Major Acid's E-Rag
Of Historical Interest
On Isioma
Daniel
I taught for
two years at a private high school in Saudi Arabia where students were
taught that Islam has never been spread at the point of a sword. At best
this is questionable history, at worst a flagrant lie highlighted by a
modern example – Isioma Daniel. Daniel has been targeted for murder by
Islamic leaders in Nigeria, and there is only one way out for her – if
she isn’t a Muslim, she can convert.
History, especially religious history, has a fondness for martyrs, those
who willingly die for their beliefs. But martyrs don’t represent the
sanity usually underpinning the choices most people make. Faced with
Daniel’s choice – death or conversion – I suspect most would convert,
life as a pretend Muslim being preferable to death.
Yes, this ignores her spiritual life – the (presumed) Hell she will face
in her (presumed) afterlife. Until those (presumed) judgments by
(presumed) deities, however, her (not at all presumed but very real)
life would continue.
Daniel may avoid the choice by escaping to a Western, developed country,
although she will have to be forever watchful. She is not shielded by
the fame of a Salman Rushdie, and since she isn’t a citizen of a
Western, developed country, no such government will volunteer the costs
of protecting her. Every stranger she passes on every street is
potentially her killer, whether on Yonge Street or Broadway or
Piccadilly Circus, anywhere a Muslim may chance to stroll the same
sidewalk.
Yet most Muslims, I think, would choose not to be her killer. Most of
us, Christian, Muslim or otherwise, do not want to be killers. If we
believe the polls, millions of Canadians support capital punishment, but
I suspect most of them, if given the chance to actually loose the
trapdoor would choose not to. Yet just as those unwilling millions
defend capital punishment and the man at the point of the system – the
executioner – so would many Muslims condone the killing – and the killer
– of Daniel. They would do so because the Koran justifies it.
Unless Isioma Daniel converts to Islam, of course.
Daniel’s religious crime – religious, not civil or criminal – was to
suggest that the Prophet Mohammed might look fondly on the Miss World
contestants or even contemplate marriage to same. Islamic leaders
decided this was an insult, and the Koran suggests that insulting
Mohammed, or any other Islamic prophet, presumably including Christ
(yes, Christ is considered an Islamic prophet) warrants death.
An Islamic politician in Nigeria, Tukur Umar Dangoladima, said of
Daniel, “If she is a Muslim, she has no option but to die. But if she is
a non-Muslim, the only way out for her is to convert to Islam.” Would
the Prophet have approved?
I don’t know. No one does. But I demand the right to both think about it
and venture my opinion on it. I demand the right of Daniel to do the
same. I demand the right for both of us to do so without fear of
imminent death. Because I live in Canada, I have that right. Maybe.
In theory, in Canada, I – and you – have the right to be secular, to
live a secular life governed by laws that are explicitly secular. I
cannot, and would not, deny that many of those laws sprang from a
Christian tradition; to do so would be dishonest. But those laws have
evolved beyond that tradition and apply now to all the citizens of
Canada regardless of their religious choices.
I can, if I choose, speculate on the life of Jesus as a rebel against
Roman rule, an insurgent who became, for millions today, something
entirely different. I can, if I choose, speculate on Jesus’ relationship
with the prostitute Mary – was it supernatural and benevolent or
emotional and carnal? I can do this knowing that although I might
outrage some Christians simply by asking the questions, I will not be
subject to a call for Christian faithful to murder me on sight. And I
can, if I choose, speculate on how Mohammed would have reacted to the
Miss World contest.
My great fear, however, is that I am wrong about that freedom. Had
Daniel been a columnist at a Canadian paper, had she had that article
published, it might still have come to the attention of Muslims in
Nigeria. She might still have been condemned, hundreds murdered in
religious violence, and the Miss World contestants – including our own
vacuous Miss Canada, who apparently believes that seeing a Miss World
contestant is a life highlight – forced to flee.
Worse, I fear our Canadian government would say nothing, do nothing in
response, nothing except perhaps harass Daniel and her publisher into
retracting the statements – in the interest of political correctness.
Nigeria and Daniel are momentarily at the front line of Huntington’s
“clash of civilizations” where cultures with secular rules and the
separation of church and state are pitted against religious and/or
communitarian despotism. But the front line is not easily defined, nor
is it stable. It is a movable phantom, anywhere and everywhere at once,
and it is in Canada, too.
It is Toronto’s politicians erecting a “holiday tree”. It is Anglican
priest Nancy Murphy calling on Christians to “take back Christmas”. It
is Alliance leader Stephen Harper lamenting the “expunging” of Christian
references from government activities. It is the federal government
pretending Hezbollah is a warm, fuzzy charitable organization even if it
occasionally wages religious war. It is every person of influence who is
incapable of seeing the difference between acknowledging heritage and
deliberately inserting religion into everyday, secular life.
Isioma Daniel is living that difference, and she may die because of it.
Meanwhile, the Miss World contestants will be busy on stage in England
and none of them, including Miss Canada, will ask why the pageant is
less an affront to British Muslims than it is to Nigerian. Nor – and
more importantly – will they ask why it is safer to pursue sequined
glory in England than in Nigeria.
In my two years in Saudi Arabia, a land ruled by a dictator who styles
himself “the Defender of the Two Holy Mosques”, the most highly
anticipated television event for the boys in my school was a
beauty/fashion pageant from Lebanon. My former students will likely be
glued to their satellite tvs when Miss World airs, too, although a few
of them, the more religiously dedicated, will give it a pass. If
Mohammed were there today, which group would he be in? I won’t kill you
for your opinion, and I would like the same courtesy in return. So would
Isioma Daniel.
