Isioma Daniel

Infobox journalist
name = Isioma Daniel


birthname = Isioma Nkemdilim Nkiruka Daniel
birth_date = 1981
birth_place = Nigeria
age =
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education = journalism and politics at University of Central Lancashire
occupation = Newspaper journalist
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gender = female
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credits = Newspaper journalist who became the catalyst of bloody islamist uproar in Nigeria, and who subsequently had to flee the country.
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Isioma Nkemdilim Nkiruka Daniel (born 1981) is a Nigerian journalist whose 2002 newspaper article comment involving the Islamic prophet Muhammad sparked major religious riots and caused a fatwa to be issued on her life.

Isioma Daniel studied journalism and politics for three years at the University of Central Lancashire, graduating in summer of 2002.cite news
first=James
last=Astill
coauthors=Bowcott, Owen
title=Fatwa is issued on Nigerian journalist
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,848553,00.html
publisher="Guardian Unlimited"
date=November 27, 2002
accessdate=2007-07-21 ] cite news
first=Isioma
last=Daniel
title=Naivety... the root of all evil
url=http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/isioma_dec9_04.html
publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
date=December 9, 2004
accessdate=2007-07-21 ] Her first job as a journalist was at "Thisday", a Lagos-based national daily newspaper. As a fashion writer, she authored a November 16 2002 comment piece on Miss World beauty pageant that was to be held in Nigeria later that year. Addressing opposition to the contest from the Nigerian Muslim community, she made the following remark:

:"The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring 92 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."

According to Daniel, the sentence was added at the last minute; she thought it was "funny, light hearted" and "didn't see it as anything anybody should take seriously or cause much fuss". [cite press release
title = Talkabout Africa exclusive: Isioma Daniel has no regrets
publisher = BBC
date = 13 March 2003
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice///pressreleases/stories//2003/03_march/13/ws_talkabout_africa.shtml
accessdate = 2007-07-21 ] However, that judgment quickly proved wrong, as the publication triggered violent religious riots that left more than 200 deadcite news
first=Isioma
last=Daniel
title='I lit the match'
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,896926,00.html
publisher="Guardian Unlimited"
date=February 17, 2003
accessdate=2007-07-21 ] and 1,000 injured, while 11,000 people were made homeless.cite news
title=Nigerian Government rejects 'fatwa'
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2514821.stm
publisher="BBC News"
date=26 November, 2002
accessdate=2007-07-21 ] "Thisday"'s offices in Kaduna were torched, despite the paper's apology and retraction on the front page.cite news
title=Nigerian paper's apology
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2502571.stm
publisher="BBC News"
date=22 November, 2002
accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

Daniel resigned from the newspaper the day after her article appeared. Soon after, fearing for her safety and worried about the impending interrogation by the Nigerian state security, she left the country for Benin.

On 26 November 2002 an Islamist government of Zamfara, Nigerian northern state, issued a fatwa against Isioma Daniel; in words of Zamfara deputy governor Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi, later broadcast on the local radio:

:"Like Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed. It is abiding on all Muslims wherever they are to consider the killing of the writer as a religious duty."

While the Nigerian government denounced the judgement as "unconstitutional" and "null and void", Muslim leaders were divided over its validity, some arguing that the subsequent retraction and apology meant that the fatwa was inappropriate.cite news
first=Keith
last=Somerville
title=Controversy over Nigerian fatwa
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2519595.stm
publisher="BBC News"
date=27 November, 2002
accessdate=2007-07-21 ]

Isioma Daniel eventually moved to Norway, her resettlement guided by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Amnesty International.

Isioma Daniel is working as a journalist for the Stavanger, Norway daily newspaper "Stavanger Aftenblad" [cite news
first= Alf Otto
last= Fagermo
title= Nettmøte: Har lyst å skrive bok
url= http://www.aftenbladet.no/debatt/nettmote/article592503.ece
publisher="Stavanger Aftenblad"
date=7 February, 2008
language= Norwegian
accessdate=2008-02-19 ] where she was invited to work almost immediately upon her arrival in Norway, and she now speaks Norwegian fluently. She is currently working on a novel and another book edited by Jean Wadier in the US, "The Isioma Daniel Case", is scheduled for publication.Fact|date=April 2008

ee also

* Vebjørn Selbekk

References