The 2017 Miss Universe pageant is scheduled to take place in January, somewhere in the Philippines. The Philippines have long been home to an Islamic insurgency, and ISIS reportedly is calling on its followers to bomb the pageant:
Terrorists from the Islamic State group have allegedly called for attacks at the upcoming Miss Universe competition set for January 2017 in the Philippines.
A string of threats recently posted to the messaging app Telegram have called for local jihadi proponents of the extremist group known as ISIS to carry out attacks at the beauty pageant, Fox News reported Monday.
Unverified reposts of the messages shared on the social media channel used by the jihadis in the Philippines called on “everyone who can” to launch attacks at the event. The thread of posts encouraging violence at the global beauty competition also reportedly included a call to “create a bomb for miss universe.”
The threatening posts also offered an online video tutorial on how to assemble a suicide belt, along with a guide in English on how to produce explosive devices.
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In January, Reuters reported that fighters from four terror organizations operating in the Philippines released a video in which they pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and announced the establishment of ISIS’ province in the Philippines.
This is no idle threat. In 2002, the Miss World pageant was scheduled to be held in Nigeria. Muslims rioted, killing hundreds of Christians, and the pageant fled to London. In 2013, Miss World was in Bali, Indonesia, and the pageant organizers made a cowardly (in my view) decision to eliminate the swimsuit competition, out of fear of radical Muslim attacks. As though no one in Bali wears swim suits! Since then, Miss World has abandoned the swimsuit competition permanently.
The current Miss Universe, Pia Wurtzbach, is from the Philippines, which I believe is the reason the pageant is to be held there. Let’s hope the pageant organizers don’t do anything stupid or cowardly. If beauty pageant contestants wear burkas, the terrorists have won!
Pia Wurtzbach
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