Thanks NY44, that was an interesting article, but I have a few areas of contention with it's assertions.
To view the recent riots in Nigeria as being caused by blanket Islamic reaction to the Miss World contest is an overly simplistic view. Beauty contests have been popular in Nigeria for decades, and still are. Other contests held each year include Miss Nigeria, Queen Afrik, and The Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria. These competitions rarely cause any trouble.
Why the riots on this occasion? For one thing, Miss World was held in the city of Kaduna, which is an extremely risky city. The population is evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, who frequently fight each other. When Kaduna state introduced sharia law two years ago, 2000 people died in street battles.
In addition, there is a huge amount of political infighting between Kaduna's governor , Ahmed Makarfi, and his more radical opponents, who frequently accuse him of being too soft on the Christians. Thus, stirring up riots was a good way to attack Mr. Makarfi on the political front. That Mr. Makarfi also supports the Christian president of Nigeria, Mr. Obasanjo, does not help calm matters.
It should be noted that it was not just Muslims taking part in the riots, but Christians too. They were responding to provocation and violence by Muslims, granted, but nevertheless they still took part. I enjoyed the article pointing out that it is only because of the Christian religion relinquishing power that we do not see similar scenes in the West.
As for Islam rejecting beauty, you only have to visit an Islamic country to see that this isn't the case. While Islam frowns upon representations of living creatures in art, their geometric designs and patterns on buildings and in furnishings are of the highest beauty. To take a slogan chanted by inflamed extremists and apply it in blanket fashion to hundreds of millions of people in more than twenty countries is a terribly inaccurate generalisation.
"If Islam is a religion of peace", asked the article, "then why is Islam accompanied by force and terror everywhere it predominates?" The answer is that it is not accompanied by force and terror everywhere it predominates. The moderate Islamic state of Morocco (from which I just returned after an extremely enjoyable, trouble-free and unthreatened visit) is an good example. In addition, one could turn around and ask exactly the same question of Christianity, and get the same answers.
Generalisations don't work. Tarring the whole with the brush of the extreme minority is inaccurate and contradicts the objectivity which the Rand Institute claims to practice.
Expatbrit
