Ironworks Gaming Forum - Now THIS is a debacle worth noticing

From http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/inte...iss-World.html

TL's brief polemico OpEd: Okay, folks, respect for others and all blah blah flur snur yadda yadda duly noted, if you are from a country where women get stoned to death for committing adultery, while men get no punishment, and where there is not even any proof needed, you can...
GET THE HELL OFF MY PLANET! Ooops, sorry. . . I mean [img]graemlins/hippysmile.gif[/img] peace, love, and hugs for all. :D

Miss World Article Sets Off Deadly Riot in Nigeria
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 10:49 a.m. ET

KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) -- Christian youths retaliated against Muslims in this northern city Friday in the third day of riots triggered by a newspaper article about the Miss World pageant. Red Cross officials said about 100 had died and 500 were seriously injured in the violence.

Beauty pageant spokeswoman Stella Din said organizers were ``saddened'' by the deaths but would not cancel the event, scheduled for Dec. 7 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, some 225 miles southwest of Kaduna.

``The show definitely will go on,'' she told reporters in Abuja.

Sporadic gunshots and shouting could be heard in the northern city of Kaduna, which has seen the fiercest fighting. Angry mobs have stabbed and set fire to bystanders and rampaged through streets. At least four churches have been destroyed by fire.

The violence began Wednesday, when the Kaduna office of ThisDay newspaper was torched after the paper published an article questioning Muslim objections to the pageant. The article, published Saturday, suggested the prophet Muhammad would have chosen a wife among the contestants.

The newspaper ran a brief front-page apology Monday and a longer retraction on Thursday.

On Friday, plumes of black smoke rose above this tense, religiously mixed city of several million people and authorities extended a round-the-clock curfew -- although many ignored the order.

Young Muslim men shouting ``Allahu Akhbar,'' or ``God is great,'' ignited makeshift barricades of tires and garbage. Others chanted, ``Down with beauty'' and ``Miss World is sin.''

In neighborhoods dominated by minority Christians, witnesses said youths smashed windows and set fires in mosques used by the ethnic Hausa and Fulani Muslims who dominate Kaduna.

Fearful residents sought protection at police stations and military bases.

``The soldiers have been very helpful, giving us bandages and first aid. Everyone is here -- Muslims, Christians and pagan. We are all afraid of going home,'' said Habiba Ibrahim, who spent the night in the city's defense academy near the government clinic where she works. ``Only God knows when this will end.''

The bodies of those slain in the streets were taken by Red Cross workers and other volunteers to mortuaries. It was not clear exactly how many were killed.

Nigerian Red Cross officials reported about 100 dead by Friday morning, said George Bennet, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross delegation. He stressed an exact figure was impossible to confirm.

Other Red Cross officials said Friday that more than 500 people had been injured.

Previous riots in Kaduna, a predominantly Muslim city with a sizable Christian minority, have escalated into religious battles that killed hundreds since civilian government replaced military rule in 1999.

Islamist groups have warned for months that they would protest the pageant, prompting organizers to postpone the finale until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Muslim groups say the pageant promotes promiscuity and indecency.

In the article that prompted the spasm of violence in Kaduna, ThisDay writer Isioma Daniel said, ``What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them.''

Security forces patrolled other major cities Friday, including the northern trading hub of Kano, where Muslim women peacefully protested.

``We are calling on the government to stop Miss World, this show of shame. For women to expose herself to men other than their husbands is forbidden,'' said one of the protesters, Hadiza Usman.

Miss World organizers insist contestants have respected conservative Muslim values by dressing conservatively.

The pageant also caused controversy elsewhere; at least five contestants are boycotting it to protest judgments in Nigeria's Islamic courts that condemned several women to death by stoning for getting pregnant while unmarried.

Contestants from Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama stayed away.

Nigeria's government insists none of the judgments will be carried out, although it has refused to intervene directly with the Islamic court system