Ansar-Ud-Deen in southwest Nigeria is one of the oldest, and the most famous Islamic associations. The society was founded in 1923 to promote western education without compromising the cause of the Islamic religion. Ansar-ud-Deen had been created in reaction to the pervading inequality in the social status of local Muslims and Christians due to the limited accessibility of Muslim children in Christian missionary schools in the mid colonial period.
Ansar-ud-Deen emerged from the nationalist struggle of 1923-1947 in which a division arose from the ideological differences between supporters of the newly introduced colonial water rate and the antagonists. For a long time this led to the emergence of two major factions within the Lagos Central Mosque with one supporting the chief Imam and the colonial policies while the other supported the position of the Oba and the nationalist leaders.