I disagree. I can not make myself respect grown adults who riot over cartoons in a newspaper or the name of a teddy bear. IT. IS. ABSURD. How is it NOT silly to get offended over this? I respect their rights to believe in whatever god they want, but when they act with the reasoning of a 2 year old who don’t get a second helping of pudding . . . I can’t respect that.

The teachers response to this (what I have read of it) IS going to help. She said she was sorry, that she has a deep respect of Islam, and she never meant to offend anyone. Good for her.

Tao, I said it else where and I’ll say it here too:

I wouldn’t have respect for such childish behaviour and IF anyone was offended and/or distressed about it, it’s on them, not her. She did not do anything wrong and she has no need to respect people who behave in such a way. It’s just plain stupid and there was no reason for it. To make such a statement, IMO, is just plain ignorant. I also think they are not teaching their children to be very mature about such things. There are many men named Muhammed, just as there are many men named Jesus.

There is no compassion and it doesn’t have any place in modern society anymore than Christianity does. It is subject to a lot of criticism, just as any other religion is and they have brought it on themselves. Of course, I have no respect for religion, esp when it acts in such a childish manner and to place her in “time out” for even the amount of time they did was just plain sophomoric, as I said before. To increase the time she was imprisoned would have made the Islamics look even more rediculous than they do already.

The people I feel most sorry for in this case are the children. They aren’t learning to be accepting of others or anything and not only that, they are learning fear and guilt, thus reinforcing ignorance and superstition. The adults really do need to back off, because it’s not going to help their children believe, but rather learn how to give religion lipservice so that they don’t get into trouble. The only freedom they will feel is in their own personal thoughts- if they don’t feel guilty about them. Beyond that, they will fear saying or doing anything- if they don’t end up totally brainwashed and go insane themselves first. It’s a rather sad exisistance, if you ask me.

Religion of peace! Please! I don’t care what anyone says, I cannot and will not buy that. I don’t see it anymore peaceful than Christianity, esp that which is in the Religious Reich’s hands. I will wish them a happy Eid, just as I would anyone who celebrates Christmas, but that is as far as it goes.

For all those jumping on me remember, this has nothing to do with what I believe. I said I was sure she didn’t mean to offend anyone… nor do I believe something like this *should* be offensive in 2007… nor do I believe she should have been given any more punishment than she received.

I also did not say that politics didn’t have anything to do with it. But face it, the teacher broke the law in the country she lived and worked in. However noble her intentions were, she should have been aware of the possible consequences of her actions. What’s that saying about an ounce of prevention? Someone at the school knew this might have been a cause for concern, hence the second teddy bear. So why didn’t the teacher have the foresight to veto the name Muhammed?

I’ll say it again, her ignorance does not make her innocent. I certainly don’t think she sinned or is a bad person, but she did screw up.

Forgive me for not replying to all the individual comments above. I hope reading this and my above comments (which some of the later posters seemed to have missed) will make my position clear.

But to those who said,
“some people were calling for the death penalty”
“The marchers took to the streets…(etc)”

Do you listen to American talk radio? Or read the Philadelphia Trumpet? (which for some reason is on display in laundromats and other businesses here in Ontario) What about late nights on Vision TV? Even John Hagee is pretty terrifying and he picks his words very carefully. If we get that nut up here, I can only imagine who is in primetime down there… Etc, etc, etc… every group has their idiots.

The fact is, the teacher was released and is back in the UK.

What most of us here want, including me, is to affect positive change in the Middle East. To add fuel to the fire by allowing this controversy to take on a life of its own is not going to help the matter. “H. B”’s comments above are not going to help (especially since his credibility was shot in the very first line)… saying it is silly to be offended by something like this is not going to help.

The teachers response to this (what I have read of it) IS going to help. She said she was sorry, that she has a deep respect of Islam, and she never meant to offend anyone. Good for her.

Muslims (well, maybe I should say, “the Islamic World”) are terrified of western cultural influences. Can we agree on that at least? I make no judgement as to whether or not that fear is justified. To boldly go and tell them their laws and values are wrong and they should adopt our laws and values is futile. Respecting that they respect different things is the only way they are going to respect the things that we respect. Otherwise we are walking stereotypes of one of the things they fear the most.

I have similar criticisms for the modern atheist movement.

If we really want to affect change, we really have to be more strategic in determining our methods.

Tom in Iowa said,

December 5, 2007 at 9:22 am

At my son’s recent soccer game one of the players on the other team called for the ball “Hey Mohamed, over here.” Not five minutes later another team member yelled “Jesus (Spanish pronunciation) I’m open.”

The parent sitting next to me (a professor of theology, by the way) turns to me to confirm that I had heard those names as well, and says “If they have a Moses on this team then I think they’re on to something.”

Sadly no Moses, but if Jesus and Mohamed can play a friendly game of soccer…well, I’m just saying…

Spanish people are more like to name their sons Jesus (Spanish pronounciation of course), Islamics name their sons Mohammed, and for all I know devote Orthydox Jews might name their son Moses. Funny thing is, Europeans of the Christian tradition, lean towards Mary/Maria or a derivitive there of, Joseph/Yosef/etc, Paul, John/Jon/etc, Thomas/Tomas/etc and also Joshua which is Hebrew for Jesus meaning “saviour” (which they don’t realize it or don’t want to admit. Thus why I say, even Christianity is cultural.

“The Sudanese courts tried her and sentenced her to a couple weeks in prison and the Sudanese President pardoned her.”

When the story broke I recall reading accounts that some were seeking the death penalty for her (which is supported by the protestors link in Ash’s post). The British government worked its butt off to achieve the subsequent positive outcome (which along the way entailed the special privileges and lenient sentence you later mentioned).

What do you think would be the results if he came out with Piss Muhammad?

I don’t know, but I wonder what an Islamic version of Dogma would yield… On that note, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this (anywhere, that is):

http://prickwear.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=8&idproduct=9613

Fortunately, Christians don’t follow their scripture. Otherwise, Christians would be killing their disobedient children and gauging their own eyes out and cutting off their hands. Thank goodness they don’t believe that strongly. There would be a very high cost to society not to mention needless suffering and lost opportunity.

Well, we all know there are some Christian extremists (e.g. abortion clinic bombers), not to mention a large proportion of US citizens consider themselves fundamentalists. And a number of these people are doing quite a bit of damage to society via miseducation, some even at the college level (e.g. Liberty University).

This is a letter from one of the other teachers in the UK Guardian:

n late August, or early September of this year, Gillian came into possession of a teddy bear (a gift from a parent). An Early Years activity (designed to encourage, in particular, achievement in literacy skills) plays out around a class teddy. He does the rounds of the children, going home with them, just in case the child concerned writes a diary entry for the teddy about his visit to the child’s home. This was Gillian’s intention and it is in line with our whole school plan to raise literacy skills …
In line with this, the first task was to give the teddy a name. Gillian wanted to call the bear “Faris” (in honour of my new son); now we all wish she had gone with this first idea – but, excellent teacher that she is, she chose instead to ask the children what they wanted to call the teddy.

The children voted and chose the name Muhammad. All but one of the children in her class are Muslims.

Gillian then wrote a letter to the parents of Class 2X explaining that the children had chosen the name Muhammad for their class teddy bear. Not one parent raised any objection. Since late September, the teddy has been visiting many of the children of Class 2X’s homes. Three of the parents are teachers in the school.

We became aware of this issue a few weeks ago. We suggested to Gillian that it was inappropriate that the teddy bear was called Muhammad, as this might offend cultural sensibilities. The school issued a letter to parents to say that the teddy bear was tired of visiting so many homes and his friend (another stuffed toy called something entirely inoffensive) would be visiting instead. The Islamiyat department in our school was consulted and they suggested that this should resolve any potential problems.

However, on Sunday, the school was visited by officers of the Ministry of Education. Our school director, Robert Boulos, was interviewed at length by these officials. The government officers declared themselves unsatisfied with his responses.

The government men then asked to see and interview Gillian. Gillian gave exactly the same report of her actions. Again, the men from the ministry found this unacceptable and demanded that Gillian present herself at the police barracks.

On arrival at the police barracks, accompanied by the school principal, Gillian was interrogated for five hours. Gillian was then remanded to the cells.

Early yesterday morning I was informed that Gillian had been charged under the Sudanese penal code with blasphemously defaming the Prophet – an offence that is incredible serious here.

Having consulted with a number of religious Muslim people hereabouts, all are of the opinion that Gillian’s offence (if it may be described as such) was to inadvertently offend religious sensibilities by allowing the children to name the teddy bear with the same name as the Prophet. As this was not done maliciously, or with deliberate intent, they are puzzled about why Gillian has been detained.

All our parents, both Muslim and Coptic Christian, have stepped forward to offer their support; and the parents of Gillian’s class have gone on record to assert that they never had any objection to the name of the teddy bear. I reiterate, the vast majority of these parents are themselves Muslims.

The school is now closed for at least the next week. This was the suggestion of the Ministry of Education. We have been provisioned with extra security around the school; school names have been removed from our transports. The risk of attack against school property and staff has become a concern.

Now, perhaps Gillian was foolish not to have taken advice when the teddy bear was named. However, her intention was clearly not to insult the religious sensibilities of anyone – and she certainly did not upset anyone in the school, or any of the parents.

We are all deeply concerned for Gillian, who is not half as tough as she likes to make out. She is alone, effectively being held in solitary confinement. She does not speak Arabic and the police staff where she was held until Tuesday morning did not speak much English. The police station had been surrounded by a mob baying for Gillian’s blood.

She now faces the strong possibility of being charged for an offence that no one, Sudanese or otherwise who knows her, believes is reasonable. At the very least, Gillian will be expelled from the country, losing her job and income.

My wife was, before the birth of our son, Gillian’s learning assistant. My wife is Sudanese and had worked in the school before Gillian’s arrival.

She and Gillian became good friends. My wife’s esteem for Gillian as both a person and a teacher was due, at least in part, to the respect in which Gillian held her. My wife presently oscillates between anger and a distraught sense of not being able to help Gillian when she most needs our help.

Gillian was a kind, considerate and wonderful friend to my wife and I during the latter stages of my wife’s pregnancy; something we shall not forget.

Gillian’s goodness, excellence as a teacher and respect for all those who worked in the school shone out. The very last thing that Gillian would do is to deliberately offend others. Gillian’s respect and interest in Sudan, Arabic culture and the Muslim way of life and belief was manifest at all times.

It was a joy to have Gillian amongst us. We want her back. Now.

There was no intent to insult Islam, the fact that the bear visited so many homes under the name Mohammed, suggests that the “insult” was not a clear-cut issue. When a possible problem was pointed out, the teacher replaced the bear with another toy. All the information points to someone who was doing her best to respect Sudanese culture. Given the current situation with Darfur, to think that the resultant brouhaha had nothing to do with politics is naive.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/28/wsudan428.xml

The parent sitting next to me (a professor of theology, by the way) turns to me to confirm that I had heard those names as well, and says “If they have a Moses on this team then I think they’re on to something.”

Sadly no Moses, but if Jesus and Mohamed can play a friendly game of soccer…well, I’m just saying…

For that matter, who is this mysterious “they” of yours? The Sudanese courts tried her and sentenced her to a couple weeks in prison and the Sudanese President pardoned her. Hmm, who else could you be talking about? Lashings?

The marchers took to the streets after Friday prayers to denounce the sentence as too lenient. The protesters gathered in Martyrs Square, outside the presidential palace in the capital, many of them carrying knives and sticks [...] According to some agencies, some of the protesters chanted: “Shame, shame on the UK”, “No tolerance – execution” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad”.

this teacher’s exercise was supposed to be about cultural sensitivity, and naming a teddy bear “Muhammad” certainly isn’t culturally sensitive!

depends who you ask, certainly some were offended, but others did not see the problem. given this indecision amongst locals about cultural sensitivities, it does become suspect whether this had anything to do with culture, or if it’s just another case of a political agenda hiding behind a religious facade.

I am a Muslim but I am not offended by what she did.

I’m a Sudanese and a Muslim myself but I find no reason why this innocent lady is being humiliated and lied against saying that she insulted Islam. My own brother studies in the same school in which the teacher was teaching and it was not her to choose the name, it was a boy whose name was Mohamed. He decide that the doll be named after him. If the name of Mohamed should not be called anyhow then stop people from calling their names Mohamed. We need the teacher back. Rotto, Khartoum, Sudan

To feel offended by what the teacher did is impossible. She should not be punished for something like that. I believe that the teacher is in her right mind and is aware that she is in an Islamic country. I am sure she knows what can create religious tension and she wouldn’t have done such a thing on purpose. The poor lady is being accused of a sin she did not commit. I hope and pray that the UK government will take this seriously and intervene with vigour before things get out of hand. Why aren’t Muslim brothers taking more kindly to such things? Sanity my people!
Salma Aki, Khartoum Sudan

of the eight sudanese commentators here, no-one appears personally offended, only 2 feel even lenient punishment is merited for her…and 2 wish to see the children, not the teacher, held responsible.

It was a worker at the school who filed the complaint, it wasn’t some conspiracy involving tin foil, bubblegum and a paper clip.

Of course not, no way, couldn’t possibly happen. Uh huh.

This is from the NY Times:

On Tuesday, Sir John Sawers, the British representative to the United Nations, criticized the Sudanese government on a number of issues, including the languishing international arrest warrants for a Sudanese official and a militia leader in Darfur.

The next day, the Sudanese government decided to press charges against Ms. Gibbons.

So, clearly it was prosecuted solely on the merits and importance of the case. Uh huh.

Then there’s this quote from a worker in Khartoum:

“Our government creates such problems to divert the eyes of the world community from our domestic problems,” Ms. Hussein said. “I am sure that the case of the British teacher is politically motivated and has got nothing to do with our prophet.”

She’s probably wrong, I doubt she knows anything about her own goverment. Uh huh.

‘