Nigerian Muslims and the Miss World Pageant
by Dr. Jan H. Boer
Theologians do not often have a reason to write about a Miss
World contest. The two concerns seem worlds apart. But the 2002 pageant
in Nigeria took centre stage in the international media, surely a first in
the long history of this annual event. Never have riots in Nigeria received
so much prolonged international attention. Never before was the annual
ritual transferred midway to another country for reasons of blood and religion.
Since religion played such a prominent part in this episode, this theologian
seized the opportunity!
The aim of this article is to explain some of the reasons for
the riots that occurred in November, 2002, in connection with the Miss World
contest in Nigeria. How could an innocuous tradition provoke so much
hostility and bloodshed? My concern is to convince people involved in events
and relationships that include Islam and Muslims that any cooperation with
them requires a good understanding of them and their sensitivities.
This principle is so commonplace that it should not need expressing, but,
for some mysterious reason, in matters Islam it is routinely ignored at the
expense of peace. Recent revelations that the US government was totally ignorant
of Iraqi Muslim sensitivities is only the most recent and most devastating.
Background History
Two hundred years ago, a Muslim revival took place under
their beloved reformer Uthman Danfodio in part of what today comprises northern
Nigeria. He established what Nigerian Muslims look upon as an ideal
Muslim state, culture and religion, shorn of all the heretical accretions
that had accumulated. That ideal included slavery. From their capital Sokoto,
where the Sultan resides even today, and other centres they would descend
upon the Traditionalist peoples in the Middle Belt to the south for slave
raiding purposes. They created absolute havoc and chaos. Around 1900, Sokoto
was reputedly the largest slaving empire in the world. Nigerian Muslims
hold up that empire as the ideal for which they are striving.
Enter the secular British with their colonial scheme.
Though they promised to leave Islam intact, they undermined it by means of
a slow process in various ways, especially by a system of secular education
and by incorporating the traditional emirs and chiefs. This combination set
in motion a process of secularization that served as a drug: it made the
Muslim community drowsy so as to let down their guard.
While this was going on, it looked on the surface as if
the British were supporting Islam. Many Traditionalist ethnic groups were
incorporated into the Muslim emirates or simply had Muslim emirs imposed
on them. Politically, Muslims gained much from the regime, but spiritually
it drugged them with the pill of secularism.
Then Ayatollah Khomeini strode onto the world scene with
his revolution. He shook Nigerian Muslims awake and rekindled in them
the spirit of Danfodio. Fundamentalism thus made its debut in Nigeria.
Christian missions also entered into the mix. It was slow
going, but since the 1960s a great people movement took place among the Traditionalists
towards Christ. The former Traditionalists became increasingly aggressive
Christians over a period of a few decades. The race between the Christianity
and Islam reached a high pitch, with both of them gunning for hegemony.
Muslims are in a semi-admitted jihad in their bid for power and revival.
They want to undo the shackles with which secularism has bound them. Christians,
on the other hand, are using the banner of secularism against the onslaughts
of Islam that they regard as imposing a Muslim style government on the country.
The demand for secular structures is becoming more adamant as Christians
catch up with Muslims.
So, there you have the inferno. On the one hand,
Muslims angry at having been drugged by a secularism they consider the ultimate
weapon of satan and Muslims nervous as they observe their numerical advantage
eroding steadily. On the other hand, Christians angry at having been subjected
to Muslim rule and seeking to stem the perpetual Muslim jihad for power with
the tool of secularism. "Secularism" has become the flashpoint for both,
one opposing it, the other promoting it.
Currently, Muslims are concentrating on restoring their
legal system, the sharia, as their solution to secularism. They want to shrug
off the yoke of an imposed, foreign secular legal system. They envision that
sharia will help the country revive its economy and overcome the corruption
that is dragging the country into an ever deepening hole. Though they keep
promising that sharia holds only for Muslims, that does not seem to be a
serious promise, for sharia states honour this promise only by breaking
it time and again.
Christians have noticed this fact and thus strongly resist
the push for sharia. Because Muslims are clearly not serious about
restricting sharia to Muslims, Christians are not prepared to listen to any
arguments for sharia, not even legitimate ones. In fact, both camps are deaf
to each other.
The easy resort by Christians to secular thought is due to
the influence of Western missions that have brought the gospel wrapped in
the cloth of the traditional Western worldview. That worldview, it has been
widely recognized by scholars of every stripe and colour, includes a dualism
that separates religion and spirituality from so-called "mundane" or "secular"
affairs. Though Evangelical mission bodies are beginning to reject this dualism,
the damage has been done: It forms an unfortunate part of the heritage of
Nigerian Christians with which they counter the Muslim challenge.
This is a confusing heritage that has prevented Christians
from developing a theologically responsible and consistent stance. While
Muslims are inconsistent in their application of sharia, Christians are inconsistent
in their application of secularism. While they demand separation of
church and state, they are also clamouring for government funds to keep their
health and educational institutions going. While they declare that the church
should not be involved in politics, their main mouthpiece, Christian Association
of Nigeria, is highly politicized.
As a result, neither party believes or trusts the other.
Neither party lives up to their declared intentions. The battle has
brought the country to a state of perpetual tension that is constantly
searching the horizon for a spark to make it ignite. It is only the nature
of the spark that cannot be predicted. The Miss World pageant of 2002
contained a few such sparks.
Muslim Problems with the Pageant
Muslims were hesitant about holding the pageant in Nigeria
from the beginning. They associate the event with bikinis and other forms
of blatant sex, something that deeply offends them. Thus, early rumblings
started about the event being an offence to Muslim morals. That should have
put the organizers and the government on its guard for possible violence.
There were several complications that increased Muslim apprehension. While
they are trying to portray Nigeria as a Muslim country, the expected open
sexuality of the event was scheduled to be flaunted through the media before
the entire world. In the end it was in fact televised in 142 countries. This
was like flaunting Muslim defeat. The implication was a world-wide announcement
that they had lost control in Nigeria.
In addition, it was scheduled to be held during the Muslim
fast, a period that calls for sobriety and reflection. With this event to
be shown on TV also throughout Nigeria, the attention of many Muslims, it
was argued, would be diverted from the spiritual exercise of fasting.
It was, to them, clearly part of the ongoing alleged Christian campaign to
undermine and destroy Islam.
Then there was the promise that the event would not touch Muslim communities,
but it was scheduled for Abuja, the capital. Clearly, the organizers
were siding with Christians by implying that Abuja is not a Muslim city.
It is a new capital and Muslims have been accused by Christians of imposing
a Muslim face on the place. It was another declaration of the fall
of an important Muslim symbol.
There was also the international boycott advocated by some
human rights bodies. Prompted by sharia, Muslim law, a Muslim single
mother for adultery had been sentenced to death by stoning. Other similar
cases were waiting in the wings. Though its execution was being delayed,
the situation raised the ire of these human rights bodies. At least five
of the queens were going to honour the boycott. To make it worse, in
reaction to the threat of boycott, the President assured the queens and the
rest of the world, that Nigeria would not allow the execution to take place.
The constitution, the world was assured, has precedence over sharia. This
amounted to an international presidential declaration of war on the pro-sharia
movement. These developments clearly placed the pageant on the anti-sharia
side, even though the organizers had nothing to do with the boycott.
To top it all off, the queens were invited to Aso Rock, where they had tea
with the President while the Chaplain conducted a prayer meeting. While all
of this might have seemed innocuous to innocent bystanders, everything about
the Miss World contest smelled of anti-sharia sentiments to suspicious Muslims.
And then came the real blow--probably one of the most famous
gaffes in history of Christian-Muslim relations-- from Isioma Daniel, an
innocent young female reporter for ThisDay, who had little understanding
of Nigerian Muslim dynamics. In a defense of the pageant, she lightheartedly
suggested that Prophet Muhammad would not have objected to the event. He
probably would have married one of the beauties! That was more than
Muslims could take. Now Christians had crossed the line by insulting
the holy Prophet. Her last name, "Daniel," was sufficient to establish her
Christian identity.
It took little time before the city of Kaduna rocked with a riot that left
more than 200 dead, not to speak of the destruction of numerous churches,
mosques and hotels. Both Christian and Muslim youths got
out of hand and took revenge by destroying mosques and churches. It was a
bloody event in true Nigerian style. For Kaduna city this was at least
the fourth bloody religious riot.
Reactions of Muslim Leaders
Muslim leaders did not take kindly to the gaffe. Dr. Ibrahim
Datti, President of the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria, stated that
the newspaper ThisDay had declared war on Muslims. Muslims should retaliate
with their own war. Another leader, Dr. Mohammed Mahdi, declared, "Muslims
in the country have been pushed to the wall and it is high time we reacted
vehemently and swiftly."
The Council of Imams and Ulama of Kaduna published the following
statement:
Ordinarily, the decision to host a beauty contest in an environment
with a considerable Muslim population would insult the religion and moral
sensibility of a typical Muslim, and, of course, he/she would voice against
it. This has been the case since the stage-managed victory of Nigeria's
Agbani Darego…. Muslim opposition should have had an effect on the process
of conducting the bestial contest. But with a blasphemous article,
the government needs to cancel the contest for the sake of corporate survival.
Let it be unequivocally stated here that Prophet Mohammed forms the chunk
of passion of a conscious Muslim so that any insult on the Prophet's personality
unleashes the rage in Muslims. That is why a portion of the satanic article
in ThisDay has dared the guts of the Moslems.
The Deputy Governor of Zamfara State pronounced a fatwa
on Miss Isioma and some members of the paper's management team, the same
sentence served on Salman Rushdie some years ago. It means open season. Anyone
is allowed to kill her. Soon afterwards, Muslim authorities declared
the fatwa invalid, since it was pronounced by one without such authority.
However as far as the ruckus was concerned, most Muslim leaders, even those
who were upset about the pageant and the gaffe, publicly disapproved of it
as not befitting true Muslims. Sheikh Karibullah Nasiur Kabara, Vice
President of the Supreme Council for Muslims, though he had harsh words for
the paper and demanded that the government should punish the managers if
they want to reduce Muslim tension, also urged Muslims to remain calm.
Lateef Adegbite not only wanted that people remain calm, but
also urged that they accept the apology. A lawyer, he had threatened
legal action if the paper did not apologize for what he dubbed that "dastardly
statement...without caring for the effect such tantrum would have on the
psyche of Muslims." When that apology came, he pleaded with Muslims
that it should be accepted and that the paper should be forgiven.
Explanations for the Ruckus
But was it really a religious riot? That's always a question
in Nigeria. Or was it politics? Many prefer the political explanation--but
always as illegitimate politics conducted in mafia style.
Christian Courier, a Canadian Christian bi-weekly, recently
featured an article containing the opinion of Josiah Fearon, the Anglican
Archbishop of Kaduna, who explained it basically in political terms without
denying the religious aspect. Those instigating the riots were trying to
unseat the state's Muslim Governor, Makarfi. In distinction from other
northern state governors who had adopted the sharia in total, Makarfi adopted
it only to cover the Muslim majority areas of his state. Had he tried
to apply it universally, he would have had a much bigger problem on his hand.
The pro-sharia forces would not accept this "real politick" and sought to
dethrone him by destabilizing the state by these riots. These forces
worked behind the scenes to get the ball rolling and once it did, it took
on its own dynamics with hoodlums looting and others just venting their general
anger at Christians by killing and burning. Christian youths were not slow
to enter the fray.
Fearon's opinion represents that of many people, both Christians
and Muslims.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Okogie, is
a well-known Christian activist. Calling up shades of President Bush, Okogie
conceded that there are thousands of Moslems that are very good, who practise
their religion in the righteous way. But then,
we have these unwanted fanatics…who don't just care. Their own
is to cause chaos, not only chaos, but they want to steal in order to get
what they want. They don't just go on rampage, they want to set ablaze;
they are not doing it because of religion, they are only using religion as
a cover; which is not good. How can a devout Muslim go out rampaging, looting
people's property under the camouflage of Ramadan? It is giving a bad name
to religion….
George Ehusani, another influential Roman Catholic, wrote in
stronger words:
Where one part of the country can decide to enforce criminal
elements of the Islamic legal code that are clearly at variance with the
nation's constitution, cutting off the limbs of petty offenders, condemning
poor adulterers to death by stoning, and harassing those who do not share
their faith every so often, the impression created is that no one is in charge
of our affairs, and there is no law and order in place.
In addition to Muslims, Ehusani holds the Federal Government
responsible for this and all the suffering Nigerians have endured over the
past decades:
I hold the current leadership of the Nigerian State responsible
for the massive destruction of lives and property in Kaduna, Jos, Kano, Zaria,
Bauchi and elsewhere, over the Sharia controversy, and at the hands of Islamic
fundamentalists, because the president and his team have remained indolent
and insensitive in the face of a very explosive situation. I hold President
Obasanjo and his team accountable for the blood and tears in Kaduna and other
parts of the North, where non-Muslims have lost their right to live in peace,
for it is the primary duty of government to protect innocent and law abiding
citizens from the nefarious activities of hooligans, bandits and fanatics.
I hold those in power responsible for the pain and anguish that is the lot
of the innocent citizens of Northern Nigeria who for the umpteenth time have
been rendered refugees in their own country, because I expect them to own
up to their ineptitude and resign from their high office, if their being
in office makes no difference for the internal security of the nation.
Even some Muslims were of similar minds. Sheikh Kabara
called those behind the gaffe "pen terrorists" out to create tension and
riots. The article "emanated from mercenaries hired to destabilize
Nigeria…for the benefit of…people who have failed…to achieve their political
goals." Many were of the opinion that someone was behind this so-called
innocent gaffe and it is necessary to uncover their identity. It is
possible that someone in the ThisDay organization was bought over to create
this havoc. This may seem farfetched only to those not familiar with Nigeria.
The rest of us know that the "art" of scheming and intrigue is one of the
more highly developed "art forms" in Nigeria and can go to any length if
the stakes are high enough.
The State Government initially thought that the gaffe was the major cause
of the ruckus. However, as they began to interrogate the more than a thousand
people they had rounded up, they also became convinced of behind-the-scenes
political machinations on the part of political hopefuls that aimed to defeat
the Governor.
Others expand the explanation to include wider circles of intrigue
and manipulation even up to international level. The ruckus and all
the opposition to the pageant were somehow influenced by a group of international
schemers who want to demonstrate that Africans are incapable of hosting such
events. They will go to any lengths to prevent it in order to dent the reputation
of Africa. The names of prominent media feature in these arguments: Voice
of America, BBC and some British newspapers. All of them allegedly
wish Africa only evil. Prof. Jerry Gana, Federal Minister of Information,
is the highest government official to blame the mayhem on those sinister
agents, but he is by no means the only one.
My own opinion is that the explosive situation started to build
up because of the pageant itself and its association with anti-sharia politics.
The gaffe was the spark that brought it to a point where the behind-the-scenes
manipulators encouraged groups of young people and hoodlums to start
rioting. From there on the usual dynamics of Nigerian riots kicked in and
we had a full-scale riot on our hands.
It was a combination of religion and politics. Religion
in Nigeria is a sensitive issue. Both Christians and Muslims are nervously
watching each other and expecting the worst from each other. As soon
as the religious issue reached its flash point, the political manipulators
ensured that the spark would ignite and then started their machinations.
Nigerian Muslims have managed to put the Miss World competition on one of
the world's front burners. It is likely to return there towards the end of
2003, since the new queen is Miss Turkey. Will Turkey host the next competition?
It is officially a secular country, but the Muslim ethos there reigns supreme.
The issue could develop into a clash between traditional Muslims and those
wanting to join the European Union (EU). The latter need to prove that Turkey
is a modern European nation with an ethos that will comfortably fit in the
EU. Organizers of the Miss World pageant, welcome to one of the world's
hot seats. Enjoy the spotlight--and the heat!
============
Dr. John Boer served in Nigeria for 30 years as a missionary. He served
TCNN frequently as an occasional lecturer, while he was a part-time staff
member for 2 years. He currently lives in Vancouver, Canada, researching
in and writing on Christian-Muslim relations. Website: http://www.SocialTheology.com.
Copyright 2003 Theological College of Northern Nigeria
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This page last modified July 28, 2003