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Scores Slain In Miss World Riots

Rioting by mobs of Muslims and Christians in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna has killed as many as 100 people and seriously injured 500 others, Red Cross officials said Friday as thousands of residents sought refuge in army bases and police stations.

Mobs of Christian youths retaliated against Muslims on Friday in the third day of riots triggered by a newspaper article suggesting Islam's founding prophet would have approved of the Miss World beauty pageant.

George Bennet, head of the International Federation of the Red Cross delegation in Nigeria, told The Associated Press that Nigerian Red Cross officials gathering dead and helping wounded in Kaduna had reported a "ballpark figure" of 100 dead by Friday morning, although he stressed an exact figure was impossible to confirm.

Nigeria's Red Cross president said Thursday at least 50 people had been killed. Other Red Cross officials said Friday that more than 500 people had been wounded in the mayhem.

Sporadic gunshots and shouting could be heard Friday morning by Kaduna residents who were still hiding in fear inside their homes. Angry mobs have stabbed and set fire to bystanders, while others have burned churches and rampaged through streets.

On Friday morning, plumes of black smoke rose above the city from makeshift barricades lit by angry mobs. Authorities extended a round-the-clock curfew, although large numbers of people were ignoring the order.

In the neighborhoods of Ungwa-Rome and Larayi — areas dominated by minority Christians — witnesses said mobs of youths smashed windows and set fires in mosques used by the ethnic Hausa and Fulani Muslims who dominate Kaduna, a cosmopolitan city of several million people.

Rioting was also reported in Kabala Costain, one of Kaduna's many predominantly Muslim neighborhoods.

Fearful residents of all faiths were rushing into police stations and military bases for protection.

"The soldiers have been very helpful, giving us bandages and first aid. Everyone is here — Muslims, Christians and pagan. We are all afraid of going home. Only God knows when this will end," civil servant Habiba Ibrahim said in a telephone interview. Ibrahim spent the night at the city's defense academy, near the government clinic where she works.

Hundreds of soldiers and police were deployed to restore calm Thursday, although on Friday the rioters were running through the city to avoid them.

"A lot of people died. We don't know yet exactly how many … more than 50," Emmanuel Ijewere, the president of the Nigerian Red Cross, said Thursday.
Street demonstrations began Wednesday with the burning of an office of ThisDay newspaper in Kaduna after the Lagos-based daily published an article questioning Muslim groups that have condemned the Miss World pageant, to be held Dec. 7 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Muslim groups say the pageant promotes sexual promiscuity and indecency.

"What would (the prophet) Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from among them (the contestants)," Isioma Daniel wrote in Saturday's article.

The newspaper ran a brief front-page apology on Monday, followed by a more lengthy retraction on Thursday, saying the offending passage had run by mistake.

At least four churches were destroyed in the rioting, Ijewere said.

Many of the bodies were taken by Red Cross workers and other volunteers to local mortuaries.

Young men shouting "Allahu Akhbar," or "God is great," ignited makeshift street barricades made of tires and garbage, sending plumes of black smoke rising above the city. Others were heard chanting, "Down with beauty" and "Miss World is sin."

Previous riots in Kaduna, a largely Muslim city with a sizable Christian minority, have escalated into religious battles that killed hundreds since civilian government replaced military rule in 1999.

Islamic fundamentalist groups have for several months warned of protests against the Miss World pageant, prompting organizers to postpone the finale until after the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Some of those riots have been caused by disputes over the proposed imposition of Sharia law, a conservative Islamic code. The U.S. State Department warns travelers of "on-going religious and ethnic conflict" in Nigeria, saying that unrest over Sharia law led to hundreds of deaths in 2001.

In its 2002 annual report, the watchdog group Human Rights Watch criticized the way the Nigerian government was introducing the legal code.

"Civilian groups were used by the state authorities to enforce Sharia in those states which had extended its application to criminal law. Some administered instant punishments to those caught violating Sharia law," the report read. "In January, the governor of Zamfara state announced that he was giving powers of arrest and prosecution to local Islamic 'vigilante' groups as the police had failed in their duties."

Sharia law can entail punishments such as flogging and stoning. Several cases stemming from its use led contestants from five countries — Costa Rica, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and Panama — to boycott the Miss World event.

They did so because Islamic courts in Nigeria have sentenced several unmarried women to death by stoning for conceiving babies outside wedlock. Nigeria's government insists none of the judgments will be carried out, although it has refused to intervene directly.

About 50 percent of Nigerians are Muslims, while 40 percent are Christians, according to the CIA World Factbook.

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