Islam has become indigenous to the Yoruba people of the Southwest of Nigeria coming only next to the indigenous African worship system as at the advent of Colonial rule in the Sub Saharan Africa. The emergence of Colonialism retarded greatly the progression ofIslamic propagation and activities that in the early twenties, the Muslims had been fully conscientised that the colonial regime had come to change not only their African culture but also to subordinate their religion to Christianity ,which was the Religion that came with them. The effect of the above resulted in the formation of organised movements to prevent further erosion of Islamic culture and conversion of Muslims to Christianity. These movements can be broadly divided into two, both of which Peter B.Clarke [1984] describes graphically as consisting of a movement of those who adopted introversive response by withdrawing from the society. While they did not literally emigrate or withdraw from the territory ruled by non-Muslims, they did withdraw mentally, spiritually and culturally from all contacts with European culture. The second movement consists of groups that I describe as the modernists. The group has: a “manupulationist” response, aimed at providing Muslims with the facilities and means to operate as Muslims within the framework of colonialism until such time as this framework was removed [Clarke 1984:194] The two movements described above consist of various groups of Islamic propagation that have continued to emerge from around 1923 to date in Yoruba land. The examples of those groups in the first kind of movement consists of such puritanical and conservative groups as the Bamidele group in Ibadan and a host of others who were inspired by the revolution of Imam Khomeini in Iran and the creed of the Saudi Wahabbists.

The second movement consists of the accommodating groups whose styles had been fashioned along the style of the colonialists in order to achieve their objectives. This includes the Ansar-ud-deen Society [founded 1923], Jamat-ul-Islamiyyah Society [founded 1924] and Ansar-ul-Islam Society [founded1926] by the charismatic preacher Shaykh Kamal-ud-deen al-Adabiy. In the colonial days, the impact of the activities of these groups became felt in the oscillation of the colonial powers’ policies between suppression of Muslim resistance and cooperation with Muslim groups. This group also include the recently founded Comparative Religious Groups and New Prayer groups such as NASFAT and QUAREEB referred to as Prayer Markets in the media on da`wah [propagation] activities. The activities of the various groups as contained in the two broad movements will be linked to the promotion of inter faith dialogue and peaceful coexistence among the votaries of different belief systems especially Islam and Christianity- a contrast from the past when mutual suspicion and disharmony were rampant among adherents of different belief systems. The aim of this paper is to put the position of Islam and the Muslims in Yoruba land in the right perspectives, thus establishing the factors that had influenced the formation of various Muslim movements in Yoruba land. The various stages the movements have passed through and the current attempts of creating accords through inter faith dialogue and peaceful co-existence.