British Teacher Faces 40 Lashes for Naming Class Teddy Bear 'Muhammad'

A pupil of the teacher leapt to her defence yesterday.

The seven-year-old said he suggested the name – after HIMSELF, not the Islamic prophet.

And he says he would be upset if jailed Gillian Gibbons never came back to teach at Unity High School in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

The lad, who spells his name Mohammad, said: “The teacher asked what I wanted to call the teddy. I said Mohammad, after my name.”

He added that most of his class agreed with his choice and described Gillian, of Liverpool, as a “very nice” teacher who never mentioned religion in class.

www.thesun.co.uk...

I hope that this helps.

Originally posted by Togetic
A pupil of the teacher leapt to her defence yesterday.
I hope that this helps.

it wont, she is charged with permitting the bear to be named so by the children, she should have known about the prohibition and suggested they use another name.

reasonable, right?



[edit on 28-11-2007 by planetfall]

Originally posted by planetfall
i didnt say egyptian culture, i specifically said islamic culture. it looks like the muslims there exhibit the common traits i refer to:

Egyptian terrorists

this brush i use is perfectly suited for the task at hand.

Really? Google can be a bad tool in the wrong hands. One that wants to justify himself, not gain knowledge. I checked out your wikilink. Those are individuals, not a culture, and while most of those are linked, or supposedly linked to al qaida, they remain individuals, not a culture as a whole. Seems like Egypt, a Muslim nation, is on the right side of things. From YOUR source:

having succeeded 'Abbud al-Zummar in the latter role when al-Zummar was jailed for life in Egypt.

The Muslim Council of Great Britain have poked their heads above the parapet and issued a statement condemning the actions of the Sudanese authorities.

The Muslim Council of Britain is appalled at the decision of the Sudanese authorities to charge the British schoolteacher, Gillian Gibbons, for allegedly 'insulting religion'. "This is a disgraceful decision and defies common sense. There was clearly no intention on the part of the teacher to deliberately insult the Islamic faith. The children in Ms Gibbons' class and their parents have all testified as to her innocence in this matter. We call upon the Sudanese President, Umar al-Bashir, to intervene in this case without delay to ensure that Ms Gibbons is freed from this quite shameful ordeal," said Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

MCB

How influential their intervention will be remains to be seen.

Originally posted by OptionToChoose
Even yet, tho, the faint cry of "agenda" whispers in the wind as we in the civilized West are told to contemplate even further how extreme and unreasonable those Islamic radicals are . . .

Agenda? Are you suggesting the leaders of the West are responsible for this and it's all a set-up orchestrated by them to make us hate Islam? Please share whatever info you have on that. Barring any info that comes to light supporting that, it does show them as unreasonable and extreme. It's a teddy bear named by children! I cannot honestly believe I'm reading ANY defense of this at all, on ANY grounds. PISS on religions that put themselves before humanity. I'm completely sick of this crap, this planet really doesn't seem big enough for us all these days. The UK gives them a good teacher and that's how they treat her, OVER A TEDDY BEAR!? Good thing I'm not in charge of the UK, cuz the Sudan would have about 5 minutes to release the teacher before they had a much bigger problem on their hands than a teddy bear named by 7 year olds.

Originally posted by Togetic
Think about it: if America were doing this, everyone would be up in arms. I find it hypocritical that we as a people pick and choose so discriminately what angers us and what doesn't.

Well seeing as YOU brought this up, um, what about Gitmo?

Back to the original topic.

Most seem to be overlooking the children, who are also innocent victims in this fiasco. They are likely to lose a teacher they like and respect. And after this, who will want to go there to teach them?

How many other western teachers who volunteered to teach in muslim countries are now also second guessing what they are doing? Another generation lost to the madrassas and terrorism?

The Sudanese should ask themselves, "What would Muhhammed do?"
......Or maybe they did already and thats why they decided 40 lashes is justified.

Originally posted by neformore
What would happen if a Muslim guy stood in the middle of NYC, shouted "allah akbar" and set a US flag on fire?

Its kind of a rhetorical question, because I know that he would probably be surrounded by a very angry mob, some of whom would want to kill him - and please don't tell me thats the case, there are numerous posts on ATS where people say they would react violently to seeing such a thing.

Come on neformore, you know that comparison is ridiculous. It would make sense if the teacher stood in the middle of the Sudan, shouting "I named this teddy bear Mohammed!" Then set it on fire. That would be an accurate comparison, but instead, a bunch of sweet little children wanted to name a teddy bear Mohammed, likely in honor of their prophet since I doubt they understand why it upsets some of their savage parents. The teacher most likely was ignorant that any human could honestly take offense to that, but sadly she was wrong. There was NO harm intended by this, it's sickening.

reply to post by intrepid



right, the egyptian gub'ment has the right idea. overall, the general egyptian culture has been pretty diverse, i imagine as a result of all the archaeological activity thats been centered there over the years.

the egyptians have a larger identity than simply a muslim country, their history is very rich and something to be proud of. muslim terrorists there hopefully wont get much traction... but we know how that goes, atta flew a jet into the wtc

again, its islam, not egypt any more than nuradin abdi's behaviour is indicative of united states culture

reply to post by planetfall


Egypt isn't the only one. Turkey's constitution strongly rejects theocratic rule and when the government attempts anything on this matter the army steps in to defend the constitution. There are others as well. Like I said, broad brush.

reply to post by intrepid


my brush applies to muslims and the islamic religion, regardless of country. wherever muslims live and do allahs will, there will be trouble. this is a thing that occurs every day, in every country they are in.

denmark
france
somalia
sudan
palestine
united states
united kingdom
indonesia
and much, much more...

the common thread? its obvious.

Originally posted by planetfall
the common thread? its obvious.

What's not obvious to you is that we are talking about Muslim nations not Muslim individuals. You aren't seeing the good in Muslims, just the negative. You know what that's called?

reply to post by mortalengine

Originally posted by mortalengine
Well I guess we know what would happen, but whats really worrying is how much people care about their flags. Patriotism is not a good thing,

You are equating patriotism with flag-waving. That is a very narrow and incorrect assumption.

Patriotism is not in and of itself a bad thing. It does frighten some people enough to hate it, though, because of the unifying power it posesses.

Flag-waving is not evil, either. In it's essence it is a simple gesture. It begins to be bad when it is mocked by those who have no sense of patriotism.

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by planetfall
the common thread? its obvious.

What's not obvious to you is that we are talking about Muslim nations not Muslim individuals. You aren't seeing the good in Muslims, just the negative. You know what that's called?

you mean all the good muslims who have stood up and demanded that terrorism end in the name of allah? those muslims?

or the ones so outraged by the abuses of women, the ones who rallied and fought for change there?

you mean those throngs of brave muslims who have decided enough is enough and not only openly criticised the culture of death and abuse but challenged their religious leaders to choose a more productive direction and end the all that is wrong with islam?

well, there are very few, but i will indeed point them out to receive the proper admiration they deserve. it wont be a long list to be sure, however.

Originally posted by planetfall
you mean all the good muslims who have stood up and demanded that terrorism end in the name of allah? those muslims?

or the ones so outraged by the abuses of women, the ones who rallied and fought for change there?

you mean those throngs of brave muslims who have decided enough is enough and not only openly criticised the culture of death and abuse but challenged their religious leaders to choose a more productive direction and end the all that is wrong with islam?

There is no point in showing you such, it's been done in thread already. You refuse to see it, fine. The reader does though. Time to wash off that paint friend.

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by planetfall
the common thread? its obvious.

What's not obvious to you is that we are talking about Muslim nations not Muslim individuals. You aren't seeing the good in Muslims, just the negative. You know what that's called?

Well, that is simply because it's the "bad muslims" that are causing all the problems. We hardly hear or see anything from or about the "good muslims", as they seem pretty silent compared to their "bad" bothers and sisters. I'd even venture to guess that if there weren't a bunch of "bad muslims" causing problems all over the world, people in the West wouldn't even think much about muslims at all. And what would be wrong with that? They could live their lives however they wanted and we could live ours.

a few admirable muslims, who will also likely be killed for honor:

Amina Wadud

Irshad Manji

and really, any of the handful of liberal islamic reformers who will continue to be ignored at best, or killed for suggesting that perhaps killing innocent people and abusing women and children are a bad thing...

Originally posted by centurion1211
Well, that is simply because it's the "bad muslims" that are causing all the problems. We hardly hear or see anything from or about the "good muslims", as they seem pretty silent compared to their "bad" bothers and sisters.

Which we've brought up. In theocratic ruled nations, how long do you think moderates would last if they voiced their opinions? See Iran.

27id:

Agenda? Are you suggesting the leaders of the West are responsible for this and it's all a set-up orchestrated by them to make us hate Islam?

No. Why do you ask that? Is that the only way to perceive what I wrote?
What I am suggesting is that in the grand ol' tradition of cause stalking on a national level, any and every single incident that can be will be used to dissuade a positive image of the Islamic belief system.

This is not about a religion's right to be outvalued over a human being . . if you'd calm down long enough to digest what you read you could likely see that my question would be directed at those making the decision to punish Gibbons: is there no mercy?

Go back and actually read my post if you are still having trouble comprehending this, I really thought I was clear on this one . .