Posted on 11/26/2007 3:12:36 PM PST by LurkedLongEnough
A British teacher is facing 40 lashes in a Sudanese jail if convicted of insulting Islam's prophet by letting children name a teddy bear Mohammed.
Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested on suspicion of blasphemy on Sunday.
Ms Gibbons allowed her class of seven-year-olds at the Unity High School in Khartoum to name a teddy bear Mohammed as part of a lesson about animals' habitats.
Mohammed is sacred to Islamic philosophy and the penalty for blasphemy is 40 lashes, a large fine or a jail term. The British Embassy in Khartoum confirmed the arrest.
A source close to the school said one teacher was angered by the naming of the teddy bear and complained to the headmistress.
Ms Gibbons was a deputy headteacher at Liverpool's Dovecot Primary School from 2002 to this July when she left for Sudan.
Her MP, Louise Ellman, told Sky News: "This is very worrying. I understand Ms Gibbons is a very respected person, she is held in the highest regard and is seen as a person of the highest integrity.
"I'm in touch with the Foreign Office and it's right that they should be working hard to bring about a positive end."
There is no specific, or explicit ban in the Koran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed - be they carved, painted or drawn.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Can anyone make and post a picture of mohammad in a teddy?
Another fine example of the barbarism of Islam.
guilty of stupidity!
No good deed goes unpunished.
Now she knows.Of course she can’t comprehend it.
Stories like this are why countries should look very carefully at Muslim immigration.
??? I thought alot of them named their kid that.
Islam is pure evil
Tired of all the liberals and their “Islam is a religion of peace” garbage. This is a faith of hate and a cult of insanity
Only a hate-spewing cult does this nonsense for something so trivial
The mullahs only allow naming a teddy bear “Mohammed” if it has a bomb hidden in it.
Coming to a State near you if we don’t wake up.
Guilty!
Anyone that travels to these wackjob countries (for any reason whatsoever) need their heads examined, IMO.
She looks innocent to me.
Just heard there was a crowd outside the school protesting! I wonder how many of them had a first name of mohammad?
Yep
Anyone that touches, or advocates harming that woman should be beaten.
The British government also admonished Sudan to treat the teacher gently otherwise.
I certainly pity the poor woman, but one has to wonder how people like her can not be aware of the kind of people they're living among.
Is this an across the board penalty. I have something soft and squishy at home that I want to name ol Mo.
My toilet paper.
here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1930621/posts
and here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1930621/posts
Another mis-guided do-gooder. Yes, the crocodile will eat you last.
So any idiot you sire you can blaspheme the prophet by calling him Mohammad, but you can’t do it to a stuffed animal?
And ironies of ironies, we are supposed to be tolerant of the religious views of Islam. At leaast this didn’t happen in the UK proper, as I thought from earlier reporting. Of course, that time is nigh.
Mohammed should never ride in a car with Teddy.
Coming to a town near YOU if a Democrat occupies the White House next.
FU&K Mohammad!!
If she is a Lib, I wonder how she feels about the whole multi-culti thing now.
JUDGE: Sir, we find you guilty of calling the Queen a pig. $500.00 fine.
FARMER: Your Honor, I’d like to ask one question. Is it permissible to call a pig “Your majesty”?
JUDGE: Yes. That would be permissible.
FARMER (turning to the queen): Good day, Your Majesty.
This makes me want to run out and buy a pig and name him mohammad.
The “teddy” would be hilarous!
Maybe they’ll respond to ridicule, or maybe it’ll take turning all these pretend principalities, and sandy royals into glass.
This little bear surely has brought more good into this world that some fake prophet from the 7th century.
I love the quote about Mohammad: “What new thing did Mohammad bring, in all his teachings, that was not evil?”
“??? I thought alot of them named their kid that.”
This woman WAS NOT A MUSLIM. That is the ONLY reason for her trouble.
FU&K MOHAMMAD!!
Yes, but the little Muslim kids wanted her to name him that.
Oh, and you’re right, their prophet is/was just another pedo.
Your right about the kids. But the kids WERE Muslims I believe.
Thank you.
Ummmmmmmmm.........not ‘round here!
I live just outside Atlanta Georgia. People around here carry rifles. Not handguns but whole rifles and with bullets, in their trucks!
And by ANY measure Georgia is a red state. Redneck and as red as EVER last election!
People here are just plain TIRED of this kinda...####
Sure there are the enclaves of the insane blue pockets (like Atlanta), but folks outside the city limits are sane.
In a feakin’ crazy kinda way, but sane nonetheless!
SC, NC, Bama and Tenn aren’t altogether so bad but if a stare near me so much as sneezes muhammed, people round here...
ummmm....less just say....
just plain don’t play that!
Po-litical co-rectedness just runs from Georgia!
Mohammed WILL be the name of my next dog ...
during the days of Stalin, it wouldn’t have been a good career move to name your puppy after him.
LOL! Thanks. ...helped get my mind off the thought of that woman getting beaten at the hands of those vile pigs.
“So any idiot you sire you can blaspheme the prophet by calling him Mohammad, but you can’t do it to a stuffed animal?”
The difference is that one is a human person and other is a material object, a toy. There is a difference you know. That’s the basis for their objection.
I totally agree that arresting and lashing the teacher is obscene. But you should at least recognize that if you name a child after your best friend he would be honored but if you name your dog or pet snake after him, he might not feel honored. If he did not object it would be because he would see it as some sort of affectionate humor because you are his friend. But it’s different joking around about God’s Prophet. So, while I condemn the punishment and think their veneration of Muhammed is inconsistent with their monotheism, I do recognize just in terms of plain logic, that one could name one’s children and mean something very different by it than naming one’s dog by the same name. Denounce them for sure for their cruelty but using the fact that they name their children after the prophet does not, as an argument, cut it.
You’re welcome. Nice home page, by the way. I hope you don’t mind if I “lift” your CS Lewis quote for mine.
Lift it up high.
The world has got to stop cowering in fear to these ignorant, uneducated, 7th century leftovers. If that means that people from the rest of the civilized planet cut them off completely from the rest of the world, then so be it! Don't go and teach in their schools. Don't go and build them hospitals. Don't try and bring any modern conveniences into their countries, as it is obvious that they would rather wallow in filth and ignorance.
Damn...these people are incredibly thin-skinned. You can’t draw or even name a freaking Teddy bear Mohammed without getting lashed.
Better yet, buy a pig and name it Mohammed
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.