The destruction of the natural environment was not a conscious motive of Islamic fundamentalists (at least they have yet to make it the center of their grievances), but if you think of the environment in a broader sense of the word, including social, political, economic, and cultural, the analogy makes sense. -------- I'm all for context, but that's a stretch.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/27/international/africa/27NIGE.html page A10 Nigeria State Officials Urge Muslims to Kill Fashion Writer By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
KANO, Nigeria, Nov. 26 (Agence France-Presse) — The government of a mainly Muslim state in northern Nigeria urged believers today to kill a woman who wrote an article about the Miss World pageant that was seen as insulting to the Prophet Muhammad.
Umar Dangaladima, the information minister of Zamfara State, said the state government had endorsed a "fatwa," or Islamic religious decree, calling for the death of the fashion writer, Isioma Daniel, whose article led to rioting that resulted in more than 215 deaths. Ms. Daniel, who lived in Lagos, is said to have fled Nigeria.
Information Minister Jerry Gana, who acts as a spokesman for Nigeria's secular government, dismissed the decree as "null and void" and unconstitutional and said it would not be enforced. "The federal government under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will not allow such an order in any part of the federal republic," he said.
The article that led to the riots dismissed Muslims' criticisms that the Miss World pageant, scheduled for Nigeria because it is the home of last year's winner, is immoral.
"The Muslims thought it was immoral to bring 92 women to Nigeria to ask them to revel in vanity," Ms. Daniel wrote. "What would Muhammad think? In all honesty, he would probably have chosen a wife from one of them."
"The state government did not on its own pass the fatwa," Mr. Dangaladima said today. "It's a fact that Islam prescribes the death penalty on anybody, no matter his faith, who insults the prophet." Zamfara's deputy governor, Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi, said in a speech on Monday to religious leaders later broadcast on state radio, "Like Salman Rushdie, the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed."
But Lateef Adegbite, general secretary of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, distanced himself from the fatwa, refusing to endorse it. He said the council would study the ruling, but would also take into account that Ms. Daniel is a Christian and does not live or work in Zamfara, and that her paper has apologized.
Ms. Daniel resigned from the newspaper ThisDay after fury erupted over the article, which appeared in Nov. 16. Her former newspaper described her as "a style writer who had only just joined ThisDay a few months back after a short journalism career" in Britain.