Violent Demonstrations in Kaduna

[sdanyaro]

Source:Associated Press
By GLENN McKENZIE,

LAGOS, Nigeria - Demonstrators vandalized cars and places of worship in the northern city of Kaduna on Thursday in escalating protests over a newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet might have chosen a wife from among contestants in the Miss World (news - web sites) beauty pageant being hosted by Nigeria.

Alsa Hassan, the 43-year-old founder of local human rights group Alsa Care, said he witnessed one commuter being dragged out of his car and beaten to death by protesters. The victim had apparently tried unsuccessfully to drive through the mob.

There were unconfirmed reports of several other deaths.

Schools and shops hurriedly closed as hordes of young men, shouting "Allah akhbar," or "God be praised," ignited makeshift street barricades made of tires and garbage, sending plumes of black smoke rising above the city.

Police and soldiers riding in pickup trucks fired teargas at other protesters marching through otherwise abandoned streets waving tree branches and palm fronds.

A local businessman, Lateef Mohammed, said he saw young men smashing the windows of two small churches in Badarawa, a predominantly Muslim area. Two other witnesses interviewed separately gave similar reports.

"I just rushed to get to my home. It was very tense," the businessman, Mohammed, said in a telephone interview, explaining how he had shouted "Allah Akhbar" in fear of angering the demonstrators.

An off-duty army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, witnessed youths with red bandanas around their heads setting fire to a Catholic church in Tudun Wada, another heavily Muslim neighborhood.

Protests were also reported in the heavily Muslim neighborhoods of Rigasa and Kabala Doki, where witnesses said mobs smashed windows of a number of parked cars.

A Kaduna state government official, Ben Toro, declined to comment on the violence and vandalism, insisting that "calm had returned to Kaduna after a small incident." Nigerian government officials regularly downplay violence in an effort to prevent retaliatory attacks.

Previous riots in Kaduna, a largely Muslim city with a sizeable Christian minority, have escalated into religious bloodletting, killing hundreds since civilian government replaced military rule in 1999.

The latest demonstrations began early Wednesday with the burning down of an office of ThisDay newspaper in Kaduna. No one was in the building during the attack and the paper's staff were subsequently placed under police protection.

The attack came after the newspaper published an article Saturday under the headline "The World at Their Feet," which questioned the reasoning of Muslim groups that have condemned the Miss World pageant. The contest is being held Dec. 8 in the capital, Abuja.

"The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring 92 women to Nigeria and ask them to revel in vanity. What would (the prophet) Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them," the article's author, Isioma Daniel, wrote.

In the same issue, the paper published profiles and pictures of more than 60 Miss World hopefuls.

Muslim groups say the pageant promotes sexual promiscuity and indecency.

The Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, the country's highest Muslim body, reacted by urging President Olusegun Obasanjo to cancel the pageant and sanction the newspaper.

On Monday, ThisDay ran a brief front page editor's note apologizing for portions considered offensive to Muslims, which it said had been mistakenly published after being removed by the supervising editor. The newspaper ran a second, more lengthy retraction on Thursday, boldly entitled: "An apology to all Muslims."

ThisDay ran a second, more lengthy apology in its Thursday editions.

The Miss World pageant has been boycotted by participants from at least five countries because Islamic courts in Nigeria have sentenced several unmarried women have to death by stoning for conceiving babies outside wedlock.

The boycotting nations are Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama.

Nigeria's government insists none of the judgments will ever be carried out. However, the government has so far refused to intervene directly in the Islamic court system adopted by a dozen predominantly northern states.


Source:Associated Press
By GLENN McKENZIE,

[Anonymous]

Our beloved city is being torn apart again. Violence like this does not solve any problems. May Allah protect us, Amin.
And those senseless writers and editors at ThisDay need to get a reality check. Where did they think they were ?? Under some Martian red rock ? The so-called free press has no right to intentionally instigate violence with such incendiary comments.
I think they'll be on the next shuttle to the International space station - one way tickets, only.

[Rose]

Allah dai yasawake:-[.

[Fulanizzle]

Wallah Allah ya sawake!!! man that woman that said what she said ('staghfirulLah).....man she has the guts!!! amma a great mistake she made!

[Fulanizzle]

Wallah Allah ya sawake!!! man that woman that said what she said ('staghfirulLah).....man she has the guts!!! amma a great mistake she made!

[Twinkle]

Subhanallah, jus taught it was a minor overreaction by our mulim onces ashe it was a major issue. Allah ya kare musulmai, ya kuma fitar da mu cikin wanna masifa.

[MohammedIbrahim]

The incidence at Kaduna was just too bad.Just when u think everything is over,it sparks-up again :(.......May Almighty Allah continue to guide and protect us

[Ibro2g]

The big question is why Kaduna... I mean the incidence, isiomah no one is in kaduna, nothing happened in kaduna. Then why must the kd people begin fighting themselves.???

[Anonymous]

MohammedIbrahim I definitely agree with you.