Of Fatwas And Beauty Queens
• Religious Intolerance
Then, a well-meaning 21-year-old Nigerian journalist named Isioma Daniel, working for a Lagos newspaper, wrote a single, seemingly innocent sentence that infuriated the extremist mullahs in the northern part of the country, who deemed it blasphemy.
What did Daniel say that was so heretical? She suggested in her article that the prophet Muhammad, if he were alive today, would likely have chosen a bride from among the beautiful contestants.
Riots ensued, villages were burned, hundreds of people, mostly Christians, were slaughtered, the contestants were locked down in an isolated hotel and Daniel was hit with a fatwa, which means Muslims everywhere were obliged to try to kill her.
The terrified Daniel escaped the country and is now in exile in Norway.