Towards Creating Job Opportunities for Nigerian Muslims: A Lesson from the Economic Activities of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt

Abstract

The emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood as a socio-religious Muslim organisation in the twentieth century was a blessing to Muslims in Egypt. The organisation, through its socio-economic activities, offered employment opportunities to many Egyptians-Muslims and non-Muslims. There are many Muslim organisations in Nigeria with abundant human and material resources but quite number of the members of those viable Muslim organisations are without job. Going by the great impact of the economic activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, there are lessons to be learnt by Nigerian Muslim organisations. Adopting historical and contextual analytical research method, the findings of the study reveal that the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt established various educational and health institutions as well as several businesses including companies and factories to create job opportunities for the teeming population of Egyptian Muslims in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.  The study recommends that through the Islamic economic system of Muḍarabah (co-partnership) and Musharakah (joint/group ownership), Muslim organisations in Nigeria could form alliance by coming together as formidable groups to establish farm settlements, viable companies; world-class educational, financial and health institutions that will provide job opportunities for Nigerian Muslims. By adhering to the Islamic teaching on unity and cooperation, Muslim organisations in Nigeria can pool their resources together to create job opportunities for the Nigerian Muslims in particular and non-Muslim in general.