Why?. “They were colonized as Christians and it has continued since then”. “Colonized as Christians” left me wondering if there has been a conscious passing of Christianity from Ibo/Igbo father to son / mother to daughter since ‘colonization’ – much like the story of the house of the Rechabites in the Bible; or perhaps the ‘average Ibo/Igbo’ is just a Christian by default – the typical /average Pastors kid, who is a Christian from the womb. Not that I doubt their(Ibo/Igbo) profession of Christian faith, I was just curious why there are no Islamics among them.

One of my respondents though gave me an answer I didn;t expect: “if you see Ibo wey say he be Muslim, the guy na guy-man, na money hin dey find. Tomorrow, you go find the guy for Church, he go tell you say he be Pastor.”

While I would take the above answer with a grain of salt, I do not suppose there hasn’t been any Ibos/Igbos who have crossed over from Christianity to Islam – just like there are a lot of Muslims who have become Christians among the Yorubas and Hausas. Perhaps there are, who are in the hiding.

Anyway, I would like to gather more information on my above observation: why are there no Ibo/Igbo Muslims?

your comments are appreciated.

question: why didn’t Joseph tell Pharaoh about the God of his Abraham and Isaac

I read Bill Isaccs’ Embracing Destiny over the weekend, the story of Joseph: his struggles caused by being the favorite of his father, hated by his brothers, sold into Egypt, tempted by Potiphars wife and thrown into Jail for false accusation, forgotten in prison by a friend, miraculously remembered, interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, became a prime minister in Egypt, forgave his brothers, moved his father and brothers to a choice property in Egypt, saw the fulfilment of his childhood dreams, married Pharaoh’s daughter, rescued Egypt in the time of famine, lived a good life. It sure is the story of grass to grace, poverty to riches, death to life.

It then occured to me, I don’t know why, that after/eventhough Joseph became a force to be reckoned with in Egypt, he never told anyone: not Pharaoh, not his own servants, nobody; the Bible has no record of Joseph telling anyone about the God of his Fathers: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – ‘preaching the gospel’ in todays Christian lingo.

When the above just crossed my mind, I didn’t know what to make of it: whether Joseph tried and / unfortunately his attempts didn’t make an impact / were not recorded / such a record wasn’t important; or he kept his beliefs to himself – being more of a personal believer; or maybe ‘evangelism’ wasn’t necessary in those days; or maybe Joseph just didn’t bother, etc.

Joseph sure had faith in God, else he won’t have been able to pull through all his hardships. He must have remembered whatever Jacob his father taught him as a child, about the God of Abraham and Isaac, about Gods covenant with Abraham, etc; and his memories must have kept him going from the pit in the field to his sit next to Pharaoh. I also do not suppose Joseph joined idol worship /pers in Egypt, coz when he died, he requested that his bones to be taken out of Egypt with Israel to wherever they were going – the promised land.

Therefore, at one time or the other, Pharaoh and the Egyptians must have noticed that Joseph didn’t subscribe to their own form of worship/religious beliefs. They must have seen him look up to the skies, ‘pray’ or perform some form of worship to a God different from theirs. They must have asked him the source of his wisdom as an interpreter of dreams – and I ‘just think’ he could have had several opportunities to tell somebody about his grandfathers God, and his own beliefs.

Or maybe I might be taking things too far. Anyway, my mind is just running on this one.

Your opinions are welcome:

– why didn’t Joseph tell Pharaoh about the God of his fathers?

– did Joseph tell any Egyptian about the God of his fathers?

 

note for Pastor Bill Isaacs, if you stumble across this: your book is a great encouragement.

Tags: Embracing+Destiny,+Bill+Isaacs

question: what is the difference between a Catholic Bishop and an Anglican Bishop

question: what is the difference between a Catholic Bishop and an Anglican Bishop?