Journalist Isioma Daniel wrote about the planned 2002 Miss World pageant in Nigeria, suggesting that Muhammad would approve. Perceived as blasphemy, riots ensued, and Isioma fled after a fatwa called for her murder.
Uzor Daniel (father)
Nigeria was holding the Miss World pageant in November 2002 when it had to be moved to London. Riots had broken out between Muslims and Christians, first in the city of Kaduna and then in the capital city of Abuja. The contestants, shut inside their hotel rooms, were no longer safe, and the event could no longer proceed in an orderly fashion.
The match that lit this flame was an article penned by Isioma Daniel, a Nigerian journalist, about the pageant. She had written in it a line regarding the Prophet Muhammad: “What would Muhammad think? He would probably have chosen a wife from one of [the contestants].”
“I remember feeling uneasy after completing the piece. It was breezy and sarcastic. My recent time in Britain, studying journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, had made me irreverent - there are no sacred cows in the UK.” - Isioma Daniel
This light-hearted quip resulted in the deaths of more than 100 and the displacement of thousands. It was construed as blasphemous and insulting. The newspaper she worked for had its offices in Kaduna burned down as religious and political authorities condemned Isioma’s words. Rioting spread to Abuja shortly thereafter. Isioma herself was summoned for a meeting with Nigerian security forces. Understanding she was no longer safe, she fled the country.
After fleeing, she had intended to wait for the situation to calm down so that she might return. But a fatwa was issued by the government of a Nigerian state, calling on Muslims anywhere in the world to kill her. She understood, then, that she could not return home.
'I lit the match' - The Guardian
The “Miss World Riots”: Continued Impunity for Killings in Kaduna - Human Rights Watch
It's a Mad, Mad Miss World - Vanity Fair
Religious Violence in Nigeria Drives Out Miss World Event - The New York Times
Nigeria is a Muslim-majority country, though only narrowly, and nearly half of its inhabitants are Christians. The division between the two faiths manifests along geographical lines, with Muslims living mostly in the northern regions and Christians living mostly in the southern regions. Insults to religion in general are punishable for all citizens, while crimes more specific to Islam, including apostasy, are punished only in states that incorporate Islamic courts for their Muslim residents.