Johannesburg — Violence in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna continued sporadically Friday, triggered by a furious reaction of Muslims to the suggestion in a leading national newspaper that the Prophet Mohammad would probably have chosen a Miss World contestant as a bride.
A curfew came into force in Kaduna overnight Thursday and heavy security, including soldiers drafted to assist the police, restored a semblance of order after running street battles. The Red Cross said it was impossible to accurately count the dead, which reportedly numbered at least 100 by nightfall.
Nigeria is hosting the Miss World 2002 beauty pageant amid growing controversy and heated debate between those for and against the contest, which is in its preparatory stages during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
An article in ThisDay newspaper on Saturday, which questioned the motives of Muslim organisations criticising the event, prompted demonstrations in Kaduna on Wednesday, when the paper's office in the city was torched.
"What would (the prophet) Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them (the Miss World beauty queens)," ran part of the offending editorial, which ThisDay said was published in error.
Immediate apologies, repeated retractions and a contrite newspaper group chairman, Nduka Obaigbena, have done little to soften the impact of the ThisDay article on angry Muslim youths, who went on the rampage in Kaduna, attacking churches, looting shops, burning tyres and vandalising vehicles.
Reports Friday, the main day of Muslim prayers, spoke of sporadic clashes in Kaduna, despite the heightened security presence, with reports of minority Christian youths staging reprisal attacks against Muslims.
Two years ago, Kaduna gained the reputation of being a flashpoint and home to the worst sectarian violence seen in Nigeria between Muslims and Christians in which up to two thousand people died. The city is predominantly Muslim, with a large Christian minority.
Speaking on the BBC, Obaigbena said "I believe we published what we shouldn't have published. We have apologised and we are apologising because it is something that shouldn't have run". He said the supervising editor pulled the commentary as the paper went to press, but that a production error meant the correction was not made, leading to the publication of the editorial by mistake.
Obagbena said ThisDay had Thursday issued a "far more comprehensive apology to suit the feelings and sensitivities of our Muslim brothers and sisters".
But critics said that it had come too late and the damage had clearly been done. They called the paper's conduct both provocative and irresponsible, as well as unfortunate. Certainly the article in question has fuelled the already bitter debate on whether Nigeria, which is 40 percent Muslim, should be staging the Miss World contest at all, especially during Ramadan.
In its first response to the Kaduna clashes, Nigeria's federal government strongly criticised the newspaper report Thursday, saying ThisDay had "exceeded the bounds of responsible journalism by making a provocative publication on the Holy Prophet". The authorities indicated that those associated with the article would be punished and appealed for calm.
The Miss World organisers have said the show will go on, despite the violence in Kaduna, which threatened to spread to other northern cities where the atmosphere was reported to be tense.
The idea was that the beauty competition would showcase Nigeria and place it firmly on the international tourism and entertainment map. But the run-up to the pageant has been dogged by controversy. Although the latest trouble in Kaduna was sparked initially by the paper linking the Prophet to Miss World, it rapidly degenerated into a violent protest against the whole contest.
Analysts said there had been warning signs. For several months, outraged Muslim leaders had called the pageant an affront, "immoral" and "degrading" to women. They warned of protests against Miss World.
On Wednesday, influential Muslim scholars described the pageant as a "wanton promotion of immorality through nudity," and called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to stop the contest. The organisers have made some concessions, shifting the main event to 7 December in the capital Abuja, after Ramadan, and axing the trademark bikini parade, but outspoken opposition remains.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
This week's riots in Kaduna were just the latest in crisis in a long saga for Miss World 2002. The contest has also drawn criticism from outside the country. Several contestants said they would refuse to travel to Nigeria and would boycott the beauty contest this year, as a protest over the Sharia (Islamic law) courts in the north, which have sentenced Muslin women to death by stoning for adultery.
It was only after assurances by the government that no one would face being stoned to death that about 90 beauty queens agreed to fly to Nigeria. Many of the contestants have voiced their sympathy and support for several unmarried women including Amina Lawal, the 31-year-old whose Sharia court case received worldwide attention, and condemnation, after she was sentenced to death for conceiving a child out of wedlock.
The current Miss World, Nigeria's Agbani Darego, is scheduled to hand over her crown to her successor at the grand finale in December.
