Posted on 12/04/2007 11:38:08 AM PST by JZelle
A foreigner's lot is often not a happy one, as even the most earnest do-gooders learn to their mortification (if not execution). The price of an innocent faux pas can be your head.
Gillian Gibbons, the English schoolteacher in Sudan who allowed her pupils to call the class teddy bear "Muhammad," is the latest example. She was pardoned by the Sudanese president yesterday and flew home to Liverpool, where she will be safe if she watches her back. You can name a terrorist Muhammad, but not a teddy bear.
Not everybody is as devout as the pious radicals of "the religion of peace," but an account of all the things you ought not to do when you go overseas could fill a book. Which, in fact, it has, the work of British author Mark McCrum, and called "Going Dutch in Beijing."
Shariah law can be lethal to both devout believer and unwary infidel, but customs of other cultures can be enforced by the lash and sword, too. Death and doom lurk for the unwary in many neighborhoods of the global village. Liz Hurley, the Hollywood actress, married her beloved in his native Rajasthan, and her bridal enthusiasm for a champagne toast and a chaste kiss for her new husband led to her father-in-law disowning his son and threatening to have the bride thrown in jail for "breaching Hindu customs."
Cameron Diaz was so pleased with her new handbag, emblazoned with what she thought was a mindless slogan, "Serve the People," that she took it with her to the ruins of Peru's Machu Picchu. Alas, that's the slogan of the "Shining Path" guerrillas, and Mzz Diaz had to apologize profusely to avoid the pokey.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I work with a Hispanic guy whose parents had the gall to name him Jesus. Now excuse me for I have to stone him to death.
I think both Gibbons and Diaz are idiots.
I doubt that I will win the argument since she is a first grade teacher in good standing.
I’m going to get a dog and name the mutt “Mohammed”. That’s how much respect I give islamics and their idiocy.
Reconsider. Dogs are man’s best friend; Mohammed’s cult is man’s worst enemy.
If you named the bear Jesus you’d have to watch out for the “radical right” Christians who would...pray for you!
Good grief. You would name a do after a pedophile?
Just wrong
Get a dog with over-developed sex drive (really and truly I once did have a dog that had one and didn’t care whether it was male or female) and yep, that describes the so-called islamic Mohammed.
My dog is just too nice to be named “Mohammed”. He is not a pervert.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I think Mohammed would be the perfect name for a pet pot-bellied pig!
Mohammad preferred little 6 year old babies. In fact just before he died, he was getting horny over another one that was crawling at his feet one day. Lucky for her he died before he could act on his “Allah” induced feelings.
“Death and doom lurk for the unwary in many neighborhoods of the global village”.....Sounds like a good reason to visit Grand Teton National Park or maybe Glacier Park in Montana and not give a rats ass about offending Rama-lama-Ding-Dong in his native country.
I am in the back yard scooping the poop that my dog left. I call them all “Mohammed”. I guess I will see you all in their “hell.”
As long as they are not there, I will be happy.
What I've never understood is that when we visit overseas, it is only polite for us to respect their customs.
When they visit us here, it is only polite for us .... to respect their customs.
What is wrong with this scenario? Why aren't they expected to respect our customs when they go overseas?
I used to believe the same until I heard that Islamists are more insulted by dogs than by pigs.
My conundrum is that I respect dogs more than Islamists, so who is being more hurt, the Islamists, or man's best friend, the Canine?
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