On this day in history in 2002, the Miss World contest was forced to relocate to London from Abuja after riots by Muslim youths opposed to the contest being held in Nigeria.
The violence in the city of Kaduna was triggered by a newspaper article suggesting that Islam’s founding prophet Mohammed would have approved of the Miss World contest and would probably have chosen one of the beauty queens as his bride. The riot left more than 100 people dead and 500 injured in the city of Kaduna.
Fearing for their lives, many of the 110 contestants boycotted the pageant and others dropped out in protest.
