PERSPECTIVE

Miss World riots and Zamfara’s fatwa

Mohammed Haruna

In the unlikely event that the cancellation of the staging of the Miss World pageant in the country turns out in Nigeria’s history to have been the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back, in other words, the last straw that finally broke up Nigeria, I have no doubt in my mind that the biggest culprit would be, not Thisday, but President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration for its involvement with what was supposed to have been a purely private show biz affair.

Thisday has been universally condemned, and rightly so, for its irresponsible publication of its Miss World cover story of November 16, a story which blasphemed Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) on account of Muslim opposition to staging the pageant in Nigeria during the holy month of Ramadan,

Not only has Thisday been universally condemned, the paper, itself, has felted obliged to eat humble pie by admitting its grave error of editorial judgement and apologizing profusely for it.

However, while Thisday has suffered all-round bashing and has been humble enough to admit its error very few people, if any, seems to see anything wrong with the role of the federal authorities in making the pageant a source of a proxy war of sorts between Muslims and Christians. Certainly, not the federal authorities, themselves, and not the generality of public opinion. Of course, there has been widespread criticisms from both sides to the issue of federal government’s handling of the crisis. There has, however, been little or no criticisms of the government for opening the ultimate cause of the riots.

In the course of reiterating the Federal Government’s outright rejection of the death sentence passed on the author of the offending story in Thisday, Ms Isioma Daniel, Professor Jerry Gana, the minister of information, said the federal government did not lose one kobo as a result of the cancellation of the pageant in Nigeria because it was not a government project. If the government lost anything, he said, it was the opportunity to present Nigeria as a peaceful and democratic society”.

If indeed, the honourable minister believed that the pageant was not a government affair, the government itself, certainly behaved to the contrary. First with all the stories making the rounds about the sponsorship of certain aspects of the pageant by the Ministries of Culture and Aviation and by parastatals like the Nigeria Airways and NNPC, not to talk of the involvement of Cross River and Rivers States, it is not out of order for one to be skeptical about the honourable minister’s word that government did not invest one kobo in the pageant.

Second, if the honourable minister believed the pageant was not a government affair, what did he and a few other senior ministers, including that of foreign affairs, not only received the beauty queens on arrival in Abuja, but did so at the presidential wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport? Third, why did they have to be received in the very seat of our government, under the guise that they needed to pray for the success of the event? Was the Villa chapel, the only Christian place of worship in town?

In any case, was there any time in the history of the pageant that the queens were collectively given such red carpet reception in any country? Had the pageant ever been hosted by, say, the White House or No 10 Downing Street, simply because it was being staged in the United States or the United Kingdom? Or is the sanctity of Aso Villa any less than that of the White House or No 10?

As if all this was not enough contemptuous disregard of the reasonable Muslim request for the postponement of the pageant, until after Ramadan, a request which the federal authorities promised to grant, Professor Obaje, the Villa chaplain, decided, in effect, to declare war, as a priest, on Muslim opposition to staging the pageant during Ramadan. “You represent”, he told the queens during the prayer session at the chapel, “the best of the Bible”. He also told them that he believed they were “models of character”. The obvious conclusion from these statements was that anyone who object any how to the pageant was going against the Bible.

Between these words and deeds of the federal authorities and Thisday’s story, is it not obvious wherein lies the greater blame for the Miss World riots? When a priest who in many ways, is the presidents alter-ego, makes the improbable argument that any opposition to a pageant is opposition to Christian values, wouldn’t crucifying a young ……and worldly reporter who, apparently sees nothing wrong with blaspheming Islam’s most import ant prophet who, all likelihood, thought she was promoting government’s point of view amount to making for the monkey white leaving the organ grinder alone? Or as the Hausas would put it, would that not amount to sakin jaki a yi ta bugun taiki. Which means sparing the donkey and whipping the boyden it is carrying instead?

Because, of course, the federal authorities do not see what is wrong with their involvement and handling of the Miss World pageant, they have expressed more regrets about its transfer out of Nigeria than for the loss of lives, limbs and property caused by the pageant.

Which is why I, for one, baffled, though not surprised, that Muslims and Christians have been largely blaming each other and also blaming Thisday and not the government, for the Miss World riots. It is baffling because if government had not involved itself in the pageant to the extent that it did, in al probability we would not have had the Miss World riots on our hand. It is, at the same time, not surprising, because, illogical as it may sound, Muslims and Christians have come to believe that the gain of one group is necessarily the loss of the other and vice versa.

Because this belief is obviously illogical, the prescription that is increasingly being offered as a way out of the mutual animosity between Muslims and Christians in this country i.e. that we should go our separate ways, is worse than the disease itself. It is indeed so patently worse that it is amazing how it is even considered as a cure by any one. The fact is that it is simply not possible for Nigerians to go their own separate ways as Muslims and Christians for the equally simple reason that any which way you slice Nigeria, Muslims and Christians will continue to be not only each others neighbours, but in many cases, they will continue to be each others kith and kin.

Which is why the fatwa issued recently by Zamfara on the author of Thisday’s now infamous story in question must have come as a shock even to most Muslims. True, Zamfara’s fatwa sentencing Ms Daniel to death for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the law in Islam, just like it is the law that the wages of adultery in fornication by anyone who was once married is death.

However, the problem with Zamfara’s fatwa, as with the on-gong case of adultery at least among many Islamic scholars are, (1) Thisday has since genuinely apologized for its grave error, (2) fatwas are not issued without due consultations with the highest religious authorities in the land and (3) it is not in each and every circumstance that even the highest religious authority in the land should invoke the law.

Thisday, as we all know, has since apologized or its faux pas. In issuing its fatwa, however, Zamfara says the apology is not enough and Ms Daniel, the author has to become a Muslim. Even as a non-Islamic expert, one can point out that this is wrong. The Quran in Chapter ……. verse …… says there is no compulsion in religion. Ms Daniel must convert to Islam, otherwise, she does not qualify for forgiveness is to compel her to change her religion.