Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'We can't joke about the Prophet Mohammed' (I'd stay in Sudan if I could, says teddy teacher)
Telegraph.co.uk ^ | 02/12/2007 | Blake Evans-Pritchard in Khartoum

Posted on 12/01/2007 5:59:31 PM PST by DogByte6RER

'We can't joke about the Prophet Mohammed'

By Blake Evans-Pritchard in Khartoum

Last Updated: 12:04am GMT 02/12/2007

You could have cut the air in the classroom with a knife. The students in front of me had frozen, their mouths open. Then one of my favourite students - a lovely, charming girl with a great sense of humour - said in a low, warning voice: “Teacher, we can’t joke about the Prophet Mohammed.”

I'd stay in Sudan if I could, says teddy teacher -

And at that moment I realised just how easy it would be to cross the boundaries of cultural acceptability in this sensitive country. We had been playing the simple parlour game, Consequences, in which a piece of paper is passed around the room, with everyone writing a different name, location or action in order to build up a simple story. The story would then be read out to the class.

Now there it was in black and white on the piece of paper in front of me, my get into jail card. The children had followed my instructions to the letter, but the consequence for me could have been disaster.

“The Prophet Mohammed met Rebecca Nyandang at a cinema,” it read. “She said to him: 'Hello’. He said to her: 'I want to buy a motorbike.’ And the consequence was: 'They never saw each other again’.”

The young man reading it out had got as far as Mohammed when the little girl stepped in and saved me. What was written on the rest of the sheet of paper remained my guilty secret.

Freshly arrived in Sudan, and pretty new to teaching, I couldn’t hide my acute embarrassment. But just as Gillian Gibbons found out this week, it does not have to be your fault. It was not me who wrote “Prophet Mohammed” on the piece of paper, just as it was not Gillian who named the teddy bear Mohammed.

As an English teacher in Khartoum, you have to be so careful and it is difficult not to reflect on the fate of Gillian and to think: “That could have been me.”

As my experience demonstrated, even those of us who have taken the time and effort to make sure we are well versed in the sensitivities of the Islamic faith can be caught out. I had thrown clothes out of my suitcase to make space in my suitcase for my extensive library of books about Islam and lugged it all the way from London, but that would not have saved me.

Like Gillian, I had simply been naïve in assuming that we could transpose a western concept into an alien culture without causing offence to their religion.

And I was not alone. Colleagues I chatted to this week agreed that the whole affair has more to do with Sudan than it does with Islam. “I have a lot of friends who are Muslim, and I did understand the Islamic culture before coming here, but I was not prepared for this,” one woman teacher told me.

She thought many Sudanese just have no idea about the rest of the world. “They tell you what to do, and they don’t listen to the views of anyone else,” she said.

For me, the past few days have really driven home that just having a general appreciation of Islam is not always enough to avoid causing offence.

Blake Evans Pritchard is a teacher in Khartoum.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: crushislam; islam; islamofascism; muhammadsminions; muslims; religionofpeace; religionofpieces; rop; sudan; wot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-105 next last
So much for Muhammad being merciful.

Just another reminder why Islam is "The Religion of Peace."

1 posted on 12/01/2007 5:59:34 PM PST by DogByte6RER
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Well, whatever. Fur Shur the Sudanese are making a joke out of Mohammad.


2 posted on 12/01/2007 6:00:51 PM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

"We can't joke about the Prophet Mohammed' Yes...but I can! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
3 posted on 12/01/2007 6:02:30 PM PST by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Well Islam and Mohammed never had a sense of humor to begin with.


4 posted on 12/01/2007 6:03:14 PM PST by Biggirl (A biggirl with a big heart for God's animal creation, with 4 cats in my life as proof. =^..^=)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
I'd stay in Sudan if I could, says teddy teacher

A liberal friend and former teacher in Khartoum got out several years ago,citing the increasing hostility there.

From everything I heard, only a lunatic Western would stay there today.

5 posted on 12/01/2007 6:03:22 PM PST by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

The more angry protests, the more Mohammed is rendered to being a joke.


6 posted on 12/01/2007 6:04:16 PM PST by Biggirl (A biggirl with a big heart for God's animal creation, with 4 cats in my life as proof. =^..^=)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
And I was not alone. Colleagues I chatted to this week agreed that the whole affair has more to do with Sudan than it does with Islam. “I have a lot of friends who are Muslim, and I did understand the Islamic culture before coming here, but I was not prepared for this,” one woman teacher told me.

The difference is that she was encountering her friends in a country where the majority does not (yet) think it's OK to murder somebody for insulting Islam. Things turn very different when you walk into a Muslim-majority country. The story would have been the same in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc

7 posted on 12/01/2007 6:06:05 PM PST by PapaBear3625
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
For me, the past few days have really driven home that just having a general appreciation of Islam is not always enough to avoid causing offence.

Thats right a general appreciation is not enough.........You must submit.

8 posted on 12/01/2007 6:06:36 PM PST by Kakaze (Exterminate Islamofacism and apologize for nothing.....except not doing it sooner!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Blake Evans-Pritchard? I wonder if this is a son or daughter of Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, currently the economics writer for the Daily Telegraph, who wrote that great expose of bill clinton?


9 posted on 12/01/2007 6:07:50 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

The thing that makes a great joke is an element of truth to the joke... Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
10 posted on 12/01/2007 6:08:20 PM PST by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
“The Prophet Mohammed met Rebecca Nyandang at a cinema,”

They could just refer to 'islamic' teachings (oxymoron). I'm sure there is a rape/pedophilia/maim/murder joke in there that is acceptable to islamic sensibilities (another oxymoron).
11 posted on 12/01/2007 6:08:34 PM PST by kinoxi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sionnsar

I had to read a book for school about a Sudanese kid who lived in Sudan all his life but eventually escaped to America...he describes the violence and famine and disease. The Arabs rode on horseback killing the infidels with swords and guns...he mentions Darfur. He hated it and wanted to leave. Only an ignorant loony Westerner would want to STAY there.


12 posted on 12/01/2007 6:10:10 PM PST by G8 Diplomat (Creatures are divided into 6 kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Monera, Protista, & Saudi Arabia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

I did understand the Islamic culture before coming here, but I was not prepared for this

Then clearly she didn't really understand the Islamic culture.
13 posted on 12/01/2007 6:11:27 PM PST by G8 Diplomat (Creatures are divided into 6 kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Monera, Protista, & Saudi Arabia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: G8 Diplomat
Islamic culture has an inferiority complex.
14 posted on 12/01/2007 6:12:43 PM PST by oyez (Justa' another high minded lowlife.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Another joke with an element of truth:


15 posted on 12/01/2007 6:13:05 PM PST by G8 Diplomat (Creatures are divided into 6 kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Monera, Protista, & Saudi Arabia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: kinoxi

I think islam and reality to be the oxymoron.


16 posted on 12/01/2007 6:14:05 PM PST by doc1019 (Fred Thompson '08)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Is the author related to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard?


17 posted on 12/01/2007 6:14:27 PM PST by Zack Nguyen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

Actually, their own religion condemns these freaks.

According to Islam there is supposed to be only one God.

In effect, they have elevated a human being - Mohammad - to the level of a Deity, committing blasphemy in their own faith.


18 posted on 12/01/2007 6:14:34 PM PST by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

19 posted on 12/01/2007 6:14:59 PM PST by Eddie01
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

It’s long past due for people to begin naming their pet dogs and pigs Mohammed.


20 posted on 12/01/2007 6:18:13 PM PST by E. Cartman (Picking Bush-41 to be veep was Ronald Reagan's single biggest mistake...EVER.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-105 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson