November 26, 2002

'Death sentence' on Nigerian journalist

The northern Nigerian state of Zamfara has urged Muslims to kill the woman who wrote an article which insulted the Prophet Mohammed, sparking religious riots last week.[...]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".

Aren't these people something else?
This entire story has been so bizarre--even in our stranger than strange post-9/11 world--but all I could think about when I heard of these riots and killings was "Who was the *genius* who decided to hold a beauty pageant in this hellhole in the first place?"
No offense to Nigerians, but your country is developmentally- and economically-challenged in a big way!
I should think that the people there would become enraged and get violent because these girls so obviously bathed and ate regularly and they didn't, comments about Mohammed and his tastes not even entering into it.