LONDON — Reuters reported that the Miss World pageant, scheduled for Dec. 7 in the Nigerian capital city of Abuja, was held that day in London after riots in Nigeria resulted in the deaths of more than 200. The riots began Nov. 21 after a newspaper article by Isioma Daniel, a female journalist writing for the newspaper ThisDay, claimed the prophet Mohammed could have found a wife at the upcoming Miss World pageant.
On Nov. 28, Nigeria's supreme Islamic body, Jama'atu Nasril Islam, ordered Muslims to ignore a fatwa issued by conservative Zamfara state calling for Daniel’s death. The northern city of Kaduna was wracked by riots as crowds set makeshift blockades and churches on fire, stabbed bystanders and chanted “down with beauty” and “Miss World is sin,” according to the Associated Press.
At least five countries — Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama — are boycotting the contest after Nigerian officials sentenced a woman to death by stoning for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
Islamic groups in Nigeria have condemned the pageant as promoting promiscuity and immodesty. The fundamentalist Nigerian Muslim Umma, an umbrella group of Islamic clerics, has declared a “serious religious emergency,” according to the Reuters news agency.
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