Miss World riots escalate

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Thursday, 21 November, 2002, 16:59 GMT

The authorities in the northern city of Kaduna have declared a curfew with immediate effect after protests at Nigeria's hosting of next month's Miss World contest descended into violence.

The BBC's Yusuf Sarki Muhammad has seen at least 10 bodies after thousands of Muslim youths rampaged through the suburbs of the city.

They erected barricades of burning tyres, set fire to buildings, and attacked churches.

Kaduna is one of Nigeria's most volatile cities, and has been largely segregated into Christian and Muslim areas since clashes two years ago, when more than 2,000 people died.

On Wednesday hundreds of people chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) attacked the Kaduna office of the Lagos-based newspaper ThisDay on the second day of demonstrations sparked by an article referring to the Prophet Mohammed.

Text alerts

Civil rights activist Shehu Sani told the French news agency, AFP that the city was in "pandemonium" and the streets littered with burning tyres.

"Schools and public offices are shut. Business is paralysed, everybody is staying at home and the security forces are trying to avoid contact with the demonstrators," he said.

The riot started after the paper published an article on Saturday which said that, if he had witnessed the beauty pageant, the Prophet Mohammed would probably have chosen to marry one of the contestants.

The newspaper later retracted the story and published an apology on two separate days.

Our correspondent says that local mosques had been calling for action against the paper and said that some people were first alerted to the article by text messages being sent to their mobile phones.

Death by stoning

The government has issued a statement, appealing for calm and assuring Muslims that those responsible for the ThisDay article would be brought to book, for exceeding "the bounds of responsible journalism."

Witnesses told Reuters news agency that the rioters have vowed to attack ThisDay offices all over the north, where Sharia law has been introduced.

The Miss World pageant is taking place over several weeks in Nigeria, but only in the southern, largely Christian and Animist, part of the country.

Muslim groups say the contest is unIslamic and are also upset that it began during the holy month of Ramadan.

The contest had also been threatened by a large-scale boycott by beauty queens protesting against a Sharia court's sentence of death by stoning against Amina Lawal, a woman convicted of adultery.

The Nigerian Government has moved to calm fears by promising it will not allow any Nigerian to be stoned to death and about 90 Miss World contestants have arrived in Nigeria, ahead of the final contest in the capital, Abuja, on 7 December.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2002

Answers

Red Cross: 100 Die in Nigeria Riots

Nov 22, 9:32 AM (ET) By GLENN McKENZIE

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Mobs of Christian youths retaliated against Muslims on Friday in the third day of riots triggered by a newspaper article about the Miss World pageant. Red Cross officials said about 100 had died and 500 more were seriously injured in the violence.

Sporadic gunshots and shouting could be heard Friday in the northern city of Kaduna, which has seen the fiercest fighting. Angry mobs have stabbed and set fire to bystanders and rampaged through streets. At least four churches have been destroyed by fire.

The violence began Wednesday, when the Kaduna office of ThisDay newspaper was torched after the paper published an article questioning Muslim objections to the pageant. The contest is set for Dec. 7 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, 225 miles southwest of Kaduna. The article, published Saturday, suggested the prophet Muhammad would have chosen a wife among the contestants.

The newspaper ran a brief front-page apology Monday and a longer retraction on Thursday.

On Friday, plumes of black smoke rose above this tense, religiously mixed city of several million people and authorities extended a round-the-clock curfew - although many ignored the order.

Young Muslim men shouting "Allahu Akhbar," or "God is great," ignited makeshift barricades of tires and garbage. Others chanted, "Down with beauty" and "Miss World is sin."

In neighborhoods dominated by minority Christians, witnesses said youths smashed windows and set fires in mosques used by the ethnic Hausa and Fulani Muslims who dominate Kaduna.

Fearful residents sought protection at police stations and military bases.

"The soldiers have been very helpful, giving us bandages and first aid. Everyone is here - Muslims, Christians and pagan. We are all afraid of going home," said Habiba Ibrahim, who spent the night in the city's defense academy near the government clinic where she works. "Only God knows when this will end."

The bodies of those slain in the streets were taken by Red Cross workers and other volunteers to mortuaries. It was not clear exactly how many were killed.

Nigerian Red Cross officials reported about 100 dead by Friday morning, said George Bennet, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross delegation. He stressed an exact figure was impossible to confirm.

Other Red Cross officials said Friday that more than 500 people had been injured.

Previous riots in Kaduna, a predominantly Muslim city with a sizable Christian minority, have escalated into religious battles that killed hundreds since civilian government replaced military rule in 1999.

Islamist groups have warned for months that they would protest the pageant, prompting organizers to postpone the finale until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Muslim groups say the pageant promotes promiscuity and indecency.

In the article that prompted the spasm of violence in Kaduna, ThisDay writer Isioma Daniel said, "What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them."

Security forces patrolled other major cities Friday, including the northern trading hub of Kano, where Muslim women peacefully protested.

"We are calling on the government to stop Miss World, this show of shame. For women to expose herself to men other than their husbands is forbidden," said one of the protesters, Hadiza Usman.

Miss World organizers insist contestants have respected conservative Muslim values by dressing conservatively.

The pageant also caused controversy elsewhere; at least five contestants are boycotting it to protest judgments in Nigeria's Islamic courts that condemned several women to death by stoning for getting pregnant while unmarried.

Contestants from Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama stayed away.

Nigeria's government insists none of the judgments will be carried out, although it has refused to intervene directly with the Islamic court system.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20021122/D7NF40403.html



-- Anonymous, November 22, 2002


Now, is there anybody out there who doesn't think most radical Muslims would be willing to be a human homicide bomber for their cause? You cannot judge another culture by the standards of this culture, you simply cannot.

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2002

geez, not only is it towel heads, now we have mattress heads.



-- Anonymous, November 22, 2002


WSJ

A Religion of Peace--I

The death toll in Nigeria's Muslim rioting has topped 100, the BBC reports, and the violence has spread from the northern city of Kaduna to the capital, Abuja. "The BBC's Haruna Bahago in Abuja says people armed with sticks, daggers and knives set fire to vehicles and attacked anyone they suspected of being Christian." An Associated Press dispatch relays this story:

Shehu Sani of the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress said he watched a crowd stab one young man, then force a tire filled with gasoline around his neck and burn him alive. Sani said he saw three other bodies elsewhere in the city.

What sparked the riots was an article that appeared in the Lagos-based newspaper ThisDay about the Miss World pageant, which is to be held in Nigeria, much to the consternation of the nation's Islamic fanatics. "What would [the prophet] Muhammad think?" wrote Isioma Daniel. "In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them [the contestants]." That's it.

The paper published a groveling apology, blaming the offending line on an editing error:

With all sense of responsibility, sensitivity and respect for all Muslims, the staff, management, editors and Board of ThisDay newspapers apologise for the great editorial error in last Saturday's edition on Miss World Beauty Pageant.

We are sorry that the portrayal of the Holy Prophet Mohammed . . . in a commentary written by one of our staff was not only unjustified, but utterly provocative.

The supervising editor made an attempt to remove the offensive portion during the editing process.

But we must say that this time, technology failed us, and gravely too.

Islam, as we keep hearing, is a religion of peace. And if you dare to criticize or make light of it, may you rest in peace.

A Religion of Peace--II

Bonnie Penner Witherall, a Christian evangelist who worked at a missionary clinic in Sidon, Lebanon, has been shot to death. Although authorities haven't identified the killer, a New York Times report strongly suggests the killing was religiously motivated, the killer was a Muslim--and it was the Christians' fault:

The Sidon area has been previously identified by the United States government as home to at least one extremist organization. In addition, the Unity Center where the 31-year-old American worked had been involved in a public dispute in recent months for proselytizing Christianity to young Muslims.

"We told her she might be vulnerable to insults or even being hit and she answered that she would consider it an honor," said Bishop George Kwaiter, the archbishop for the Roman Catholic diocese, speaking at a gathering of Christian and Muslim religious leaders who condemned the shooting. "We don't accept this kind of preaching, we reject it totally."

In addition, a pastor who knew Mrs. Witherall said that derogatory remarks about Islam and Muhammad made in the United States by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Rev. Pat Robertson and some other people on the American religious right had added to the ill-feeling toward Christian evangelists working in Sidon.

"I would not think that this is our calling to say bad things about this religion," said the Rev. Pierre Francis, the pastor of Mieh Mieh Baptist Church, where Mrs. Witherall and her British husband, Garry, were members. "They just jeopardize our safety."

If Islam is a religion of peace, it seems at least some Christians view their faith as a religion of appeasement.

A Religion of Peace--III

"The Bali bombers were paid about $10 in blood money for every person who died in the attack on the Sari Club in Kuta last month," the Australian Associated Press reports. " 'They were given the money to say thank you about the Bali bombing success,' police spokesman Edward Aritonang was reported as saying."

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2002


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