February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The violence broke out after a newspaper article written by a Christian journalist suggested that the Muslim prophet Mohammed would have approved of the pageant and might even have selected one of the contestants as a bride.
By Sunday, the violence had subsided, but more than 200 people had been killed in the West African country that is evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.
Organizers of the pageant said that it would be moved to London for security reasons, but by the weekend, several contestants had said they would pull out, leaving the fate of the contest in doubt.
Both Miss Northern Ireland, Gail Williamson, and Miss Ireland, Lynda Duffy, had flown to London.
Speaking from Gail Williamson’s hometown of Dollingstown, Co. Armagh, her grandmother Doris Williamson said that her granddaughter was safe in London.
“She is back in London and that’s all I know at the moment. But she’s safe,” said Williamson.
Initially, Miss Ireland had told reporters that she would not be intimidated out of the contest by the violence.
Her statement apparently led to friction with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, which, according to weekend media reports, distanced itself from Duffy, 22, by saying that she was not officially representing her country.
“She can call herself an ambassador for Finglas if she likes,” a spokesman for the department said. “The fact is she is not a representative of the State as such or an ambassador.”
A spokeswoman for the Miss Ireland organization said Duffy was “an able ambassador for Ireland as far as we are concerned.”
But Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tom Kitt confirmed that he had been in constant touch with Duffy and her family.
Twelve contestants boycotted the event because it was being held in Nigeria, after an unmarried Nigerian mother, Amina Lawal, was sentenced to death by stoning under Sharia law, the strict Islamic legal code that operates in the Islamic north of the country.
Former Miss Irelands and Miss Northern Irelands lined up to condemn the event organizers for holding it in Nigeria.
“I personally believe [Duffy] should not be there; I would have gone home to make a stand against women being slaves to religion and for safety reasons,” said former Miss Ireland Siobhan McClafferty.
During the violence, rioters chanted “down with beauty” as they ransacked several cities including the Nigerian capital Abuja.
The rioting is a serious blow to Nigeria, whose officials had hoped that the beauty pageant would project a more open image of the country. Many recent refugees and immigrants to Ireland have been Nigerian Christians.
The journalist who wrote the article about Mohammed has been condemned to death by Sharia law legislators in the country’s north.