A file photo of Nigerian Muslims performing prayers.

By Khedr Abdel Baki, IOL Correspondent

LAGOS, March 24, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – In the first move of its kind in the west African country, Nigerian Muslims are planning to build an Islamic housing compound, in an effort to establish an Islamic environment for Muslim families.

“The idea of the project came from a number of Muslim civil servants who want to live together with their families in an Islamic environment after they retire,” Alhaji Shuaib Salis, chairman of the Lighthouse company, the project executive firm, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, March 25.

The Islamic project will include a housing compound, shopping mall, mosque, Arab and Islamic-language schools, foreign language schools, multi-purpose lounge, sporting facilities and parks, he said.

The implementation of the Islamic compound, which will be established on the Lekki beach in Lagos, was launched with the beginning of this Hijri year (last February), Salis added.

Some 70 Nigerian Muslim families have already applied for units in the housing units in the Islamic compound, he said, stressing that the notification papers will be sent to the applicants within a few weeks to define the location of their housing units.

The cost of the Islamic compound is far cheaper than any other housing facilities in the same area, Salis stressed.

It has taken almost three years to plan for the project, which is expected to be completed within two years, he said.

On obstacles encountering the Islamic project, Salis stressed that he met no legal or administrative obstacles in implementing the project.

Nigeria’s recent census shows that Muslims make up 55 percent of the country’s 133 populations, Christians 40 percent and five percent atheists.

However, other estimates indicated that Muslims make up some 65 percent of the country.

Twelve of Nigeria’s 36 states have gradually applied the provisions of Shari`ah since the return of democracy to the country in 1999, despite fierce opposition from the federal government.

Hailed

Mikheel Adigun, a businessman, also hailed the Islamic project as an indication of Muslims’ ability to plan for establishing an environment of their own to righteously implement the Islamic tenets.

“The project will help solve daily problems facing Nigerian Muslims such as the night masses held by Christian Nigerians at their homes.”

Adigun, however, dismissed that the compound will be inhabited only by Muslims, stressing that the cost of each housing unit is the only factor defining residents of the units.

He voiced hope that a special rending system will be adopted on hiring the compound’s housing units in order to consider the relatively poor conditions of Nigerian Muslims.

The project is expected to attract large numbers of Nigerian Muslims desiring to live in the compound, especially from the city of Lagos.