A Teddy Bear Named Mohammed
Yet another Mohammed-related controversy. A British teacher located in Sudan, Gillian Gibbons, is charged with insulting Islam and inciting hatred; she is facing a risk of being sentenced with 40 lashes, emprisonment for six months, and a fine. Why would an expatriate teacher be a criminal in Sudan? Apparently she allowed her students to name the class’ teddy bear doll, Mohammed.
Please note that Mohammed (Mohamed, Muhammad, Mohammad) is the most commonly used name in the world, she may have assumed that there was nothing wrong in adding an innocent teddy bear to the list. Or, she cannot expect her students to name the teddy Tommy, or Billy, or Mr. Barney, or anything western. Lastly, the teacher may haven’t done her homework on hardline Islamic societies.
Rice has turned into porridge, and just today, the 30th November Sudan time, she is scheduled to appear on her first Islamic trial after several nights restrained in the local prison. The Islamic trial wherefore conducted as a practice of the Syari’ah –the Islamic law.
Should the Syari’ah apply to non-Moslems?
First, here’s the story from Times Online.
Outrage as Sudan charges teddy row teacher, Gillian Gibbons
Britain was trying to defuse a potentially explosive diplomatic row with Sudan last night, after a British teacher who allowed a teddy bear to be named Mohamed was charged with insulting Islam and inciting hatred. She is due to appear in an Islamic court today. The alleged crime is punishable by 40 lashes, a six-month jail sentence and a fine.
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, is expected to summon Omer Mohamed Ahmed Siddig, the Sudanese Ambassador to London, to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office today.
The Sudanese envoy will be told that corporal punishment against Gillian Gibbons, the 54-year-old teacher from Liverpool, is totally unacceptable. Britain is “reviewing its options” for retaliatory measures against Khartoum should Ms Gibbons be hurt. These could include the expulsion of Sudanese diplomats, tightening travel restrictions on the regime’s leading figures and cutting aid.
British diplomats said that they were determined not to allow the row to damage peace efforts in the troubled province of Darfur, where more than 20,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops are due to be deployed in the new year.
One possible compromise being explored last night would allow Ms Gibbons to go on trial. Instead of being punished, she could then be expelled from Sudan or granted a pardon by President Omar Bashir, the country’s hardline leader.
Yet with Islamic militants calling for mass demonstrations in Sudan, the situation threatened to get out of control. The mother of two spent her fourth night in jail yesterday after she was arrested at at Unity High School, an exclusive British-run school favoured by the Sudanese elite, for allowing her pupils to name a classroom teddy bear Mohamed.
British consular officials and colleagues visited Ms Gibbons in prison yesterday and reported that she was being well treated by the authorities.
Her arrest has provoked outrage among politicians, clerics and leaders of the British Muslim community, who rallied to her defence, but Islamic militants in Sudan have protested against her actions and demanded a maximum sentence for her crimes. She was arrested after some parents complained to the education authorities about the teddy bear’s name.
British officials said that they remained confident that the Sudanese authorities wanted to avoid aggravating the situation. If Ms Gibbons is flogged it would have serious diplomatic consequences for Sudan, affecting its relations with Britain, the European Union and moderate Arab states.
Key to the outcome could be the role of the British Muslim community, which has well-established links with Sudan. Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he was “appalled” at yesterday’s decision, which he added “defied common sense”.
“There was clearly no intention on the part of the teacher to deliberately insult the Islamic faith,” said Dr Abdul Bari. “The children in Ms Gibbons’s class and their parents have all testified as to her innocence in this matter. We call upon the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to intervene in this case without delay to ensure that Ms Gibbons is freed from this quite shameful ordeal.”
Lord Steel of Aikwood, the former Liberal Party leader, said that he would raise the issue with Mr al-Bashir, when he meets him next week as part of an all-party mission to Sudan. “I hope the President of the country will have the authority to overrule these people and set her free,” he said.
Louise Ellman, the MP for Liverpool Riverside, Ms Gibbons’s constituency, said she was astounded by the criminal charges.
“It was hoped the matter could be resolved by diplomatic means,” she said.
Source: Timesonline.co.uk
As we recall, there have been incidents such as this one, namingly the infamous Mohammed cartoons published on September 2005 by Jyllands-posten newspaper; since I cannot publish the pictures here, click the link for complete details [Link]. Aside for the sensitivity to such humour, Arab Moslems have been said to fancy cartoons themselves, cartoons denoting constant hatred for the Jews and Moslem Anti-Semitism to be specific [Link].
In Indonesia there used to be publications displaying even worse horrors than cartoons, photographs depicting the holy pride of killing and torturing “kafirs”, or videos of American soldiers being executed. It wasn’t like we had many choices either, everyone of us still remember when footages of bombing victims in their critical moments, burned corpses, and images of suicide bomber’s deformed head kept on showing up on TV. Well, that was then.
Even though the terrifying phase have passed, it is still hazardous to elaborate on ways of the Syari’ah in parallel to humanitarianism and spirituality–and to contrast it with the Western comic approach of free speech is simply chaos.
The series of incidents concerning Islam, if not handled seriously and wisely by world leaders and the media, can promptly bring about another dead-end conundrum for the peacekeeping efforts.
The discourse will inevitably altered into interreligous and interracial topical disputes, which will surely remind people of the violence, deaths, and the horror experienced back then –and if there’s any law that can be placed upon humanbeings of any belief, it is the law of fear.
Hello. You are now reading an article written by Marisa Duma, published on 30Nov07 along with other notes on Articles On The Web, Commentaries, International, People.
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The incident would have been hilariously funny, if it was not as sad as it is.
But it does remind me …All those who claim to own the one and only absolute truth. are very scary people. Whether their truth is political or religious is irrelevant.
(By the way: Mrs Gibbons has been sentenced to a fortnight in prison.)
Yes, colson. I’ve updated the article. Thanks for the heads up!
Hi Marisa, thanks for your visit to Blogtrotter. I’ve a new post that ends with a typical Indonesian meal; you may wish to see…
Now, I’ve just read the latest from CNN in KHARTOUM, Sudan: “Hundreds of angry protesters, some waving ceremonial swords from trucks equipped with loud speakers, gathered Friday outside the presidential palace to denounce a teacher whose class named a teddy bear “Mohammed” — some calling for her execution.” It’s getting sillier, isn’t it?…
Enjoy your weekend!
Gil
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Sensitive topic you got here. I’m an Indonesian muslim, I love my religion, I worship one Allah, but I am a moderate… Not all muslims encourage violence, on contrary we hate it! and we want the world to know that Islam is a compassionate and humanistic religion as well. I personally doubt the Syari’ah will be effective for all countries because not all countries are culturally born from the Middle East, such as Indonesia. We have our own tradition. We’re not the Arabs.
Maybe extremist muslims are being that way because they’re under social oppression like poverty or lack of education… Something that world leaders should have given thought about long ago…
Great topic! Hope things go well for the British teacher too…
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Chances are religions and spirituality got nothing to do with this type of incident, it’s about how the disciples reacted to a situation.
Visitors,
Before you comment, please know I really don’t give a damn about people’s religion, hence I will not discuss religious issues on this site.
Religious fanatics are just a bunch of apes and hypocrites
No matter what their religion is
Muslim fanatics, Christian fanatics, Jew fanatics, all of them saints
Just a bunch of apes hungry for a kill and greed to be worshipped like gods
Heaven seems like a scary place now …
“… I really don’t give a damn about people’s religion”.
I love you, Marisa Duma.
Hahaha colson, found your blog! …
Do you want me to blogroll it?
By the way, chances are the country’s local media chose not to expose the news because everyone’s busy for the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference at Nusa Dua, Bali. Maybe worrying the news will provoke religious extremists. Yeap! That will certainly ruin the party.
@ Trotta
I’ve checked your site, it’s wonderful and looks delicious. :)
@Marisa Duma: On behalf of the “Pelopors”: we would be honored! (And gladly will do the same in return).
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Just wanna say, hi!
that was a very deep and interesting article.
At first, it seems as if religion is the problem but on closer inspection, it is fanaticism or extremism. That can be applied to religion, power, knowledge, science and almost anything. the problem with extremists is that they’re extreme! it takes extreme measures to deal with extreme problems which makes the solution the problem.
oh dear, I have a headache! :-)
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Hello.
Religious stance aside, the world is short of tolerance. Superiority thinking is a product of the world war era. We should co-exist, not out-placing each other. Any belief, be it religious, national or personal, should be promoted through love, not hatred.
Wisdom is in deficiency. Restoration is vital. Before we perish in the battle for ideology supremacy.
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wow, very nice blog.
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“To be franken honest, I got carried away when I found out the local media won’t publish or broadcast the news on Gillian Gibbons”
Will Indonesian local rag publish something like this
“Religious fanatics are just a bunch of apes and hypocrites
No matter what their religion is”
More than 40 million Russians, Ukrainians, Central Asian perished under Stalin’s rule. More than 35 millions dead under Chairman Mao and Cultural Revolutions in the 50’s and 60’s.
6 Millions Cambodians brutally killed by the Khmer Rogue under order of Pol Pot.
What Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot have in common?
they’re all atheist, the so called “anti-religion”. The largest human killing in the history are done by them, the people who hate religion.
The support of Iraq’s Invasion in 2003 was very much supported by the “liberal” newspaper Newyork Times by their reporter Judith Miller, as the result 2 million Iraqi has been
dead as result of American shock and awe. Under the pretext WMD that has never been found.
“Muslim fanatics, Christian fanatics, Jew fanatics”
You exclude Hindu Lunatics and Budhist Extrimist, apparently they’re still killing each other in Srilanka
It seems to me you didn’t update about Gillian Gibbon’s case, why?.
She was pardoned after 2 British Muslim peers (Bangsawan) visited Sudan and meet Sudanese President.
I’ve seen her in her first press conference after her arrival in Heatrow London from CNN, She said sincerely that Sudanese are warm, loving, generous people. And she would definitely go back to Sudan, place that she loved to teach again.
So your post Marisa, trying to depict this unsignificant story as if this is something are very horrible are failed, there are more important stories from around around the Globe than this. just because CNN hilghlighted doesn’t mean it’s newsworthy,
There are links in my post above
sexual abuse by Catholic Priest in California
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12/08/news/top_stories/1_02_2912_7_07.txt
Yes, maybe it is. I forgot to update it, assuming people can click the Sphere: Related Content for more updates.
Please keep commenting, we’d love to have more perspectives in this room. :)
@badakgajah:You’re right; bloodthirsty and criminal bastards can be found in any civilization and they are of all times. For instance the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazi’s can be added to your list.
But what happened in Sudan to this female teacher is not insignificant, to my opinion. It is significant because it indicates that an absolutely innocent incident, a total non issue, can easily be blown out of proportion, as soon as fanatics call the shots. In this case religious fanatics.
The point is that one should not turn a blind eye on what’s dangerously wrong among the own creed. It is essential to public mental health to expose these incidents. That’s the same spirit as you showed by denouncing the Roman Catholic church that tried to turn a blind eye on and even tried to cover up, the fact priests have been committing severe acts of sexual abuse.
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“But what happened in Sudan to this female teacher is not insignificant, to my opinion. It is significant because it indicates that an absolutely innocent incident, a total non issue, can easily be blown out of proportion, as soon as fanatics call the shots. In this case religious fanatics”.
You really put my thought into writing Colson, thanks.
@badakgajah: Great. Mutual understanding, that’s what we need.
Like anyone in his right mind would agree: children who choose the most familiar name to them as a proper name for their classroom teddy bear, are just sweet and nice. Perfect innocence. No reason to get upset about.
To prosecute the teacher in charge, is really over the top however. A suitable case for treatment.
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