Islamic Banking: A Controversial Position of the Christian Association of Nigeria on Ethical Financial Services and Economic Sabotage

The Central Bank of Nigeria approved the license of Non-interest financial institutions in the country in 2012. The approval has generated many issues and religious arguments everywhere in the country. Some supported the initiative to address poverty and financial exclusion, while others perceived Islamizing the financial sector. The study adopted a survey approach, while the questionnaires used and analyzed public perception, specifically in the Plateau State, Nigeria, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The primary data survey questionnaire got 360 respondents. Some feel sensitive enough to oppose the system that is not imposed on any religious or ethical background, while others criticize the entire process of Islamic Banks in Nigeria. The study found that Islamic banks are established based on the fundamental Islamic teachings and originated from the Qur'an and the authentic Prophet Muhammad's teachings, which challenged some conventional financial institutions' practices that indicate a clear note of avoidance of such conventional facilities. Further, indicate that the Christian Association of Nigeria is sabotaging the momentum of Non-interest financial institutions through religious hate, and ignorance and sabotaging government policy to prevent the institutional contribution toward national development and economic growth in the country; using different approaches to frustrate the funding process of some government projects through Non-interest financial institutions. The paper recommends that regulatory bodies of financial institutions, specifically the Central Bank of Nigeria, should clear misunderstandings of the Christian Association of Nigeria towards national development, create awareness, and avoid discrimination in service delivery by pinpointing Islamic banking in the county.


INTRODUCTION
Islamic financial Institution has been considered and operates on a global rise that laid Nigeria's stronghold. The first Islamic bank licensed and approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was Jaiz Bank plc, the country's first and ever Islamic bank. The bank started its activities as a regional interest-free Islamic bank in Northern Nigeria. The activities of Islamic Bank differ from conventional operations, where conventional systems are based on interest-bearing, and Islamic Bank operates based on Shariah compliance or Sharia law. Interest rates, gambling, speculation, and uncertainty were restricted and prohibited. One of the nagging experiences encountered by Non-interest financial institutions (Islamic Bank) in Nigeria is deciding to follow in the developed world's footsteps after the 2007 financial crisis. Europe and other developed countries introduced and adopted Islamic financial institutions. Such counties are tapping into their services, especially in the capital market, and currently, Nigeria is one of the beneficiaries (Alharbi, 2015). Those mentioned above are just a few; however, it is recorded that 300 Islamic banks are operating in over 48 countries around the globe, including the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France, Singapore, China, India, Australia, and the United Kingdom, not excluded . These countries and regions mentioned were majorities Christian and practiced Christianity; however, the Islamic financial institutions were accepted and embraced for the development of the economy of the respective countries and sustainability development (Rabbani et al., 2021). Unlike the Nigerian scenario, where the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has been fighting the system since its exception. Recently, the Christian Association of Nigeria called for the rejection of Islamic Capital Market SUKUK from Islamic financial institutions, which claimed that financial institutions intended to Islamize Nigeria while the government is looking for funds to develop and fund infrastructural development in the country (Adelopo et al., 2021). Saiti et al., (2019) reported the statement of the CAN President on the proposed bill to establish Islamic Banking as a plan to Islamize Nigeria. He carpeted the House of Representatives as mere acting on the written script.
Further disclosed that passing the bill by the national assembly was shameful and disappointing as they hid behind the pressing economic growth and workability policy, which appears to be an attempt to Islamize the country. However, the system and the activities fought by Islamic banks, such as interest rates, were also categorically fought by biblical content, such as  (Muhammad & Khalil, 2021). Senegal has approved Jaiz International Bank Plc as the country's first Islamic Bank. Muhammad et al., (2018) noted that Jaiz Bank could not function as a profit-and-loss bank simply due to its failure to increase the minimum capital requirement of N25 billion. So he accused the CBN Governor of cutting capital requirements for Islamic banks to just N10 billion Acquire' National Bank' status for N25 billion set aside for deposits Bank. The Islamic Bank consists of certain attributes and guidelines as

RESEARCH METHOD
The study employed the quantitative approach using a structured questionnaire for data collection. A total of 360 respondents were from the Northern states. A convenience sample approach was followed in the survey.
The study's validity and reliability assessments were conducted for the effectiveness of the survey instrument. In addition, AMOS and SPSS version 23 data were used based on structural Equation Modeling.
The study assessed measurement models using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) based on people's perceptions. However, the constructs items of the descriptive outcomes and reporting part of the outcomes through the structural models evaluated the hypotheses directly. Therefore, the models Chi-square (χ2) indicated the significant value and considered the significant pvalue (Hair et al., 2012).

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Research Findings
The  The constructs were perfectly loaded with 0.5 above, which shows the goodness are fit based on model measurement, and requirements were made and reflect the factor loading for all variables measured as indicated and recommended by the above theories.

Religious Hate (RH) significantly affects Islamic Bank (IB)
The

Ignorance (IG) significantly affects Islamic Bank (IB)
The hypothesis indicates Ignorance (IG) positively affects the Islamic Bank (IB) in the probability of getting a critical ratio as large as 6.021 in absolute value is less than 0.001. In other words, the regression weight for Ignorance in the

Sabotage Government Policy (SGP) significantly affects Islamic Bank (IB)
The Sabotage Government (SB) positively affects Islamic Bank (IB). The probability of getting a critical ratio as large as 6.129 in absolute value is less than 0.001. In other words, the regression weight for Sabotage in the prediction of Islamic Bank is significantly different from zero at the 0.001 level (two-tailed).
These statements are approximately correct for large samples under suitable assumptions. Thus, H2 is supported, and the hypothesis is positive and statistically significant. was poorly loaded with 0.290, and IB2 still has an effect with 0.312, which both negatively indicated. Therefore, the theory indicates that all factor loading for any model shall not be less than 0.5. Any factor load below 0.5 should be removed or adjusted through modification indices for a better model fit. In addition, the revised model with second loading with 18 remaining items remained stable. The table 7 shows that Cronbach's Alpha met the minimum requirement of 0.7 above and indicates the level measurement of error-free and acceptability from all above variables. The Average Variance Extracted reflects the overall variance measure in the indicators; all variables are above the cut-off >0.5 as recommended and met the minimum requirement, respectively, as recommended by (Ko and Stewart, 2002). The composite reliability value of the construct indicators indicates that the latent constructs values exceeded the minimum recommended value of 0.6 for social science by Bagozzi & Yi, (1988).
Therefore, the assumption of all reliability and validity of the model were met and assumed reliable, valid and error-free and sufficiently achieved. The table 8 shows the discriminant validity of the study, which is the extent that the constructs are distinct from each other, discriminate between latent constructs and others, and the nature should be above 0.85 as recommended (Brown & Moore, 2013).  (Hair, 2012). However, the current research consists of 18 items that are used to measure four constructs, Religious Hate (RH), Ignorance (IG), Sabotage Government Policy (SGP), and Islamic Bank (IB). Therefore, the all assumption of the above covariance were correct and suitable assumption.

Discussion
The study found that the emotional-laden argument in favour or against the establishment of Islamic banking in Nigeria is not the fundamental issue to be discussed and uncalled for, as it is a manifestation of religious divide and  (Muhammad and Khalil, 2021). Subsequently, the Sabotage Government Policy (SGP) have five (5) constructs which also extracted from these references (Muhammad, Dauda and Mamman, 2019). Further, the Islamic Bank (IB) has five (5) constructs that have been derived from these references (Muhammad, Duku and Yakasai 2019)