What she said, what they said

The riots in Nigeria are front page news, but what's gotten swept into the background are the actual words that "caused" the violence and, even more important, the response of the publication that printed them. ThisDay has apparently removed Isioma Daniel's article from its website, but you can find the text version here. The offending language:

The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring ninety-two women to Nigeria and ask them to revel in vanity. What would Mohammed think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from one of them. The irony is that Algeria, an Islamic country, is one of the countries participating in the contest.

It's hard to imagine the mindset of people who could find those words "provocative" enough to riot over. But it's even harder to imagine that they would evoke this response by the paper that published them.

An Apology to All Muslims...

To all our Muslim brothers and sisters, Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahamatul-Llahi Wa Barakatuhu. May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon you all. With all sense of responsibility, sensitivity and respect for all Muslims, the staff, management, editors and Board of THISDAY Newspapers apologise for the great editorial error in last Saturday's edition on Miss World Beauty Pageant.

We are sorry that the portrayal of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (SAW) in a commentary written by one of our staff was not only unjustified, but utterly provocative.

The supervising editor made an attempt to remove the offensive portion during the editing process. But we must say that this time, technology failed us, and gravely too. When we realised that the publication had gone to the market, we did not wait to be reminded. The Editor promtply issued an apology and retracted the story . This was published on the front pages of Monday and Tuesday editions. But many thought the apology was insufficient...

At THISDAY, we have no reason to denigrate Muslims or the Holy Prophet. Why should we? Key members of our management are devoted Muslims, including our Group Executive Director, Alhaji Deji Mustapha, who also runs the Friday page on Islam; our Editor at Large, Waziri Adio; our Deputy Editor, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu; our Development Editor, Bolaji Abdullahi; our Associate Editor Ali M. Ali and our Associate Director, Alhaji Nuhu Musa Kazaure among others.

Beyond that the offensive paragraph runs against the grain of our beliefs and what we stand for at THISDAY as we show sensitivity to the complexity of our nation. Why would we do anything that would seem to denigrate any religion, when we believe in the peaceful co-existence of Nigerians?

And there's more where that came from.

Ms. Daniel has "resigned" or been fired, has fled the country or is in hiding, depending on what source you read. Nigerian officials are said to be seeking her arrest, and a fatwa has been issued by the Nigerian Muslim State of Zamfara calling for her death. I think I'll just leave it there.