| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Beauty and the Beasts
"What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would
probably have chosen a wife from among them." --- Isioma
Daniel, Nigerian newspaper writer whose printed comment
about the prophet Muhammad's view of the Miss World beauty
pageant to be held in Nigeria sparked bloody rioting.
"Down with beauty," "Miss World is sin," "God is great." ---
Assorted chants by Muslim protestors in Nigeria.
Whose idea was it to have a beauty contest in Nigeria,
anyway? At last count there were over two hundred dead and
many more hundreds injured in rioting. The next time some
wise acre Miss World official suggests they locate the pageant
in a Third World country with a large Islamic population, he'll
be pounding the pavement in search of a new job so fast it'll
make his head spin.
Although there had been promises of protests by Muslims for
months, it wasn't the contest itself that sparked the rioting. In
fact, the contest hadn't even occurred yet when the rioting
broke out, and then it was quickly moved back to the civilized
world where it belonged in the first place.
It was the quote above about Muhammad, which appeared
in the Nigerian newspaper "ThisDay," that was the straw that
broke the camel's back. To the logical mind, why this was
offensive enough for the faithful to torch buildings and commit
mass murder is a bit confusing. After all, during the course of
his life Muhammad had ten wives. The first was a wealthy
widow fifteen years his senior. One of the others was nine years
old and still playing with dolls when they married.
Since virility in a man was highly esteemed, Muhammad has
been commonly pictured over the centuries as a man of
immense potency. One tradition quotes him as saying that
women were among his three favorite things (the others being
prayer and pleasant odors).
At any rate, all the apologies and retractions that were
subsequently published didn't even faze the rioting fanatics as
they ran amok. It was almost as if they were just looking for an
excuse and once one was found, weren't about to give it up.
It's interesting to note that Daniel had just returned from
taking a journalism course in England before writing her
fateful comments. She may have thought she could go back
home and crank out the kind of sensationalistic journalism so
characteristic of the tabloid scandal sheets that masquerade as
newspapers in England.
But this was Nigeria and instead of kudos from her peers,
what she got was one of the newspaper offices burned to the
ground and a fatwa slapped on her head. A fatwa, for those
unfamiliar, is an Islamic theological edict issued by a mufti or
some such puffed up religious dictator, calling for some type of
action. This particular fatwa urged all good Muslims to,
basically, kill Daniel should they get the opportunity.
Interestingly, after Daniel fled the country in fear of her life,
the fatuous fatwa was rescinded by a higher Islamic authority
in Nigeria, the Jama'atu Nasril Islam. It turns out that in
Nigeria only the Jama'atu and the Supreme Council for Islamic
Affairs have the authority to issue a fatwa, but the fatwa
against Daniel was unauthoritatively issued by the government
of the Nigerian state of Zamfara. Therefore, it was overruled.
You might think that when she heard about that, Daniel got
up and danced a jig and then immediately started packing to
go back home. The only problem is, what if the rabid faithful
don't understand or care about the intricacies of the Islamic
organizational hierarchy in Nigeria and which group of crazies
has the ultimate right to issue fatwas? What if, in their fevered
blood lust, all they care about is that a fatwa was issued and
they are bound and determined to carry it out? Unless Daniel
has a serious death wish, she'd be crazy to ever set foot in
Nigeria again.
None of this Nigerian lunacy should come as any surprise.
This is a country where Islamic courts have condemned women
to death by stoning for getting pregnant outside of marriage.
This is a country where rioting between religious factions is a
national pastime.
An appropriate question for any of the Miss World beauty
contestants, before they hightailed it out of Nigeria, would have
been, What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?
"What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would
probably have chosen a wife from among them." --- Isioma
Daniel, Nigerian newspaper writer whose printed comment
about the prophet Muhammad's view of the Miss World beauty
pageant to be held in Nigeria sparked bloody rioting.
"Down with beauty," "Miss World is sin," "God is great." ---
Assorted chants by Muslim protestors in Nigeria.
Whose idea was it to have a beauty contest in Nigeria,
anyway? At last count there were over two hundred dead and
many more hundreds injured in rioting. The next time some
wise acre Miss World official suggests they locate the pageant
in a Third World country with a large Islamic population, he'll
be pounding the pavement in search of a new job so fast it'll
make his head spin.
Although there had been promises of protests by Muslims for
months, it wasn't the contest itself that sparked the rioting. In
fact, the contest hadn't even occurred yet when the rioting
broke out, and then it was quickly moved back to the civilized
world where it belonged in the first place.
It was the quote above about Muhammad, which appeared
in the Nigerian newspaper "ThisDay," that was the straw that
broke the camel's back. To the logical mind, why this was
offensive enough for the faithful to torch buildings and commit
mass murder is a bit confusing. After all, during the course of
his life Muhammad had ten wives. The first was a wealthy
widow fifteen years his senior. One of the others was nine years
old and still playing with dolls when they married.
Since virility in a man was highly esteemed, Muhammad has
been commonly pictured over the centuries as a man of
immense potency. One tradition quotes him as saying that
women were among his three favorite things (the others being
prayer and pleasant odors).
At any rate, all the apologies and retractions that were
subsequently published didn't even faze the rioting fanatics as
they ran amok. It was almost as if they were just looking for an
excuse and once one was found, weren't about to give it up.
It's interesting to note that Daniel had just returned from
taking a journalism course in England before writing her
fateful comments. She may have thought she could go back
home and crank out the kind of sensationalistic journalism so
characteristic of the tabloid scandal sheets that masquerade as
newspapers in England.
But this was Nigeria and instead of kudos from her peers,
what she got was one of the newspaper offices burned to the
ground and a fatwa slapped on her head. A fatwa, for those
unfamiliar, is an Islamic theological edict issued by a mufti or
some such puffed up religious dictator, calling for some type of
action. This particular fatwa urged all good Muslims to,
basically, kill Daniel should they get the opportunity.
Interestingly, after Daniel fled the country in fear of her life,
the fatuous fatwa was rescinded by a higher Islamic authority
in Nigeria, the Jama'atu Nasril Islam. It turns out that in
Nigeria only the Jama'atu and the Supreme Council for Islamic
Affairs have the authority to issue a fatwa, but the fatwa
against Daniel was unauthoritatively issued by the government
of the Nigerian state of Zamfara. Therefore, it was overruled.
You might think that when she heard about that, Daniel got
up and danced a jig and then immediately started packing to
go back home. The only problem is, what if the rabid faithful
don't understand or care about the intricacies of the Islamic
organizational hierarchy in Nigeria and which group of crazies
has the ultimate right to issue fatwas? What if, in their fevered
blood lust, all they care about is that a fatwa was issued and
they are bound and determined to carry it out? Unless Daniel
has a serious death wish, she'd be crazy to ever set foot in
Nigeria again.
None of this Nigerian lunacy should come as any surprise.
This is a country where Islamic courts have condemned women
to death by stoning for getting pregnant outside of marriage.
This is a country where rioting between religious factions is a
national pastime.
An appropriate question for any of the Miss World beauty
contestants, before they hightailed it out of Nigeria, would have
been, What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?