"Down
with beauty"
"Others were heard chanting, 'Down with beauty'..." (Glenn McKenzie)
News and commentary on the Miss World massacre in Nigeria.
December 2002
"Miss World urges: 'Lift fatwa'" (CNN.com, 2002/12/08)
"Jill Nelson's Salon Letter" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2002/12/07)
"A fatwa of one's own" (Mark Steyn, National Post, 2002/12/05)
"Let's hear it for bad taste" (Ian Buruma, The Guardian, 2002/12/03)
"Morally neutral reporting is dishonest reporting" (Dennis Prager, Town Hall, 2002/12/03)
"Miss World, Appeasers" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2002/12/02)November 2002
"Censored and bullied, scholars sanitize Islam" (David Frum, National Post, 2002/11/30)
"My Sharia Amour" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/30)
"Beautiful girls" (Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/11/29)
"Blaming the victim" (Andrew Sullivan, The Washington Times, 2002/11/29)
"Miss World war" (Jennie Bristow, spiked, 2002/11/28)
"Down with beauty? Only when it's ugly" (Russell Smith, The Globe and Mail, 2002/11/27)
"Aliyu Shinkafi's Fatwamania" (Wole Soyinka, Nigeriaworld, 2002/11/27)
"Beauties and the Beasts" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com/andrewsullivan.com, 2002/11/27)
"No More Fanaticism as Usual" (Salman Rushdie, The New York Times, 2002/11/27)
"Author of 'blasphemous' Miss World article flees Nigeria" (ABC News, 2002/11/27)
"'Death sentence' on Nigerian journalist" (BBC News, 2002/11/26)
"Livingstone says Miss World is not welcome" (Simon Jeffery, The Guardian, 2002/11/26)
"Nigeria's leader blames riots on press" (BBC News, 2002/11/26)
"Understand Nigeria and you understand the Islamic threat" (Dennis Prager, Jewish World Review, 2002/11/26)
"Susan Sontag Award" (andrewsullivan.com, 2002/11/26)
"Self-loathing in the West (ctd)" (Andrew Stuttaford, National review/The Corner, 2002/11/26)
"Radical Islam in Nigeria" (Paul Marshall, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/04/15 issue)
"Crime and Holy Punishment" (David Finkel, The Washington Post, 2002/11/24)
"Tragic mistake" (Arab News, 2002/11/24)
"Miss World beauties flee Nigeria violence" (BBC News, 2002/11/24)
"Nigeria falls apart" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/23)
"Miss World gala faces collapse as riots spread" (Dan Isaacs et al., The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/23)
"Nigerian Miss World show cancelled" (BBC News, 2002/11/22)
"Nigeria riots spread to capital" (BBC News, 2002/11/22)
"An Apology to All Muslims..." (ThisDay, 2002/11/22)
"50 Killed Over Miss World Article" (Glenn McKenzie, AP/Yahoo News, 2002/11/21)
"Moslems protest Miss Worldcontest, torch Thisday office" (Saxone Akhaine, The Guardian, 2002/11/21)
"Miss World and a prophet claim leads to arson" (Irish Examiner, 2002/11/20)
"Miss world 2002: The World at their Feet..." (Isioma Daniel, ThisDay/zem, 2002/11/16)
"God will get me through, says mother" (Janine di Giovanni, The Times, 2002/11/13)
"Miss World urges: 'Lift fatwa'" (CNN.com, 2002/12/08)
A surprisingly moral stance from Morley, considering her former statement blaming the journalist for the riots: "The British-based Miss World organisation is to campaign for the overturning of a fatwa, or religious edict, ordering the death of a Nigerian journalist whose article on the pageant sparked deadly riots. "My next aim is to ask the Muslims to forgive her in that area where they rioted," Julia Morley, who heads the Miss World Organisation, told Reuters after Saturday's controversy-dogged 2002 competition ended in London. "This is the time now to say 'well, look, don't persecute her. She said sorry, forgive her'," Morley said." (See also: "Livingstone says Miss World is not welcome" (Simon Jeffery, The Guardian, 2002/11/26): "Announcing the change of venue, Miss World's organiser, Julia Morley, this morning said the contest bore no blame for the troubles. 'Miss World cannot be held responsible for the riots. They were down to one journalist who wrote something which inflamed the local people.'")"Jill Nelson's Salon Letter" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2002/12/07)
"The MSNBC commentator, Jill Nelson, has just responded to my criticism of her statement that "As far as I'm concerned it's equally disrespectful and abusive to have women prancing around a stage in bathing suits for cash or walking the streets shrouded in burkas in order to survive." Here's her letter, and my response: ... 'Finally, I'm offended and bored by Sullivan and all the other willfully oblivious white guys who thought they were immune from the world's terrors - and worse, believe they had a divine right to be - until Sept. 11. Now, having experienced the terror that much of the world lives with every day, they respond by swinging their dicks around and threatening - with bombs or bombast - those who do not view the world as they do. Talk about cultural relativism, p.c. journalism, and decadent machismo! But then, what's new? In spite of all the rhetoric about how the terrorist attacks "changed us," the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Threatening? Whom have I threatened? All I've done is make an argument in a liberal publication. But this is too much for her victimized sensibility. Notice the racism again - "willfully oblivious white guys." Notice also the sexism: "swinging their dicks around." Can you imagine the fuss if some right-wing nut started complaining about women waving their privates around? Notice the thinly veiled homophobia: "he has no women friends." If you want proof of the idea that the bile of the far left has become in some respects indistinguishable from that of the far right, just read this letter again. And notice also how little she has to say and how diligently she has learned to hate.'" (See also: "Letters" (Jill Nelson, Salon.com, 2002/12/06) and "Beauties and the Beasts" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com/andrewsullivan.com, 2002/11/27))"A fatwa of one's own" (Mark Steyn, National Post, 2002/12/05)
"Mr. Khalfan, of Nepean, Ontario, was responding to David Frum's defence of Isioma Daniel, the Nigerian journalist now in hiding after remarking that the Prophet Muhammad would have been happy to take the winner of Miss World for his wife. ... "Mr. Frum has to understand that it is Muslims who determine what is objectionable to their religion, not he dictating it to them," added Mr. Khalfan. "And since he cites Salman Rushdie, he should know by now the fatal consequences resulting from ignoring this fact." ... Well, Mr. Khalfan has now "clarified" his original letter on the page opposite. He doesn't want to kill David Frum. He just wants David to be aware of how easy it is to provoke other people into killing him. ... When Mr. Khalfan says that irresponsible journalists "risk provoking individuals who cannot control their spiritual emotions and cause the death of innocent people," he's being far more objectionable about Muslims than me, Frum and that Nigerian woman rolled into one; he's being more imperialist than any old-school Colonial Officer: He's saying Muslims are wogs, savages, they know no better, what do you expect? You've gotta be careful around them, the slightest thing could set 'em off. Might be a novel, might be a beauty contest. Sorry, it's not a good enough answer. If that Nigerian mob are really no more than "pious Muslims," then pious Muslims should be ashamed. Pious Muslims can follow the murder-inciters of Bradford, the suicide-bombers of the West Bank and the depraved killers of northern Nigeria on their descent into barbarism. Or they can wake up and save their religion. Mr. Khalfan's sophistry won't cut it." (See also: "Censored and bullied, scholars sanitize Islam" (David Frum, National Post, 2002/11/30) and "Letters" (Zulf M. Khalfan, National Post, 2002/12/03)): "Mr. Frum has to understand that it is Muslims who determine what is objectionable to their religion, not he dictating it to them. Responsible journalism should require us to recognize this for all faiths too - Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. And since he cites Salman Rushdie, he should know by now the fatal consequences resulting from ignoring this fact.")"Let's hear it for bad taste" (Ian Buruma, The Guardian, 2002/12/03)
Buruma on reactions to the Miss World massacre: "Staging the contest in Nigeria might not have been wise, and the journalist may have been courting danger. But some of the reactions in London suggest that the killers may have had a point. There is an odd convergence between fashionable political correctitude and religious bigotry, as though people who have the bad taste to enjoy beauty parades are criminally culpable. Rod Liddle, for example, found it difficult to disagree with the Muslim lynch mob, "from a theoretical point of view", that Miss World represents everything that is horrible about "western culture". ... It might be called moral obtuseness, or even moral racism. The assumption appears to be that Africans or Asians can't be held to our own elevated standards. They are more like wild animals, whose savagery should not be provoked by our foolishness. When we do provoke them, the consequences are entirely our fault. It would be as misplaced to apply our moral standards to their behaviour, as it would be to expect tigers to talk. The murder of Nigerians or Indian Muslims, or Iraqi Kurds, is par for the course, unless we did it, or Americans, or Israelis. ... What is certainly not all right is to diminish the responsibility of clerics, who incited the violence, by frivolously concurring with their views on western culture. That is no way to defend the freedom of others or, for that matter, our own." (See also: "Down with beauty? Only when it's ugly" (Russell Smith, The Globe and Mail, 2002/11/27))"Morally neutral reporting is dishonest reporting" (Dennis Prager, Town Hall, 2002/12/03)
"Under the guise of "objectivity," virtually every major news agency, newspaper and television news network in the West is feeding its readers and viewers a morally neutral view of world events that is so distorted as to verge on mendacity. Take this article from The New York Times, which describes the recent Muslim rioting in Nigeria over one sentence written by a Nigerian reporter in an article defending the Miss World pageant ("Muhammad would probably have taken one of the contestants for a wife."): First, the headline: "Fiery Zealotry Leaves Nigeria in Ashes Again." Notice that no group is identified as responsible. ... The article then begins: "KADUNA, Nigeria, Nov. 28 - The beauty queens are gone now, chased from Nigeria by the chaos in Kaduna." If this is not a direct lie, it surely is an indirect one. The beauty queens were not chased out of Nigeria by "chaos," but by Muslim rioters. One might as well say that between 1939 and 1945, tens of millions of Europeans were killed by chaos, rather than by Nazis. Lest the reader miss the point that no group is morally responsible, the article's next sentence develops this idea: "But there are no celebrations in this deeply troubled town, which has become a symbol of the difficulty in Nigeria - and throughout Africa - of reconciling people who worship separately." Aha! The problem, dear Times reader, is not Islamic intolerance and violence in Nigeria, nor is it Nigerian Muslims attempting to violently spread Islamic religious law (as in sentencing a non-Muslim Nigerian woman to be stoned to death for giving birth to a child out of wedlock). No, the Times assures us, what happened in Kaduna is merely another example of Africa's 'difficulty in reconciling people who worship separately.'" (See also: "Fiery Zealotry Leaves Nigeria in Ashes Again" (Marc Lacey, The New York Times, 2002/11/29))"Miss World, Appeasers" (Andrew Sullivan, andrewsullivan.com, 2002/12/02)
"From the semi-literate press release put out by the Miss World organization: 'The Miss World Organisation and all of the Miss World contestants were shocked and deeply saddened by the appalling comments made in the Nigerian Newspaper "This Day" that led to such a tragic loss of life.' Jaw-dropping." (See also: "Press release from the Miss World Organisation" (Miss World, November 2002): "The Miss World Organisation and all of the Miss World contestants were shocked and deeply saddened by the appalling comments made in the Nigerian Newspaper "This Day" that led to such a tragic loss of life. ... The views expressed in this article were offensive to all of us and caused considerable anguish, for all the Miss World contestants, crew and staff.")"Censored and bullied, scholars sanitize Islam" (David Frum, National Post, 2002/11/30)
"More than 200 people are dead, some two dozen churches and thousands of homes have been destroyed, and much of the Christian population of the Nigerian city of Kaduna driven into exile -- all because of a single joke by a Nigerian journalist. ... Horrific as this violence is, we can reassure ourselves that it happened in a backward and far-away country - that it has no implications for those of us who live in the free and democratic West. But it does, it does. Islamic law has for many years been stretching its reach into the West. The case of Salman Rushdie is the most notorious, but it is by no means unique. ... The West is not Nigeria. Yet even in the West, some radical Muslim groups are demanding the same power over speech and thought that their Nigerian counterparts now exercise. This newspaper has been one of their favorite targets. The fate of Isioma Daniel reminds us how urgent it is to reject these demands and reassert our continuing belief in our Western principles of liberty - and how dangerous it would be to begin to surrender them.""My Sharia Amour" (Mark Steyn, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/30)
Steyn reports from a new 'culturally sensitive' Miss World contest, back in Nigeria once again: "I took my usual seat with the celebrity judges, in between Baywatch hunk David Hasselhoff and Princess Michael of Kent. Lorraine Kelly said: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, let's give our panel a really big hand!" A really big hand landed on the table with a dull thud, courtesy of a Saudi prince in the Royal box. ...
"Who's the bloke next to you?"
"Oh, he's a judge."
I rolled my eyes. "Well, duh!"
"No, I mean, he's a real judge. He's some Fulani bigshot who's here to decide who gets stoned. ...
The small talk was somewhat stilted. "Have you ever been stoned?" asked the judge. Marsha tittered.
Princess Michael explained that the fellow on Marsha's left was Alhaji Abdutayo Ogunbati, the country's leading female circumcisionist, there to ensure every contestant was in full compliance, and next to him was Hans Blix, there to ensure every involuntary clitorectomy was in accordance with UN regulations.
I glanced at my watch. "For crying out loud, when are they going to raise the curtain?"
"They have raised the curtain," said David. "Those are the girls." I peered closer at the shapeless line of cloth, and he was right: there they all were, from Miss Afghanistan to Miss Zionist Entity.
I sighed. "How long till the swimsuit round?"
"This is the swimsuit round," said David.""Beautiful girls" (Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/11/29)
Beauty and the beast XX: "'It is completely despicable that we have agreed to host this travesty,' British writer Muriel Gray said of the move. "These girls will be wearing swimwear dripping in blood." Added The Observer's Ros Coward: "It is almost impossible to retain the idea that an annual parade of female flesh is just an innocent quest for universal beauty acceptable to all reasonable people." Remarkable here isn't the view of Ms. Gray and her cohort. Rather, it's the coincidence of her views with those of Muslim fundamentalists who elsewhere in Nigeria condemn rape victims as "adulterers" and sentence them to death by stoning. "It's all about commercial sex trading," says Nigerian Muslim cleric Hussein Zakaria of the pageant, sounding a lot like Gloria Steinem (or is it Jerry Falwell?). "It's about nudity, it's about immorality, it's about exposing the youngsters to a sex hazard." As Muslim rioters went to town, many of them held aloft placards reading, "Down with Beauty," as if they, too, were readers of contemporary academic journals in post-feminist inquiry. ... Now usually, when someone points out that your views are shared by, say, neo-Nazis, it means the time has come to rethink those views. Not so with our beauty-contest critics. Taking note of the "Down with Beauty" banners, Russell Smith of Canada's Globe and Mail writes that the slogan "makes a strange kind of sense, if you interpret it to mean 'Down with this sort of incongruous, disrespectful cultural invasion.'" (See also: "Down with beauty? Only when it's ugly" (Russell Smith, The Globe and Mail, 2002/11/27))"Blaming the victim" (Andrew Sullivan, The Washington Times, 2002/11/29)
Beauty and the beast XIX: "After the horror of Nigeria, you'd think allowing a free beauty pageant to take place in a free city would be a no-brainer. But the loony-left's favorite London Mayor Ken Livingstone pronounced Miss World unwelcome. He said the notion of holding the contest now was "obscene." "After the violence and terrible loss of life in Nigeria, the staging of a Miss World event in this city is not welcome. It defies belief that after Miss World has brought tragedy and strife to Africa its organizers should think it appropriate to carry on with the razzamataz as if nothing had happened." This is exactly the wrong way round. Miss World did nothing to provoke such violence. Nor did the newspaper columnist who is now living under a Salman Rushdie-like fatwa. The people responsible are Islamic extremists who view freedom of speech and association anathema to their religious convictions. Mr. Livingstone should be proud to offer them refuge. Or does he believe that journalists deserve to be killed for their opinions and innocents murdered in their hundreds merely because of their religious faith?" (See also: "Livingstone says Miss World is not welcome" (Simon Jeffery, The Guardian, 2002/11/26))"Miss World war" (Jennie Bristow, spiked, 2002/11/28)
Bristow on Western reactions to the Miss World massacre: "'Is there no end to the wilful, decadent tactlessness of the West?' asks Libby Purves, writing in The Times (London) about the Miss World debacle. Rod Liddle, in the Guardian, claims that '[f]or the predominantly Muslim population of northern Nigeria, the whole thing was, clearly, an affront'. Liddle continues: 'It would have appeared, to the imams and the fervently faithful, as a quintessential example of everything that is rancid and grotesque about the hated, godless Western culture. And although we might draw the line at killing people over it all, it is hard, from a theoretical point of view, to disagree with them about this.' Both these articles were published on the same day, have almost the same title (plays on 'Miss World' and 'ugliness'), and make pretty much the same point: that the dark underbelly of the Nigerian riots lies not in Nigeria, but in the Western-created Miss World. ... So obsessed are we becoming with the shortcomings of what we have made of consumer society that we forget about the massive industrial, technological, scientific and cultural advances that freed us up to be obsessed with sex and shopping. Two hundred years of history is presented as being as inconsequential as 50 years of Miss World - and beneath the discussion about protecting Nigeria from beauty pageants lies the prejudice that such countries should be protected from modernising influences, even those as naff as this." (See also: "Third World reveals Miss World ugliness" (Libby Purves, The Times, 2002/11/26) and "The ugly side of Miss World" (Rod Liddle, The Guardian, 2002/11/26))"Down with beauty? Only when it's ugly" (Russell Smith, The Globe and Mail, 2002/11/27)
Beauty and the beast XVIII. An extra-ordinary stupid anti-Western column, finding "a strange kind of sense" in the Miss World 2002 massacre. But thankfully Smith himself wouldn't "kill anyone over it": "A sign held up in the initial stages of the demonstrations in Kaduna, Nigeria, read "Down with beauty." ... Beauty itself is obviously not the issue here: It's a particularly Western kind of beauty, which many don't find beautiful at all. ... It's also not beautiful. Beauty must contain some element of the extraordinary, of the singular. It must be startling. Jean Anouilh said that real beauty had to be grave; Albert Camus said that beauty was unbearable; Lautreamont declared that beauty must be convulsive. Whatever they all meant, it is clear that none of those adjectives applies to the blow-dried suburban niceness of the Miss World pageant. And this is why the "Down with beauty" banner of the Nigerian protestors makes a strange kind of sense, if you interpret it to mean "Down with this sort of incongruous, disrespectful cultural invasion." It doesn't mean "Down with beauty." It means "Down with ugliness." (Of course, I wouldn't kill anyone over it.)" (Note: In a Guardian-article Rod Liddle also expresses sympathy with the sentiments of the rioters, although, he adds, "we might draw the line at killing people over it all" ("The ugly side of Miss World" (Rod Liddle, The Guardian, 2002/11/26)): "For the predominantly Muslim population of northern Nigeria, the whole thing was, clearly, an affront - and for reasons not a million miles removed from those that make most of us think it an affront, too. It would have appeared, to the imams and the fervently faithful, as a quintessential example of everything that is rancid and grotesque about the hated, godless western culture. And although we might draw the line at killing people over it all, it is hard, from a theoretical point of view, to disagree with them about this.")"Aliyu Shinkafi's Fatwamania" (Wole Soyinka, Nigeriaworld, 2002/11/27)
Beauty and the beast XVII: Soyinka is a Nigerian author who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature: "Deputy Governor Shinkafi's call for the death of a Nigerian citizen, under a so-called fatwa, makes him a common criminal who should be hauled up before the courts and charged with incitment to murder. If this man had any grain of piety in him, he should be on his knees twenty-four hours a day praying for the souls of innocents whose lives were needlessly and gruesomely curtailed. He should be on his stomach grovelling in contrition, pleading for the forgiveness of an over-patient, over tolerant nation whose civic dignity he continues to assail in the confidence of immunity. He should cover himself in sackcloth and ashes and urge his followers to do the same until the nation pronounces itself ready to forgive a rampage of murder, brutality and arson. Let this 'elected official' understand that very few people in the Nigerian nation consider him - or indeed his governor boss who is unquestionably implicated in this latest outrage - as being possessed of one drop of spirituality. These are cynical manipulators of religious sensibilities who, when all the facts are known, may yet come to trial for the many hate crimes that have been launched against the citizens of this nation. ... Upstart politicians and presumptuous clerics should not be allowed to use their positions as base for the undermining of the constitution that binds us togeether. The age of intolerance, of bigotry, of rule by terror is being inaugurated before our eyes, and we pretend that all is normal within the nation." (See also: "'Death sentence' on Nigerian journalist" (BBC News, 2002/11/26))"Beauties and the Beasts" (Andrew Sullivan, Salon.com/andrewsullivan.com, 2002/11/27)
"The act of putting on a beauty pageant or writing a column are now subject to the approval of radical religious fanatics. Those who do not please these fanatics will not be criticized or campaigned against or smeared or railed at. They will be killed. ... In the aftermath of horror, the Washington Post reported early on that "after plans to stage the show in Nigeria sparked Christian-Muslim riots that killed at least 175 people, the organizers moved it to Britain but flew into a storm of protest at home too." "Christian-Muslim riots"? Those are weasel words, obscuring the real responsibility for the murders. The organizers of the Miss World contest also managed to blur the issue. "A journalist made this problem and we hope journalists can put it right," said Julia Morley, Miss World's CEO. Excuse me? The journalist was doing her job. The "problem" - a rather glib description of the murder of hundreds - was caused by extreme Islam. And by singling out the journalist, Morley gives a patina of credibility to the disgusting fatwa now lodged against her. ... Paleo-feminists also blamed the victim. ... Jill Nelson summed up this bizarre moral equivalence on MSNBC: "As far as I'm concerned it's equally disrespectful and abusive to have women prancing around a stage in bathing suits for cash or walking the streets shrouded in burkas in order to survive." I can't think of a more fatuous statement after a bloodbath, orchestrated by fanatics who won't allow women the slightest autonomy in their lives. ... This is what cultural relativism, p.c. journalism and decadent feminism amounts to: a failure to grasp that freedom is under attack." (See also: "Ugliness of a beauty contest" (Jill Nelson, MSNBC, 2002/11/25))"No More Fanaticism as Usual" (Salman Rushdie, The New York Times, 2002/11/27)
Rushdie on the fatwa against Isioma Daniel, the death sentence against Hashem Aghajari and the death threats against Ayaan Hirsi Ali: "It's been quite a week in the wonderful world of Islam. ... Is it unfair to bunch all these different uglinesses together? Perhaps. But they do have something in common. Ayaan Hirsi Ali was accused of being "the Dutch Salman Rushdie," Mr. Aghajari of being the Iranian version, Isioma Daniel of being the Nigerian incarnation of the same demon. ... Where, after all, is the Muslim outrage at these events? As their ancient, deeply civilized culture of love, art and philosophical reflection is hijacked by paranoiacs, racists, liars, male supremacists, tyrants, fanatics and violence junkies, why are they not screaming? At least in Iran the students are demonstrating. But where else in the Muslim world can one hear the voices of the fair-minded, tolerant Muslim majority deploring what Nigerian, Egyptian, Arab and Dutch Muslims are doing? Muslims in the West, too, seem unnaturally silent on these topics. If you're yelling, we can't hear you. ... The Islamic world today is being held prisoner, not by Western but by Islamic captors, who are fighting to keep closed a world that a badly outnumbered few are trying to open. As long as the majority remains silent, this will be a tough war to win. But in the end, or so we must hope, someone will kick down that prison door.""Author of 'blasphemous' Miss World article flees Nigeria" (ABC News, 2002/11/27)
Beauty and the beast XVI: "The author of an article on the Miss World pageant considered blasphemous by many Nigerian Muslims has fled the country after a violent backlash. A senior source at her former newspaper said: "I can confirm to you that she has left Nigeria." An article published by the daily This Day on November 16 angered Nigerian Muslims by suggesting that the Prophet Mohammed would have approved of the Miss World competition and might have married one of the contestants.""'Death sentence' on Nigerian journalist" (BBC News, 2002/11/26)
Beauty and the beast XV: "The deputy governor of Zamfara state in northern Nigeria has urged Muslims to kill the woman who wrote an article which insulted the Prophet Mohammed, sparking religious riots last week. Fashion writer Isioma Daniel resigned after writing in the ThisDay newspaper that the Prophet Mohammed may have approved of the Miss World contest and possibly wished to marry one of the beauty queens. ... Zamfara's deputy governor Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi told religious leaders in the state capital, Gusau: "Like Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed." The speech was rebroadcast on local radio in Zamfara state, which was the first state in Nigeria to introduce Islamic law. 'It is binding on all Muslims wherever they are, to consider the killing of the writer as a religious duty.'""Livingstone says Miss World is not welcome" (Simon Jeffery, The Guardian, 2002/11/26)
Beauty and the beast XIV. As a "Who Dun It?" riddle the Miss World 2002 massacre seems like a no-brainer. How about blaming the actual perpetrators and those Islamist preachers who gave them a warrant for mass murder?: "Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, today urged the London venue hosting the Miss World contest to "reconsider its decision" to stage the beauty pageant. ... Mr Livingstone said it was obscene that the organisers should now attempt to stage the contest at all. "After the violence and terrible loss of life in Nigeria, the staging of a Miss World event in this city is not welcome," he said. "It defies belief that after Miss World has brought tragedy and strife to Africa its organisers should think it appropriate to carry on with the razzamataz as if nothing had happened." ... Estimates suggest that besides the 215 people killed, 1,200 were hospitalised and 12,000 made homeless as a result of the riots. ... Announcing the change of venue, Miss World's organiser, Julia Morley, this morning said the contest bore no blame for the troubles. 'Miss World cannot be held responsible for the riots. They were down to one journalist who wrote something which inflamed the local people.'""Nigeria's leader blames riots on press" (BBC News, 2002/11/26)
Beauty and the beast XIII. "Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo says "irresponsible journalism" about the Miss World contest sparked mass communal bloodshed. President Obasanjo said he did not regret Nigeria's wish to host Miss World. He said fighting between Muslim and Christian communities in the northern city of Kaduna could have started at any time and blamed an article which was offensive to Muslims for provoking the violence. ... The Lagos-based paper which printed the story has retracted it and apologised, but President Obasanjo appeared not to be satisfied. "Irresponsible journalism in Nigeria bears responsibility," he said.""Understand Nigeria and you understand the Islamic threat" (Dennis Prager, Jewish World Review, 2002/11/26)
"To understand the threat the non-Muslim world faces, you need to understand the way in which Western news agencies report Islamic violence. Blame is almost never placed on the Muslim rioters. Rather, the passive voice, "violence broke out," is regularly used, and Muslims and Christians are simply reported to be killing each other in "sectarian violence." The Voice of America news report actually identified with the Muslim rioters: "The riots were sparked after a newspaper published an article mocking the Islamic leaders' protest." It is crucial to identify this each-side-is-at-fault reporting. It characterizes world news organizations' descriptions of Arab-Israeli violence as well. ... Muslims kill non-Muslims and the victims (i.e., the editors of the newspaper whose offices were razed) are told to apologize - just as after 9-11, America has been repeatedly told to apologize to the Muslim world, and just as Israel, while enduring massacre after massacre at the hands of Muslim terrorists, is told to apologize for defending itself. Nigerian Muslim leaders do not say a word against their murderous co-religionists but they do declare one innocuous sentence by a young woman writer to be an "abomination." The woman who wrote the sentence has been fired. The editor of ThisDay has been arrested and not been heard from since. One fears for his life. And ours.""Susan Sontag Award" (andrewsullivan.com, 2002/11/26)
Beauty and the beast XII: "'As far as I'm concerned it's equally disrespectful and abusive to have women prancing around a stage in bathing suits for cash or walking the streets shrouded in burkas in order to survive.' - Jill Nelson, MSNBC." (See also: "Ugliness of a beauty contest" (Jill Nelson, MSNBC, 2002/11/25))"Self-loathing in the West (ctd)" (Andrew Stuttaford, National review/The Corner, 2002/11/26)
Beauty and the beast XI: "There's a bizarre piece on the Miss World saga in, naturally, Monday's Guardian. The key extract is as follows: "As contestants flee to London, and Nigeria counts its dead, it is almost impossible to retain the idea that an annual parade of female flesh is just an innocent quest for universal beauty acceptable to all reasonable people." Eh? This doesn't make much sense unless one believes that the murderous rioters in Nigeria were in some way "reasonable people". Well, here's an update: they weren't." (See also: "The beauty myth" (Ros Coward, The Guardian, 2002/11/26))"Radical Islam in Nigeria" (Paul Marshall, The Weekly Standard, from the 2002/04/15 issue)
An article originally published in April is made available online: "Nigeria is about equally divided between Christians and Muslims, with a small number of animists. If radical Islam is left unchecked, it will continue to provoke widespread inter-religious conflict that, combined with endemic ethnic strife, may fragment the country. This could make the giant of sub-Saharan Africa - a major oil exporter to the United States and a new, struggling democracy - into a haven for Islamism, linked to foreign extremists. ... While no evidence has surfaced of al Qaeda operations in Nigeria, the extremism from which it draws support is spreading rapidly, and is encouraged by radical Islamic groups and foreign regimes. Nigerian police say that dozens of Pakistanis have been involved in religious riots, and visiting Pakistani "scholars" have been ejected from the country. Before Zamfara instituted sharia, officials from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Syria, and even Palestinian representatives, visited. Sudan, which has already supplied Chechnya's criminal code, is running training programs for Nigeria's sharia judges. ... Nigeria is further proof, if any were needed, that radical Islam is not created or driven by opposition to U.S. policy on Israel. It is an aggressive, worldwide ideological movement with its sights set on Africa and Asia as much as the Middle East.""Crime and Holy Punishment" (David Finkel, The Washington Post, 2002/11/24)
A report from Nigeria about implementation of sharia: "Mujahid is the leader of one of the largest radical Islamic groups in Nigeria, called Jaamutu Tajidmul Islami, or the Movement for Islamic Revival. A student of Nigerian history, he is well aware that the implementation of criminal sharia, which had existed in Nigeria before it was interrupted by British rule, "is not a sudden occurrence. It is something that has been boiling up." Particularly important, he says, was the 1979 Iranian revolution that led to the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "We figured if Iran can do it, why not here?" ... As for stoning, he says, it is ordained, which is argument enough, but a secondary argument concerns the lessons he learned when Nigeria was still under military rule and he spent nearly two years in detention for his political views. Who else was in prison? Men whose mothers were prostitutes, men whose fathers had abandoned them, men who had grown up with no parents. "So this is an angle," he says. By stoning to death an adulterer, "you stop him from committing adultery. If he lives, he goes on to commit many many more adulteries, and those result in children being born who grow up and become drunks or armed robbers who kill people." Clearly, what Nigeria needs isn't less, sharia, he says, but more. His goal? "Justice," he says. His model? The Taliban. 'There are one or two things I have an argument with, but generally I think they did very, very good.'""Tragic mistake" (Arab News, 2002/11/24)
Beauty and the beast X. Arab News blames the Miss World organizers for the riots and the original article for "blasphemy" in an editorial: "The decision to stage the Miss World contest in Nigeria, a country with a significant Muslim population during the holy month of Ramadan defied all common sense. It demonstrated, if demonstration were needed, that the people behind this half-witted event were every bit as half-witted themselves. Though they have attempted to distance themselves from the deadly riots that followed the blasphemy produced by a local newspaper, the tensions that were unleashed had been building for weeks as a direct result of their actions.""Miss World beauties flee Nigeria violence" (BBC News, 2002/11/24)
Beauty and the beast IX. Nigeria's Information Minister accuses the "international press" of an "international conspiracy": "Nigeria's Information Minister Jerry Gana pointed a finger at the foreign and domestic media for his country's failed attempt to host the competition. "I salute the courage of the contestants. They came all the way here despite the conspiracy of the international press... particularly the British press," he said on state radio. "There's an international conspiracy just to show that an African country like Nigeria cannot host this thing. I think Nigerians should be really angry with the international press," he said, according to the French news agency AFP.""Nigeria falls apart" (The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/23)
Beauty and the beast VIII. In a severe case of double standards, even the Daily Telegraph maintains that Muslims have been "understandably incensed" by the ThisDay article. Nevermind that free speech is stifled and two journalists are arrested. Nevermind that the instigation to violence came from Islamic leaders and sermons. Imagine if the carnage had taken place in London instead. Would they still consider the mayhem "understandable", because of an article written in a conciliatory spirit?: "Nigeria hoped to stage the Miss World contest as a means of boosting its sorry image. But so far it has merely highlighted the most serious faultline in a deeply divided society, that between Christianity and Islam. Muslims have been understandably incensed by an article in a Lagos-based daily newspaper which suggested that the Prophet Mohammed would probably have married one of the beauty queens. The newspaper, which has apologised four times for the article, has had its Kaduna office sacked. Rioting against Miss World, due to be staged in Abuja, the federal capital, next month, has spread through the northern city. Yesterday, the Red Cross announced that at least 105 people had been killed and more than 500 injured.""Miss World gala faces collapse as riots spread" (Dan Isaacs et al., The Daily Telegraph, 2002/11/23)
Beauty and the beast VII. President Obasanjo blames the killings on "irresponsible journalism": "The violent protests sparked by the Miss World competition in Nigeria threatened to involve the contestants last night as mobs of protesters tried to storm their hotels in the capital, Abuja. ... Mobs set up barricades of burning tyres and planks and headed towards Abuja's up-market hotels screaming opposition to the gala which they claimed to be offensive under Islam. Passers-by were attacked with machetes and clubs. ... President Olusegun Obasanjo blamed "irresponsible journalism" for the killings in Kaduna, where Muslim mobs protested against a newspaper's suggestion that the Prophet Mohammed might have taken a contestant as a wife. The editor, Simon Kolawole, and a writer, Isioma Daniel, were arrested.""Nigerian Miss World show cancelled" (BBC News, 2002/11/22)
Beauty and the beast VI: "The Miss World contest is moving to London from Nigeria after riots by Muslim youths opposed to the show left more than 100 people dead in the city of Kaduna. The pageant's organisers said the show would be held in London on 7 December instead of the Nigerian capital, Abuja. ... In a statement, the pageant organisers said the change of venue was in the 'overall interests of Nigeria and the contestants.'""Nigeria riots spread to capital" (BBC News, 2002/11/22)
Beauty and the beast V: "Hundreds of Muslim youths have gone on the rampage in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, following Friday prayers. 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. ... Our correspondent in Abuja says that many people suffered either knife wounds or beatings and the rioters were advancing on the city's central market. He was himself surrounded by a group of angry Muslim radicals, who suspected he was Christian and had to shout "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) until they let him go. The riots began at Abuja's central mosque, a short distance from the hotel where the Miss World contestants are staying amid tight security." (Note: Stella Din, spokeswoman for Miss World 2002, actually blames the carnage on "irresponsible journalism": "We regret these incidents, but this is not the fault of Miss World. It is the result of irresponsible journalism," Din, the spokeswoman, said. 'The show definitely will go on.'" ("100 Killed in Nigeria Riots Triggered by Miss World Pageant" (Glenn McKenzie, AP/The New York Times, 2002/11/22))"An Apology to All Muslims..." (ThisDay, 2002/11/22)
Beauty and the beast IV: "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 (SAW) in a commentary written by one of our staff was not only unjustified, but utterly provocative. ... We recognise the gravity of this error, and we have handled it with all the seriousness it deserves, including very strong disciplinary measures for those who failed in their duties.""50 Killed Over Miss World Article" (Glenn McKenzie, AP/Yahoo News, 2002/11/21)
Beauty and the beast III: "Angry mobs stabbed and set fire to bystanders Thursday in rioting that erupted after a newspaper suggested Islam's founding prophet would have approved of the Miss World beauty pageant. At least 50 people were killed and 200 injured. ... "A lot of people died. We don't know yet exactly how many ... more than 50," said Emmanuel Ijewere, the president of the Nigerian Red Cross. ... Street demonstrations began Wednesday with the burning of an office of ThisDay newspaper in Kaduna after it published an article questioning Muslim groups that have condemned the Miss World pageant, to be held Dec. 7 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. ... In Thursday's rioting, more than 50 people were stabbed, bludgeoned or burned to death and 200 were seriously injured, Ijewere told The Associated Press. At least four churches were destroyed, he said. Many of the bodies were taken by Red Cross workers and other volunteers to local mortuaries. Many people remained inside homes that were set afire by the demonstrators, Ijewere said. ... 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. Alsa Hassan, founder of another human rights group, Alsa Care, said he saw a commuter being dragged out of his car and beaten to death by protesters. Schools and shops hurriedly closed as hordes of young men, shouting "Allahu Akhbar," or "God is great," ignited makeshift street barricades made of tires and garbage, sending plumes of black smoke rising above the city. Others were heard chanting, "Down with beauty" and 'Miss World is sin.'" (See also: "Miss World and a prophet claim leads to arson" (Irish Examiner, 2002/11/20))"Moslems protest Miss Worldcontest, torch Thisday office" (Saxone Akhaine, The Guardian, 2002/11/21)
Beauty and the beast II: "The protesters chanting Allah Akbar (Allah is the greatest) also passed a Fatwa (death sentence) on the publisher of ThisDay, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena and the Editor, Mr. Eniola Bello for alleged blasphemy of Prophet Mohammed in a recent publication. ... "But with a blasphemous article that appeared in one of the recent publications of ThisDay, the government needs to cancel the contest for the sake of corporate survival. Let it be unequivocally stated here that Prophet Mohammed forms the chunk of passion of a conscious Moslem that any insult on the Prophet's personality unleashes the rage in the Moslem. That is why a portion of the satanic article in ThisDay of November 16, 2002 has dared the guts of the Moslems," the statement [from the Council of Imams and Ulama, Kaduna State chapter ] added. ... An Islamic leader, Dr. Mohammed Mahdi who came to the scene of the inferno, praised those who carried out the operation, saying that "the Moslems in the country have been pushed to the wall and it is high time we reacted vehemently and swiftly". He disclosed that the Moslem Umma had given the Federal Government a seven day ultimatum to call the publisher and the editor to order to prevent the death sentence passed on them from being executed. Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN) President, Dr. Ibrahim Datti, who reacted to the publication said that the newspaper had declared war against Islam and Moslems should, therefore, wage same against it.""Miss World and a prophet claim leads to arson" (Irish Examiner, 2002/11/20)
Beauty and the beast I: "Rioters burned down a Nigerian newspaper office today in protest at an article suggesting the Prophet Muhammad might have favoured marrying a contestant in the Miss World beauty contest. The local editorial and circulation office of the daily ThisDay in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna was destroyed in the fire, lit by a mob of angry Muslim demonstrators, police said. Nobody was in the building when the mob attacked, said ThisDay editor Eniola Bello. ... The offending article called The World at Their Feet questioned why some Muslim groups condemn the pageant, which is being held on December 8 in the capital, Abuja, on the grounds it promotes sexual promiscuity and indecency. "The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring ninety-two women to Nigeria and ask them to revel in vanity. What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them," wrote the article's author, Isioma Daniel. ... Yesterday, ThisDay carried a brief front page editor's note apologising for 'portions that may be considered offensive to our Muslim brothers.'" (Note: Isioma Daniel's article is down, but a plain text copy of it can be found here: "Miss world 2002: The World at their Feet..." (Isioma Daniel, ThisDay/zem, 2002/11/16))"God will get me through, says mother" (Janine di Giovanni, The Times, 2002/11/13)
"As more than 80 young women arrived amid great fanfare in the Nigerian capital to take part in the Miss World contest, an illiterate 31-year-old woman sat in a stark room a few miles away contemplating a very different fate. Amina Lawal has been sentenced to death by stoning. ... The beauty queens welcomed so effusively by the Nigerian Government on Monday night are symbols of the West’s obsession with sex, celebrity and material gain. "We're here to put Nigeria on the map of international beauty," declared Julia Morley, the Miss World president. Ms Lawal, by contrast, has become a symbol of hardline Islam's intolerance of any form of moral laxity, at least among the poor. For the alleged adultery that led to the birth of Wasila, now ten months old, she is to be buried up to her neck and stoned until she dies. ... One day, after accepting a lift on a motorcycle, she was raped by a man she thought was a friend. When it became obvious that she was pregnant the fundamentalist vigilantes, known as Hisbah, turned her over to the Sharia court. ... There are four other cases of women sentenced to be stoned for adultery. There are also 11 children in Sokoto state awaiting amputation for stealing. Ms Lawal's lawyer, Hauwa Ibrahim, said: 'We have heard they are waiting for the amputation machine to arrive.'" (See also: "The Next Hotbed Of Islamic Radicalism" (Paul Marshall, The Washington Post, 2002/10/08) and "The War on Women" (Lashawn R. Jefferson, The Wall Street Journal, 2002/08/22))
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