Having contest in Nigeria was not a beautiful sight

The western African nation of Nigeria, as the site of the Miss World pageant, was a riot waiting to happen. And because the organizers turned a blind eye to that reality and the Nigerian government pursued what it thought would be a public relations coup, more than 200 people are dead.
On Sunday, the regional governor warned that rioters in the city of Kaduna, which is 100 miles north of the capital Abuja, would be shot on sight. The warning came after four days of religious violence between the Muslim majority in the region and the large Christian minority. Hundreds of people have fled Kaduna.
The 80 beauty queens from around the world have also bolted. They are now in Britain, a country known for its celebration of women -- as opposed to Nigeria, where Muslim women have been condemned to death by stoning for behaving in a manner that the Islamic clerics find unacceptable.
As we noted in an editorial earlier this month, in which we urged Miss World participants to boycott the pageant in Nigeria, it is incongruous to have women parading on stage in swimsuits and evening gowns and expounding the virtues of freedom, while on the streets of Nigeria women are treated as second-class, or in some cases no-class, citizens.
Anger
But we did not anticipate the amount of anger and resentment generated by the pageant. All it took was a newspaper article that made an innocuous reference to Islam's founding prophet for the situation to boil over.
The fighting between Christians and Muslims began after the Lagos-based ThisDay newspaper ran a story saying the Prophet Mohammed would not only have approved of the beauty contest, but would "probably have chosen a wife from among them [the contestants]." Muslim protesters burned down the newspaper's office in Kaduna on Wednesday and then went on a rampage. Christians retaliated after being attacked and by the time things had calmed down on Sunday, about 200 people had been killed, 500 had been injured and 4,500 were left homeless.
The bloody religious battle should surprise no one. It's part of a worldwide effort by Islamic extremists to not only wage war on non-believers, but to replace civilian rule with Islamic law. And more often than not, women are the victims of this extremism.
Even in countries such as Kuwait, which owe their freedom to the United States and other democracies, the rulers are reluctant to modernize because of the influence and the power of the religious leaders. And while Nigeria was willing to host the Miss World pageant, its leaders have resisted issuing a cease-and-desist order against Islamic clerics who order that women be stoned.
Yes, the Miss World show must go on -- and it will, in London on Dec. 7.
As for countries like Nigeria, they deserve to be condemned by the international community.