Muslims get their frilly panties in a twist once again

[Peter]

Teacher held for teddy bear 'blasphemy'
By Terri Judd
Published: 27 November 2007

A British primary school teacher in Sudan is facing 40 lashes and up to a year in jail for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear after the Prophet Mohamed. Gillian Gibbons has been imprisoned under strict blasphemy laws for showing "contempt and disrespect against the believers".

Colleagues of Ms Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, claim she made an "innocent mistake" by allowing her class of seven year-olds to choose the name. But she was accused of insulting Islam's holiest prophet and arrested. Her actions have sparked protests in Sudan and forced the school to close until January for fear of reprisals.

Ms Gibbons' friends and colleagues said any suggestion that she would have intentionally caused offence was ridiculous.

She is being held at a police station in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. She was said to be in good health but shaken when British embassy officials visited her yesterday. The Foreign Office said she had not been charged but detained on suspicion of the crime.

Ms Gibbons had been working at Unity High School, which is popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates, since August after leaving her position as deputy head at Dovecot Primary School in Liverpool.

She was taken from her home in the school grounds on Sunday after several parents complained to the Education Ministry.

The school's director, Robert Boulos, said it was such a sensitive issue that he had decided to close the school until January for fear of reprisals in Sudan's predominantly Muslim capital. "We are very worried about her safety," he added. "This was a completely innocent mistake. Ms Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam."

The teacher was following a British national curriculum course designed to teach her Year 2 pupils about animals and their habitats. In September, she asked a girl to bring her teddy bear into class so that the children could name the stuffed toy.

Eight names were suggested so, in an attempt to teach the pupils about voting, she held a ballot. Twenty of 23 children chose the name Mohamed. Each child was then allowed to take the bear home at weekends and asked to write a diary about what they did with the toy. Each entry was collected in a book which bore a picture of the bear and the words "My name is Mohamed". Police have confiscated the diary and plan to interview the girl who owned the bear.

The state-controlled Sudanese Media Centre said Ms Gibbons was arrested "under article 125 of the criminal law", on suspicion of insulting faith and religion.

Mr Boulos said the first he knew about the course was last week when he received a phone call from the Education Ministry to say that some Muslim parents had made formal complaints.

One teacher said: "I had no problem with it at all. I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed she got them to vote." Another source said it was believed that a teacher with a grudge against Ms Gibbons brought the case to a head.

The teacher's friends said she decided to take up the challenge of working in east Africa after separating from her husband of 20 years. She planned to spend two years in Sudan and was finding the work rewarding.

Unity, founded in 1902, is an independent school for Christian and Muslim children aged four to 18 and is governed by a board representing major Christian denominations in Sudan. It prides itself on providing a British-style education to students, whatever their gender, nationality, religion or ethnic origin, "whilst encouraging mutual respect". Ms Gibbons is one of several Western teachers who work there.

She has two children Jessica, 27 – also a teacher – and John, 25, and used to live in Aigburth, Liverpool. Her former neighbour Peter Sorensen, 64, described her as a normal working mother who was a wonderful neighbour and "would not hurt a fly".

"We are very worried about the kind of conditions she is subjected to. Being held in police cell in Khartoum must be an horrendous experience," he added.

[Peter]

Seriously, don't these people have something better to do?  Like kill black Africans or something?  Or possibly build some infrastructure to bootstrap their shit-hole of a country out of the stone age?

[Parts]

This sort of thing is far easier even clerics can do it

[SovaNu]

OMG.

how can people be that crazy? what is wrong with them? or the world?

[The_P]

Seriously, don't atheists have something better to do?  Like kill local Christians or something?  Or possibly build some barrier to deflect any monotheistic-related bollocks from stone age countries so they can shut the fuck up and move on with their lives?

Fixed.

[Peter]

Seriously, don't atheists have something better to do?  Like kill local Christians or something?  Or possibly build some barrier to deflect any monotheistic-related bollocks from stone age countries so they can shut the fuck up and move on with their lives?

Fixed.

Maybe you'd like to do some volunteer work over there?

[odeon]

Don't generalise, Peter. This is about fucked-up Sudan authorities, teacher colleagues holding grudges, and fundamentalist views among some. Not every Muslim is like that.

One teacher said: "I had no problem with it at all. I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed she got them to vote." Another source said it was believed that a teacher with a grudge against Ms Gibbons brought the case to a head.

[Peter]

Don't generalise, Peter. This is about fucked-up Sudan authorities, teacher colleagues holding grudges, and fundamentalist views among some. Not every Muslim is like that.

One teacher said: "I had no problem with it at all. I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed she got them to vote." Another source said it was believed that a teacher with a grudge against Ms Gibbons brought the case to a head.

I never said or thought that every Muslim is like that, but enough are for shit like this to happen on a very regular basis.  I also didn't see any mention of teachers holding grudges in the article; it was the parents of the kids who contacted the authorities when the kids took the teddy home with them, and the fucked-up authorities are fucked up in large part because of the fundamentalist views that so many of their members hold.

[The_P]

Seriously, don't atheists have something better to do?  Like kill local Christians or something?  Or possibly build some barrier to deflect any monotheistic-related bollocks from stone age countries so they can shut the fuck up and move on with their lives?

Fixed.

Maybe you'd like to do some volunteer work over there?

Maybe you'd like to tag along?

[odeon]

Don't generalise, Peter. This is about fucked-up Sudan authorities, teacher colleagues holding grudges, and fundamentalist views among some. Not every Muslim is like that.

One teacher said: "I had no problem with it at all. I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed she got them to vote." Another source said it was believed that a teacher with a grudge against Ms Gibbons brought the case to a head.

I never said or thought that every Muslim is like that, but enough are for shit like this to happen on a very regular basis. I also didn't see any mention of teachers holding grudges in the article; it was the parents of the kids who contacted the authorities when the kids took the teddy home with them, and the fucked-up authorities are fucked up in large part because of the fundamentalist views that so many of their members hold.

1/ Your subject line suggests the opposite: "Muslims get their frilly panties in a twist once again" is a generalisation if I ever heard one, and derogatory at that. I think your intentions here are obvious even to the casual reader.

2/ The quote I supplied was from your article. I suggest you read the article again.

I think your opinions regarding Muslims in general should be perfectly clear to anyone here.

[Alex179]

Mohammed's entire legitimacy lies in that he claims a Christian Monk spotted the sign of the prophet on his back between the shoulderblades.   Anyone who has read the Bible (both Christian and Jewish versions) know that some mark of the prophet is a load of shit.   So basically their prophet's entire legitimacy is crap.

[odeon]

And this is relevant because...?

[Alex179]

And this is relevant because...?

Their prophet's legitimacy is crap, which in turn makes Islam itself crap.    Their respect for the name and image of Mohammed is a false one, as his own prophethood is not even legit.   Basically they are morons, just like anyone who would throw a hissy fit over the image of Yahweh or Jesus.

[SovaNu]

 

i really don't know how we can determine one prophet is false and another isn't. it's a question of faith, not just evidence.

[Calandale]

I am the true prophet.

Do what I say.