Between October 27 and 30, protesters from the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), a Shia religious organization led by the pro-Iranian Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, clashed with security services in and around Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The IMN reported that Nigerian security services had killed at least forty of its members during the marches.

On February 17, a gang of gunmen kidnapped more than forty students, teachers, and administrators from a secondary school in Niger State. At least one student was killed. President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered all four service chiefs to go to Niger State.

For the first time since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999, Nigerian Pentecostals find themselves on the outside looking in.

This is a guest post by Alex Thurston. Alex is the author of  Salafism in Nigeria: Islam, Preaching, and Politics, and is an assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Ser…