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Underground > Switchboard >

'At least 50' killed in Miss World riots, Nigeria.

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The Return Of Rothkoid

21:15 / 21.11.02

See here for BBC coverage, read SMH coverage here. Excerpts from SMH version, which expires in a week, roughly.

More than 50 people were stabbed, bludgeoned or burned to death today during violent demonstrations in the northern city of Kaduna.

They were triggered by a newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet might have chosen a wife from among contestants in the Miss World beauty pageant in Nigeria.

...

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

So. Thoughts? This touches on a couple of things, I suppose, but the key question is this: what happens now?

01:27 / 22.11.02

Protests started after the newspaper ThisDay published an article which said that the Prophet Mohammed would probably have chosen to marry one of the contestants if he had witnessed the beauty pageant, which Nigeria is hosting next month.

That's the part that struck me as just plain odd. Is Muslim fundamentalism genuinely that sensitive? And what's more, who the hell slogans a religious figure in a beauty contest? Kind of an absurd statement to make much less a religiously durogatory one. Weird, weird, weird.

02:31 / 22.11.02

This is a weird situation from Jump Street. There was supposed to be a boycott of the pageant by its contestants, because of a Nigerian woman being tried for adultery, with the penalty of death by stoning; the woman pleaded with the contestants not to boycott, because God would look out for her and Nigeria really needed the pageant. There's more here than meets the eye.

09:28 / 22.11.02

This is .. rather fucking insane to say the least..

I don't know about anyone else, but it's one of those things where you realise that you basically just completely don't understand the politics/culture of the country/people involved .. the more you read, trying to figure out exactly why, how and what was going on, the less sense it makes.. frightening..

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:48 / 22.11.02

From start to finish, this has been a really shit idea. ("You know why? Cos it's OBVIOUSLY a really shit idea!")

I would have thought the fundies would have been opposed to the whole idea of the contest anyway... Rizla's right. I can't make head nor tail of the situation. Any of it. Other than it being bad.

12:41 / 22.11.02

I have an aquaintence from Nigeria, but she's from "the educated class," very contemptuous of the underclass. Someone should get her a book on the French Revolution... though I think it'd only confirm her conviction that she's morally, mentally, and physically superior. She'll probably say something similar to Ch. 'Stoat. She's a good shit, though, honest. I'll see what I can find out.

13:09 / 22.11.02

It's fairly clear to me - the pageant already opposed the Islamic power base over the stoning issue, the government said they'd look out for the pregnant woman if only the pageant would come (raising tensions between political and religious spheres), and so the pageant only needed to do one boneheaded thing to *really* get the religious folks aaannnngggrrrryyy.

And they did.

13:42 / 22.11.02

Red Cross/Associated Press are reporting 100 dead and 500 injured.

'Nov. 22, 2002 | 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.'

Kaduna riots

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:55 / 22.11.02

Just think, in the old days we'd have to wait years for the Conspiracy Theories... But that newspaper headline does seem odd as though someone did intend it to be inflammatory. I can't believe anyone would have thought that it was just fair comment to make.

18:58 / 22.11.02

I dunno, I could see it being a misguided attempt to include Muslems, claiming that Mohammed would endorse the contest. Just stupid enough to be true.

Or you could be right. But still, I feel there's more to it. Grant, are you saying it was done specifically to provoke Muslems, give a reason to round them all up? Possible...

21:07 / 22.11.02

Nah, I'm saying it was a boneheaded editorial move, meant to "spark debate" with the fundamentalists.

[Lemony Snicket]"Spark debate" here means "mock or denigrate gently."[/Lemony Snicket]

I don't think it was a government plot, but I do believe the newspaper sides with the government against the Islamic authorities, with an eye on prioritizing the economic development of the country over the relative morality of painted ladies in swimsuits.

01

06:58 / 23.11.02

I've had it with these fundamentalist assholes. Had it with their intolerance, their dark-ages style of "justice" and their institutionalized oppression. All in the name of religion and spiritual enlightenment. Fuck them. I'd love to walk into a field with any one of them and go bareknuckle. No guns, knives, bombs or any of that horseshit.

Stoning. Can we try get into the 20th century, never mind the 21st?
Burning tyres around people's necks. Beyond disgusting doesn't even begin to describe it. How fucked do you have to be to even seriously consider such an action?

The field. Bareknuckle.

08:58 / 23.11.02

A secular mob is likely to be just as violent as a fundamentalist mob of any religious persuasion.

Discuss.

10:54 / 23.11.02

Strange as it may seem, the Miss World organisers and the Moslem fundamentalists have a few things in common. Neither like unmarried mothers much.
Back in the 70's, at least one Miss World was unceremoniously stripped of her title when it was revealed she had a secret child.
in Nigeria, they take things further and stone unmarried mums to death.
I've no time for fundamentalism in any form. And no time for corporate beauty contests projecting an idealised image of women.
As to the newspaper article, it reads like a throwaway remark made by someone who wasn't thinking too much. Bottom line – it's all about freedom of speech, or the lack of it. Suddenly this writer is Nigeria's answer to Salman Rushdie. And hundreds are killed because someone didn't like a glib remark in an article. Puts internet flame wars into perspective...
I've just read that the angry mobs running through the streets are chanting "Death to Beauty". Does this remind anyone else of an old Doom Patrol comic?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:23 / 23.11.02

Tasteless though it may be, "Death to Beauty" would make a great slogan for a T-shirt.

Death toll now seems to have hit 100. Fucking hell.

As far as I can tell, the comment was stupid rather than deliberately inflammatory. Fucking, fucking stupid.

Christ, you just can't get the editors these days...

15:23 / 23.11.02

It seems that 'beauty is a sin' but killing people is not. Religious people really piss me off.

To me it looks like wherever you have a country like Nigeria, split between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South, this is bound to happen. Basically, due to the rise of fundamentalism on both sides. Just look at the Spice islands in Indonesia.

And it's only going to get worse. The war between the West and Islam is coming.

15:26 / 23.11.02

I've had it with these fundamentalist assholes. Had it with their intolerance, their dark-ages style of "justice"

I'd love to walk into a field with any one of them and go bareknuckle. No guns, knives, bombs or any of that horseshit.

Er, you might want to fix that emormous great contradictory hole in your argument before some people who are better at arguing than I am fall into it..

15:59 / 23.11.02

It seems that being a member of one of the major world religions is a sin, and not being one is not. Dumb posts really piss me off.

The Tower Always Falls

19:34 / 23.11.02

Good lord. It really says something about the United States that NO ONE over here has even heard of this. I just found out due to NPR. Let's hear it for American media tunnel vision...

20:53 / 23.11.02

I'm American and I've been following for weeks. It's been on 1010WINS.

20:59 / 23.11.02

There is no war between the Islam and the West, tango. There is no West, and what you mean when you say the West doesn't give a crap about Islam. There will be McDonalds throughout the Middle East by the end of our lifetimes. They will be hallal with Muslem employees, managers and franchise owners.

06:26 / 24.11.02

Qalyn, you mean the governments or the people don't give a crap about Islam? I think the governments do give a crap and will continue to as Islamic countries get more powerful.

Also, I think the mcDonalds thing is not really a consideration. A guy can eat a Halal big mac while wearing a Bin Laden T-shirt. Burning down McD's is more the anti-globalist agenda.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:19 / 24.11.02

It's these fundamentalist secular humanists that really piss me off. I mean,...

umm... I'll be over here.

11:32 / 24.11.02

I don't think the Fundmaentalist influences believe that God approves of destruction, looting, and vigilantism to correct vainity and obnoxious pageantry.

I think the Fundmaentalist influences believe that destruction, looting, and vigilantism will SIGNAL THEIR ANGER THAT SOMEONE QUOTED THAT GOD APPROVES OF vainity and obnoxious pageantry.

WARNING: Local politics may horrify viewers whose countries have not endured a couple hundred years of 1) European disregar for established tribes 2) the Sub-Saharan stuggle between Christinity and Islam for the spiritual souls of the nation(s) and 3) the West's greed for cheap oil and it's insidious memeplexes (Enlightment or a fucking Big Mac?).

I did get this emaill today. I was sad that it arrived too late.

Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2002 08:05:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject: What we can do for our country!!!!

The Freedom of our nation is at stake. People should organize these things better. I opt for a big ol' naked lou-ale (however the the Hawiians pronouce the party-with-the-pig-in-the-ground), televised on all Amercian Channels for one hour solid.

VR
The Shark

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 11:05:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject: What we can do for our country!!!!

Because the Taliban cannot stand nudity and consider
it a sin to see a naked woman that is not one's wife,
next Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., EDT, all North
American women are asked to walk out of their houses
completely naked to help weed out any neighborhood
terrorists. Circling your block for one hour is
recommended for this anti terrorist effort.

All men should position themselves in lawn chairs in
front of their homes to prove that they think it's OK
to see other women nude. (Since the enemy does not
approve of alcohol, a cold six-pack at your side is
further proof of your anti-Taliban sentiment.)

Please notify the appropriate authorities of any people
who do not participate.

Your efforts to root out terrorists will be greatly
appreciated and indicate your desire to demonstrate
your patriotism. To achieve 100% participation forward
this note to other similarly minded patriots.
See you out there Saturday.

18:36 / 24.11.02

The thing that I can't stop thinking about with this situation is that the media in England is wringing its hands because the contestants - who were on extremely dodgy ground being in Nigeria anyway both because of the stoning sentence and the threat that trouble was going to kick off - were a bit shaken up. The news just now said 200 people had died but that seems like small beer in comparison to the contestants being scared.

The contest is now going to take place in London. Yippee. Cue feminist protest outside the venue and headlines about ugly women not letting the pretty ones have any fun.

01

20:21 / 24.11.02

Er, you might want to fix that emormous great contradictory hole in your argument before some people who are better at arguing than I am fall into it..

I'm venting. Get off my case.

01:18 / 25.11.02

Cue feminist protest outside the venue and headlines about ugly women not letting the pretty ones have any fun.

And no sign of anyone suggesting it be cancelled out of a mark of respect to the hundreds of dead people.

07:48 / 25.11.02

Estimates suggest that besides the 200 people killed, 1,200 have been hospitalised, and 12,000 made homeless as a result of the violence.

"It is completely despicable that we have agreed to host this travesty," said the writer Muriel Gray yesterday. "If I were Ken Livingstone, I'd have refused to let it go ahead. I am especially ashamed that Miss England and Miss Scotland are still taking part. I would have thought that they had more sense. These girls will be wearing swimwear dripping with blood."

08:02 / 25.11.02

Yes, that was something else that has struck me about it - the contestants are still more than happy to take part, as long as they're safe. Muriel Gray puts it rather well. The whole thing stinks even more than it usually does.

17:20 / 25.11.02

"The show must go on."

21:54 / 25.11.02

the headline on one of the NY dailies is, "We were terrified... they would've killed us!" Would've made a hell of a Movie of the Week.

22:51 / 25.11.02

All I could find on the news this morning was interviews with Ms. Canada. Really disturbing, as she's trying to get back into the contest after being kicked out for trying to get out of Nigeria, and I'm sure the media's supporting her efforts. You would think we would be past beauty pagents by now...

11:03 / 26.11.02

Beauty pageants have come back around to Paglia-feminist celebrations of womanly power, haven't they? Not that I know anything about it.

15:35 / 26.11.02

Beauty pageants have come back around to Paglia-feminist celebrations of womanly power, haven't they? Not that I know anything about it.

Well, that's what they say ... though I guess Nigerian women aren't feeling too empowered by it. Another option is that it's a somewhat sophomoric, eurocentric brand of feminism incapable, through its own misinformed liberalism, of recognising anyone other than white, anglophone males as the enemy.

Nah. It's nothing more than a tits 'n' ass exhibition.

16:39 / 26.11.02

'Nigerian deputy governor calls for death of writer

Nov. 26, 2002 | LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- The deputy governor of a largely Islamic state in northern Nigeria has called on Muslims to kill the Nigerian writer of a newspaper article about the Miss World beauty pageant that sparked deadly religious riots.'

AP article

Finally, a voice of reason...

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