CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Religion and politics are two major is a belief that strives to provide satisfactory answers to devotees about life, death and rebirth, about man, his fate and his place in the universe (Beier, 1979). The world-views of a people, community or individual are embedded on their religious thinking which most times interlace with indigenous cultures. Here, culture meets and mixes with religion to feed the social and spiritual needs of society or the forces that drive it. Society thrives on the Worldviews of people and their relation to other societies is dependent on how they use or relay power in their social engagements and interactions with people within and outside their religious-cultural brackets. Hence, religion and politics as well as culture cannot be estranged from each other in societal and social construction.
People’s beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life plunge into the margin of the power relationships that exist in specific areas of the society. The interrelationships between people, groups, organizations or nations in a particular area of life or international accord especially insofar as they involve power and influence or conflict are affected by the culture and world-views that the social order subscribes towards.
Religions can be categorized in different ways according to the specific characteristics of faiths and how religious groups are organized. In different societies and among different religious groups, the forms religion take reflects differing belief systems, mirrors and supports other features of the society. Believing in one god or many, or worshiping in small or large groups and associating religious faith with politics all contribute to the social organization of religion and its relationship to the rest of society. Politics and Religion Impulse in African Arabic Drama: a Study of Tewfiq Al-Hakim’s the Sultan’s Dilemma and the Fate of a Cockroach
