A British teacher at a high school in Sudan, Gillian Gibbons, 54, was arrested on blasphemy charges for allowing her six- and seven-year-old students to name a class teddy bear "Mohammed," says the Telegraph. She was interrogated for five hours, according to the Daily Mail, and the teacher now may face forty lashes and six months in prison. Protests against Ms. Gibbons, a divorced mother of two, have broken out all over Sudan and the school has been closed through January to prevent retaliation. On one hand, you want to say Ms. Gibbons should have known to avoid the name, especially given the recent Danish cartoon debacle, which resulted in dozens of deaths. The Koran say, "[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the earth... [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him." The ban is supposed to prevent idolatry.
But it's hard to make a case the class' teddy bear project, which involved students taking "Mohammed" the bear home and recording his "activities" in a diary, could be construed as deliberately insulting.
Hassan Aberdeen, a researcher at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, quoted in Sky News, says that the anger over this does indeed seem to be disproportionate, even given Sudan's strict Islamic Sharia law. He says, "It seems that the parents made an issue of the teacher calling an animal Mohammed. Calling him a dog or a pig is insulting, but this is just a teddy bear."
And who would think the teddy bear (whose name was voted on by the class; Assan and Abdullah lost to Mohammed) was actually intended as a representation of the prophet? And who would imagine he would turn the students into teddy bear cultists?
It just seems like a logical fallacy to say that calling a teddy bear Mohammed is the same as calling Mohammed a teddy bear. After all, Muslim children are routinely named Mohammed; no one thinks they're being cast as reincarnations of the prophet.
In the case of the Danish cartoons, the image was actually supposed to represent the true Mohammed. Suddenly, by comparison to this, the rage over those little sketches seems imminently reasonable.
(Photo of Gibbons is from her Friends Reunited account via Reuters)
Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 43)
61. We are witnessing fanaticism first hand with incidents like this. It is offensive to lean on the name of the Creator of All to commit atrocities. If it is a Muslims obligation to emulate ALLAH then where is the mercifulness and benevolence?
JU at 1:29PM on Nov 27th 2007
62. bellwells, aren't you dumber than a box of hammers.
Richard at 1:27PM on Nov 27th 2007
63. What would you honestly expect from Islam...a religion that is so backward, that "all" must be punished severely or even destroyed if you don't do every single thing according to some interpretation of the Koran.
Lyndzarae at 1:28PM on Nov 27th 2007
64. Those people can't be dealt with in any sort of LOGICAL way. Those people are idiots who have been brought up to BE idiots BY professional idots. The only thing those people understand is DEATH. If we're not ready to kill every last one of them the best thing we can do is stay away from them and KILL them if they come our way.
Jim Brai at 1:27PM on Nov 27th 2007
65. A jihad is not Christian. Revenge is God's. We aren't even to speak evil of them. Jude 1:9 - Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee.
And yes this whole thing is stupid and shows how pigheaded they are. All those people named muhammed are obviously mocking their god as well if they are right
coolrnyu at 1:28PM on Nov 27th 2007
66. What a phucked up religion. And the world puts up with this kind of crap....or is it a form of slavery and or brain washing?
dan at 1:28PM on Nov 27th 2007
67. So, Charles (#29), you can dish it out but you can't take it. Jews have been persecuted by Xians for 2000+ years, and your hackles are raised by a Jewish comedienne poking fun at Xianity. I'm sure Sarah Silverman is well educated in the history of the Inquisition, expulsions, pogroms, etc., all in the name of the Mother Church.
And where, pray tell, is it "common" for Jews to go after Xians? Your own intolerance is sickening!
SUSAN at 1:29PM on Nov 27th 2007
68. Richard, I believe the accepted phrase is "dumber than a SACK of hammers".
bellwells at 1:29PM on Nov 27th 2007
69. This type of thinking cannot be tolerated. It is everyone's duty to stamp out ALL RELIGIONS.
Yeman at 1:31PM on Nov 27th 2007
70. 4. Islam should be against the law!!!! It is cowardly and perverse!!!! I would like to get a tattoo that says Islam is for Fags!!!!
michael gilbert at 12:39PM on Nov 27th 2007
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I am agnostic ,I think all religion should be unlawful !!!
Too much ... at 1:31PM on Nov 27th 2007
71. PROVES ONCE AGAIN MUSLIMS ARE CRAZY AND THE MIDDLE EAST HAS TOO GO.
THE PUNISHER at 4:53PM on Nov 27th 2007
72. Narrow minded people often seize upon religion to legitimize their self righteous disapproval of others who do not or may not agree with them. Under Hitler, people did things as a part of a movement that they would never have done were they merely acting in their own names. No group of people is immune to this phenomenon. There are putatively Christian groups which show this tendency, right here.
John at 1:30PM on Nov 27th 2007
73. PROVES ONCE AGAIN THE MUSLIMS ARE CRAZY AND THE MIDDLE EAST HAS TOO GO
THE PUNISHER at 4:54PM on Nov 27th 2007
74. Diana, the producers of the sarah silverman show are also lucky that christians don't respond to insults the way moslems do.
Charles at 1:30PM on Nov 27th 2007
75. Truth: They are NOT really angry because of the bear being named "Mohammed", it's really because of one of their teachers being "British" and NOT a Muslim!
Ryan at 1:32PM on Nov 27th 2007