ISIOMA DANIEL

Day: November 16, 2002

Venue: Nigerian capital of Ajuba

Provocation: An article by 22-year-old reporter Isioma Daniel in This Day.

Subject of article: A suggestion that Prophet Mohammad might have approved of the Miss World 2002 to be held in Nigeria.

When Isioma Daniel said that the Prophet would probably have chosen a wife from one of the beauty queens, she didn't know what was in store. The reactions started pouring in soon.

One statement, issued by the Muslim group Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), called for the cancellation of the Miss World pageant, the closure of This Day, and the prosecution of the newspaper's owners and Daniel, warning that "failure by government to take this action will clearly signal to the Muslims of this country and the world at large that the Miss World contest was planned in Nigeria to insult Muslims."

Even an apology could not move the fatwa announcers. This Day issued an apology in its November 18 edition, but it was too late. Gangs of Muslim youths responded to their leaders' calls for action by taking to the streets of Kaduna, burning This Day's regional office and attacking and killing Christian bystanders in a stunning display of violence. Before the week was over, dozens of hotels and churches in Kaduna had been burned, at least 200 people were dead, hundreds more were injured, and thousands had been displaced as they fled their homes in fear for their lives.

A second apology came on November 21 and a November 22 editorial gave a list of the paper's Muslim staff members. Still, some Muslims remained unmoved. On November 26, three days after it was announced that the Miss World pageant would move to London, the deputy governor of the northern state of Zamfara issued a fatwa against Daniel, saying, "Just like the blasphemous Indian writer Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed."

The fatwa because of which the budding young journalist had to flee the country was later revoked.