Some innocent pawn in an end game.....

Albie

Albie

Keeping an open eye on the Weeping Angels.
Source.

Not sure how (or even if) this is reported outside the UK and Sudan, but the situation we have is that a teacher from Liverpool working in Sudan has been arrested and charged for inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. She is due in court at some time soon and if found guilty, faces a spell in prison or 40 lashes (the lashes will be performed in public, apparently).

Now, you may think that if someone does incite religious hatred, or whatever, should be punished - and, to a certain degree, I'll concur. There comes a time when freedom of speech crosses a line to the point that it is deliberately provoking a reaction of hate from the person(s)/establishment it is aimed at. Of course, this is where the speaker needs to be responsible for their actions and suffer the consequences.

But what was this teachers crime? She allowed a pupil in her class to name a teddy bear after his own name - Muhammad.

We have had reactions in this country from the Muslim Council of Britain who are embarrassed by the reaction of the Sudanese authorities to even get as far as arresting her and the Sudan Embassy in London has suggested that it will all blow over very soon and be labelled as a cultural misunderstanding (but it does not help her plight as she remains in Police custody).

However, Sudan clerics have said that "the full measure of the law to be used against Mrs Gibbons and labelled her actions part of a Western plot against Islam." Yep, you read it right - a primary school teacher from Liverpool is part of a major international plot to bring down Islam.

There has also been a suggestion that this arrest has come about because of how the West reacted (or their lack of reaction) to the recent troubles in Darfur, either way she has rather ridiculously become somewhat of a political/religious pawn.

Some innocent pawn in an end game.
 
Wait, wait. She allowed a student to name his teddy bear Muhammad and BOTH the Sudanese and Muslim authorities of Sudan are pissed at her?
 
I read about this in a Norwegian newspaper's website and I must say, if it wasn't for the fact that the teacher is risking severe punishment, this would be ridiculous. As she is in fact risking lashes (are we really living in the 21st century?) I will instead use the word tragic.

Contempt for religious beliefs? My arse. This is even worse than attacking embassies for the (in)famous caricatures. The cartoons could at least be interpreted as making fun of the single most important human being in Islam, and although I don't understand the reactions I do understand why reactions came. But this is so different - Muhammed is a common name among Muslims and as far as I understand, nobody said that this teddy bear was named after the (in)famous prophet?

We are indeed living in one crazy world.
 
Onhell said:
Wait, wait. She allowed a student to name his teddy bear Muhammad and BOTH the Sudanese and Muslim authorities of Sudan are pissed at her?
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That is about the brunt of it. It came to light when a few parents of some of the students complained to the Education authorities in Sudan. The bear was named in September and it has taken them this long to react - for whatever reason.
 
This is, sadly, the nature of the current state of Islam.  Much of the regional councils are controlled by people who are inching ever more right as they envision more and more Western slights against Islam.  It's a series of dangerous polarizing events that is, unfortunately, continuing to provide the image of Islam in the West as cruel and barbaric (lashing a woman for naming a teddy bear?), and purports Westerners as sinners and heathens (naming a teddy bear after the prophet of Allah).

Now, we say after the Danish cartoons of last year, that it's the sort of thing you can see coming.  But remember that 5 years ago we were able to publish animated versions of Mohammed on one of our most widespread cartoons (and insulting cartoons!) without any reaction from the Muslim community.  Things are very much escalating, and we have to remember that.
 
Exactly what I just said?

Both communities consider lesser and lesser things to be larger and larger slights against them.
 
Are you making a career out of being pedantic?  :P

We being the intelligence citizens of the world, and we must *always* remember that things have escalated, because they were far more civil just a few years ago.  It means that things can return to a level of civility.
 
LooseCannon said:
Are you making a career out of being pedantic?  :P

We being the intelligence citizens of the world, and we must *always* remember that things have escalated, because they were far more civil just a few years ago.  It means that things can return to a level of civility.
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Good point, LooseCannon.

I read now in VG (Norwegian newspaper) that the teacher has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will have to leave Sudan. That means that at least they didn't sentence her to physical punishment ...
 
Eddies Wingman said:
Good point, LooseCannon.

I read now in VG (Norwegian newspaper) that the teacher has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will have to leave Sudan. That means that at least they didn't sentence her to physical punishment ...
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Somehow, I doubt that 15 days in a Sudanese prison is a cakewalk, either.  However, I can understand why they didn't sentence her to lashes - the British government would then have moved heaven and earth to get her out before anything could be done.

Personally, I think this whole thing is being done as a message - the West get out!
 
LooseCannon said:
Personally, I think this whole thing is being done as a message - the West get out!
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Only that the type of message spells out - the West get in!  -_-
 
Wait, you think that punishing a woman for naming a teddy bear after a prophet is an invitation to bring in the West?
 
LooseCannon said:
Wait, you think that punishing a woman for naming a teddy bear after a prophet is an invitation to bring in the West?
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Well, it's a signal that something is fucking wrong!
 
I agree there, but I do think the Muslims of the Sudan are hinting that Westerners leave.  I am not saying I approve...just, that there is a clear message.
 
I didn't mean they're asking the Westerners to come to their country, but the exact opposite... however, they way they signalise that makes it pretty obvious to me that Western presence in Sudan is necessary.
 
I hope she can leave the country alive.

Calls in Sudan for Execution of Briton
By MOHAMED OSMAN – 3 hours ago

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad."

The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes.

They massed in central Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace, where hundreds of riot police were deployed. They did not try to stop the rally, which lasted about an hour.

"Shame, shame on the U.K.," protesters chanted.

They called for Gibbons' execution, saying, "No tolerance: Execution," and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."

The women's prison where Gibbons is being held is far from the square.

Several hundred protesters, not openly carrying weapons, marched about a mile away to Unity High School, where Gibbons worked. They chanted slogans outside the school, which is closed and under heavy security, then marched toward the nearby British Embassy. They were stopped by security forces two blocks away from the embassy.

The protest arose despite vows by Sudanese security officials the day before, during Gibbons' trial, that threatened demonstrations after Friday prayers would not take place. Some of the protesters carried green banners with the name of the Society for Support of the Prophet Muhammad, a previously unknown group.

Many protesters carried clubs, knives and axes — but not automatic weapons, which some have brandished at past government-condoned demonstrations. That suggested Friday's rally was not organized by the government.

A Muslim cleric at Khartoum's main Martyrs Mosque denounced Gibbons during one sermon, saying she intentionally insulted Islam. He did not call for protests, however.

"Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion," the cleric, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a well-known hard-liner, told worshippers.

"This an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad," he said.

Britain, meanwhile, pursued diplomatic moves to free Gibbons. Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke with a member of her family to convey his regret, his spokeswoman said.

"He set out his concern and the fact that we were doing all we could to secure her release," spokeswoman Emily Hands told reporters.

Most Britons expressed shock at the verdict by a court in Khartoum, alongside hope it would not raise tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain.

"One of the good things is the U.K. Muslims who've condemned the charge as completely out of proportion," said Paul Wishart, 37, a student in London.

"In the past, people have been a bit upset when different atrocities have happened and there hasn't been much voice in the U.K. Islamic population, whereas with this, they've quickly condemned it."

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, accused the Sudanese authorities of "gross overreaction."

"This case should have required only simple common sense to resolve. It is unfortunate that the Sudanese authorities were found wanting in this most basic of qualities," he said.

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a political advocacy group, said the prosecution was "abominable and defies common sense."

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies, which represents 90,000 Muslim students in Britain and Ireland, called on Sudan's government to free Gibbons, saying she had not meant to cause offense.

"We are deeply concerned that the verdict to jail a schoolteacher due to what's likely to be an innocent mistake is gravely disproportionate," said the group's president, Ali Alhadithi.

The Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth organization, said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should pardon the teacher.

"The Ramadhan Foundation is disappointed and horrified by the conviction of Gillian Gibbons in Sudan," said spokesman Mohammed Shafiq.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, said Gibbons' prosecution and conviction was "an absurdly disproportionate response to what is at worst a cultural faux pas."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband summoned the Sudanese ambassador late Thursday to express Britain's disappointment with the verdict. The Foreign Office said Britain would continue diplomatic efforts to achieve "a swift resolution" to the crisis.

Gibbons was arrested Sunday after another staff member at the school complained that she had allowed her 7-year-old students to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Giving the name of the Muslim prophet to an animal or a toy could be considered insulting.

The case put Sudan's government in an embarrassing position — facing the anger of Britain on one side and potential trouble from powerful Islamic hard-liners on the other. Many saw the 15-day sentence as an attempt to appease both sides.

In The Times, columnist Bronwen Maddox said the verdict was "something of a fudge ... designed to give a nod to British reproof but also to appease the street."

Britain's response — applying diplomatic pressure while extolling ties with Sudan and affirming respect for Islam — had produced mixed results, British commentators concluded.

In an editorial, The Daily Telegraph said Miliband "has tiptoed around the case, avoiding a threat to cut aid and asserting that respect for Islam runs deep in Britain. Given that much of the government's financial support goes to the wretched refugees in Darfur and neighboring Chad, Mr. Miliband's caution is understandable."

Now, however, the newspaper said, Britain should recall its ambassador in Khartoum and impose sanctions on the Sudanese regime.
 
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