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Teddy Muhammad

Zep said:
I suspect the whole bear/prophet's name thing is a complete and utter furphy - irrelevant to the point of what is really happening. I expect it will fade to oblivion, and the teacher will be freed with a "warning".

Because if you read the article carefully and a bit more dispassionately, it becomes VERY obvious that there are entirely other political issues afoot there that are much more of import. The shouting youths are like any mob of louts anywhere - they just like shouting threats and being violent (or they are a government "rent-a-crowd").

Perhaps it's also worth thinking on what is NOT being said: WHY is the Sudanese minister grossly misstating the "offence"? WHY have the British consulate not been heard from? What is the Sudanese government response to this "serious" issue? How come it was reported to the outside media at all? (Sudan practices severe censorship.) And so on.

Oh and Tokie - we just elected a left-wing government in a huge landslide. Go chew on that.
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I have read the BBC article, but I don't see what the other political issues are. What do you think is happening?
 
gtc said:
I have read the BBC article, but I don't see what the other political issues are. What do you think is happening?
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From the article:

Bishop Ezekiel Kondo, chairman of the school council, told The Times that the school was in dispute with authorities over taxes, and suggested that Ms Gibbons, who arrived in Khartoum in August, may have been caught up in that. "The thing may be very simple but there are people who are trying to make it bigger. It's a kind of blackmail," he said.
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Other issues might include letting Christians and Muslims attend the same school and letting European women teach children of Sudanese citizens. I'm not saying there is measurable evidence for either of those theories, but the idea that it is only about naming a teddy bear Muhammed is difficult to comprehend.
 
Ladewig said:
From the article:



Other issues might include letting Christians and Muslims attend the same school and letting European women teach children of Sudanese citizens. I'm not saying there is measurable evidence for either of those theories, but the idea that it is only about naming a teddy bear Muhammed is difficult to comprehend.
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Yes, insanity is difficult to comprehend. If there truly are legimate issues, they might find more support if they were to come forth with those issues. I'm wondering why none of the 20 children who voted for the name realized that they shouldn't be naming a toy Muhammed. Perhaps their indoctrination methods are slipping . . .
 
Tokenconservative said:
I'm reminded of a Darwin Award I read recently:

<snip>

Fortunately, the story goes, her legs remained attached after the car came down on them, but just barely.

Fortunately as well, our stalwart hero was quick on the draw with his cell and in getting the car up and off the College Wymyn before the ambulance arrived, no doubt saving her much further damage.
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You just make up stuff as you go along don't you? The Darwin Awards are named for people who do stupid things and thus remove themselves from the gene pool by DYING. Since the woman didn't die, this is not a Darwin Award winner.
 
supercorgi said:
You just make up stuff as you go along don't you? The Darwin Awards are named for people who do stupid things and thus remove themselves from the gene pool by DYING. Since the woman didn't die, this is not a Darwin Award winner.
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They do have runners up and near misses as well. I haven't seen Tokie's there, though.
 
They're now claiming this is insulting because culturally, they don't have teddy bears and so are used to the bear as a ferocious thing which eats people. Or some crap like that.
 
Well, apparently she's now been charged with insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. Aye, well, Cornwall again for me next year I think.

Edit: And this kid strikes me as brave, under the circumstances:

A Sudanese pupil of a British woman arrested on blasphemy allegations has said it was his idea to name a teddy bear Muhammad ... one boy said: "The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy. I said Muhammad. I named it after my name."
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richardm said:
Well, apparently she's now been charged with insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. Aye, well, Cornwall again for me next year I think.

Edit: And this kid strikes me as brave, under the circumstances:
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Well, if there's one positive thing to come out of this, it's that British Muslims are falling over themselves to distance themselves from this sort of extremism. That can only be a good thing. The more ridiculous the interpretation of Islam, the more questions moderate Muslims will start asking.

There's a really cynical part of me that wants to say "if you go and work in a strict Muslim country, learn the rules" but that isn't very helpful at this stage.
 
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godless dave said:
This is ridiculous, even if you are a Muslim.

Mohammed is, by far, the most common name for males in Muslim cultures.

Mohammed, as the Koran takes great pains to point out, was not divine and is not to be worshipped, so anything involving his name cannot be "blasphemy".
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Yep, else a certain superb professional boxer might have been, by taking on the name he did from Cassius Clay, had a fatwa declared against him.

As Zep pointed out, this is politics.

DR
 
This is all a kind of passive terrorism, the goal being that as more incidents like this occur, non-Muslims everywhere will become hesitant about doing or saying anything might offend Islam. With any luck, it will backfire on them. If a western country arrested a muslim for allegedly offending some Western ideal, they would no doubt consider it an act of aggression. I really hope the British gov't stands up for this woman. If she ends up being publicly flogged, the real atrocity would be to let that go unanswered.
 
Tokenconservative said:
This isn't the libs fault of course, but you will not see any leftist org decrying this, just as here in the USofA NOW has been utterly silent on the suffering of women in "original" cultures (such as Sudan's) while shrieking ceaselessly about men looking at women and the non-existent "glass ceiling" etc., etc.

Tokie
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I submit you have not been to the NOW site, and have not read any of the articles I was able to pull up with simple search terms, such as "Islam" and "Sharia."

I therefore dismiss your allegation ["NOW has been utterly silent on the suffering of women in "original" cultures (such as Sudan's)"] as being without a factual basis, due to absence of research.

And no, I don't have a LIIIINNNNKK!
 
Don't Name your Teddy Mohammed

Not to be outdone by Saudi Arabia's applying the lash to its gangrape victims the Sudan has now charged a British teacher who could suffer a year in jail plus 40 lashes for her terrible crime. This is what you get folks when you want to educate children by going overseas to help teach them. Clearly this will end up "costing" children everywhere in Islam and it is they who always suffer in the end.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- A British teacher arrested in Sudan after allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Mohammed" has been charged by authorities with offending religion, British officials say.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, is being held by police in the capital Khartoum after she asked her class of seven-year-olds to come up with a name for the toy as part of a school project, Robert Boulos, the head of Unity High School told CNN.

It is expected that she will appear in court Thursday, Sudan state media reported.

A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said Gibbons had been charged under Article 125 of Sudan's constitution, the law relating to insulting religion and inciting hatred.

The spokeswoman said the Sudanese ambassador had been summoned to the offices of the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband to discuss the case. Gibbons was arrested under the country's Islamic Sharia law after parents of some of her students complained to police. Hear about the charges against Gibbons »

Under country's law, the offense is punishable with 40 lashes, a jail term of up to a year or a fine.
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http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/11/28/sudan.bears/?iref=mpstoryview
 
slingblade said:
I submit you have not been to the NOW site, and have not read any of the articles I was able to pull up with simple search terms, such as "Islam" and "Sharia."

I therefore dismiss your allegation ["NOW has been utterly silent on the suffering of women in "original" cultures (such as Sudan's)"] as being without a factual basis, due to absence of research.

And no, I don't have a LIIIINNNNKK!
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Hey tokie! LIIIIIIINKKKKK!

NOW is not silent on Sudan.
 
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Hope the bear ends up on EBay, is purchased, defecated upon, soaked in gas, and burned; whilst it all being taped and then posted to Youtube. Then send all the kids new teddy bears.

Perhaps the Rational Response Squad should start up a second Blasphemy Challenge; this time for Mohammed.
 
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