Effect of sectarianism on the Muslim community in Cleveland, Ohio

In as much as Allah commands the Muslims to be moderate in every parameter of their life and to promote unity and constituents of unity are extremely prominent in all the Islamic injunctions and worships, the American Muslims have become divided into different sects because of political alignments and religious dogmas. The study therefore investigates sectarianism and its impact on the Muslim Community in Cleveland, Ohio with the specific objectives of describing the demographic characteristics of the respondents in the study area, identifying the types of sectarianisms among the Muslims, examining the factors responsible for sectarianism among the Muslims in the study area, as well as the impact of sectarianism among the Muslims in the study area. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 402 respondents based on Krejcje and Morgan (1970) sample size. Primary data collected through the use of structured questionnaires were analysed using descriptive statistics such as charts, graphs, and tables, frequencies and percentages were used. Also, inferential statistics specifically Logistic Regression Analysis was used to examine the factors responsible for sectarianism among the Muslims in the study area and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient was used to test the hypothesis of whether or not there exist significant relationship between the respondents’ demographic characteristics and act of sectarianism in the study area. The results revealed that 52 percent of the respondents are male and 48 percent female while majority (64%) are between the ages of 18-50 years of age. More than 50 percentage of them are in the colleges while 16.7 percent are either an undergraduate or postgraduate students in the University. Likewise, 54.0 percent of the respondents fall between the age of 18-50 years and about 15 percent of them are between 12-18 years of age while 21.1 percent are 50 years and above. Majority (20.9%) of them are students, 15.9 percent are artisants, 14.2 percent are business owners, 10.9 percent are laborers and 10.2 percent are medical professionals (Medical Doctors, Nurses etc). About 27.9 percent of the respondents are retirees, lecturers, cashier assistants, housewives, marketers etc. Furthermore, majority (74.4%) of them were Sunni, 7.7% were Ahmadists, 5.0% Quranist, 5.6% altogether belong to the Black Muslims, Liberalists, Modernists and Nation of Islam while 7.0% belong to no Islamic group/sect. In terms of sub-group, 38.1 percent belong to none of the sub-groups, 19.4 percent belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, 8.5 percent to the Nation of Islam, 8.2 percent to the Sufi and just 1.0 percent to the Jafari. About 0.2 percent each belong to the Kharijites, Salafis, Deobandis and Moorish Science. It was observed that seven of the fifteen fitted variables significantly determined acts of sectarianism in the area of study. The variables are age of the respondents, provision of mental health services by the mosque, Islamic programs offered, opportunity to study abroad, seeing worship as the most important part of Islam, seeing dawah as the most important part of Islam and working with people of the same creed. The study therefore recommends providing awareness about sectarianism and the callers to it, eradication of unpraiseworthy taqleed (blind following), drawing the awareness to having solidarity in Islam and the implementation of a three-phase initiative curriculum among others.