Posted on 12/09/2007 9:19:01 AM PST by Lorianne
I’ve been deeply upset ever since this teddy bear circus erupted. A few days ago, I was out with a bunch of friends trying my best to get my face unglued from my computer screen. As we were walking in laughter, we passed by a shop displaying a set of teddy bears, and for the first time the triggered emotion was a starkly different one.
If anything, the whole spectacle further proves something to me as a Sudanese Muslim: our false pride and misplaced sense of honor.
Those we watched angrily protesting love to highlight the supposed immorality of the West – the bars, bare women and “corrupting” freedoms. We pride ourselves on living in a country that is supposedly more moral and therefore automatically better. It’s a false pride, one propagated and encouraged by the propaganda of Sudanese Islamists.
Certainly we have a lot to be proud of as a people with a rich history and culture. The Nubian Civilization, hailed by many experts as one of the greatest that ever existed, is but only one aspect of that. True Sudanese values of generosity and hospitality – ones slowly but surely withering away as oppression tears us – are trademarks we’re well known for. There is, however, nothing for us to be proud of as citizens of a country ruled by a gang of morally bankrupt butchers.
We are a country earning billions of dollars in oil exports, yet we rely on Western aid so millions of our own can survive when we can clearly afford to support them! Where’s the pride in that?
The day when basic human rights start to be respected is a day I might actually have some pride in being a Sudanese citizen. I guess it isn’t enough of an accomplishment for some in my country that we hosted one of the most beloved people in recent times – Osama Bin Laden. You may praise and thank the Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi for that.
It’s al-Turabi, after his rise to power, who is mainly responsible for the spread and exponential growth of radicalism in Sudan. Thanks to him, it also looks like our sense of honor has been greatly misplaced.
It amazes me how some of us can get so upset over a teddy bear whose name was democratically chosen by a bunch of seven-year-olds but feel no anger at the mass atrocities which took place in Darfur over the last four years. Honoring the countless Darfurian lives lost apparently isn’t important.
Brainwashed by self-interested religious clerics into believing that Ms Gibbons’ act was in fact part of a bigger Western plot against Islam, thousands of angry protesters marched the streets of Khartoum apparently to protect the honor of the Prophet. Where were they all this time when Darfur was burning? Where were they when Mohammed Atta flew into the World Trade Center? No, wait, sorry. That particular Mohammed was not a teddy bear.
200,000 dead, no problem. A teddy bear gets named Muhammad, all hell breaks loose.
The teddy bear extravaganza also succeeded in making Islam look utterly ridiculous again. Let us not forget though that Islam is as monolithic as we Muslims ourselves are – hardly at all. Many Muslims rely on reason and their own conscience rather than blindly following religious clerics.
The lunatics we saw protesting – and those who mobilized them – are a symptom of a dangerous global cancer. It must be staunchly challenged. If it isn’t, episodes like this one will become increasingly common not just in Sudan, but everywhere else in the world.
As a Sudanese, I am embarrassed by what took place over the previous few days. The majority of Sudanese are. I’d like to offer a heartfelt apology to Ms Gibbons and her family for the ugly ordeal she was put through. I’m glad she’s reunited with her loved ones, and I wish her nothing but the best of luck.
As for me, an ugly association has forever been ingrained into my mind. A teddy bear shall make me smile no more.
Drima is a freedom-loving, Afro-Arab Sudanese Muslim. When he’s not busy studying or pursuing other endeavors, he makes his own music and blogs at The Sudanese Thinker.
Wow...this was refreshing compared to what we normally hear from a Muslim.
This is a well-written editorial by a Muslim who has the courage to say what many non-Muslims don’t have.
I hope this guy has protection or lives somewhere other than Sudan. He’s got a set of brass ones to write this.
Thank you for speaking. I hope that this incident will remind Americans that we have the same kind of problem right here in this Country. We have our radical insane here and it does somewhat poison our minds.
I feel your pain and believe me, I think most Americans feel it as some of us do with our pain. Peace be with you.
I’m sure the lunatics will be at his door waving machetes soon.
Wow.
One Muzzie speaks out.
One.
I’m reeeeallllly impresssed.
Not.
“As a Sudanese, I am embarrassed by what took place over the previous few days. The majority of Sudanese are.”
I really don’t believe a majority are embarrased, I think this brave, young Sudanese man is in the minority.IMHO.
Really? I must have missed the mobs of machete wielding Christians calling for the deaths of "artists" who create portraits of Madonna from cow sh*t and immersing crucifixes in urine, not to say the least of atheists trying to excise every mention of religion from public life.
Some cultures are just not morally equivalent no matter how much some people pretend they are.
I also noticed the author seems to take pride in only Sudan's pre-Islamic accomplishments. Maybe there are no Islamic accomplishments in Sudan in which one can take pride.
Exactly what would embarrass a gaggle of semi-literate savages a month or two out of the stone-age?
Very brave of him. He will probably be marked for death. I wished a fatwa was called on people committing genocide in Darfur.
Exactly!!
We need more of this... LOTS more.
LMAO!
So funny!!!!!!
Wow, you are really something. It doesn't take "machete wielding Christians" to destroy our Constitutional rights, does it?
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