Entry tags:

Thousands in Sudan protest, calling for the death of British teacher over allowing her students to name their class teddy bear Muhammed.

I've been watching this case, and as more and more facts come out, my jaw hangs a little further at this reaction. For example:

- The class voted to name the bear, not after the prophet, but after the most popular boy in class.
- Despite the clerics' claims in earlier articles that a number of the parents complained, this has not only been proven not true, but the majority of the parents have actually come to the defense of the teacher, and the single complaint lodged was actually from a school secretary.
- The charges filed against the teacher for "religious hatred" could carry anything from the 15 day prison term and deportation she was given, to 40 public lashes and six months in prison.

And all this over a goddamn teddy bear.

(Post a new comment)

dracothelizard
2007-11-30 04:35 pm UTC (link)

Still, if I went to a country that was very Islamic (or religious in general) I'd try to avoid naming toys after important religious figures, democratic vote or not, because when religion is involved, people get pissy, and it's best to avoid that sort of thing. For instance, if I went to teach in the Bible belt of the US, I wouldn't let the kids name the class gerbil Jesus.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

spacelogic
2007-11-30 06:41 pm UTC (link)

Except in the US, Jesus isn't a common given name, unlike Mohammad (and other spellings of same) in the Muslim world, so it's not really comparable. Now, if in some Spanish-speaking Catholic country a bunch of schoolkids named their class gerbil Jesús, that might be comparable (although standards of blasphemy, etc. are different from society to society.) The point is, it's not just the prophet's name -- it's the most commonly given name in the world if I recall correctly.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

dracothelizard
2007-11-30 06:54 pm UTC (link)

True, but when it comes to the Islam, Mohammed is hardly appropriate for a non-human, and the teacher could've expected some pissiness had she looked into the religious culture of the area. The whole thing is rather hard to compare to something of our Western standards because their standards are so utterly different, but I can see why some Sudanese people were less than happy with what she did. Not that I'm agreeing with the people saying she should be killed, obviously.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rekall 2007-11-30 07:11 pm UTC (link)
	Muslims themselves said the Sudan government overreacted, that she made an innocent mistake and that she should not be jailed. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dracothelizard 2007-11-30 07:13 pm UTC (link)
	Maybe the jail time was a bit much. Perhaps this sort of thing will spur the government on to amend some of these laws, so some good can come out of it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sheep 2007-11-30 07:40 pm UTC (link)
	According to the news here, if it is to be believed, it has little to do with what actually happened and more to do with some internal political struggle. One side wants to use her as some sort of example. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dracothelizard 2007-11-30 07:40 pm UTC (link)
	That'd be the people claiming she's part of some crUSAde, then. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sheep 2007-11-30 07:45 pm UTC (link)
	Even though the kids she taught say that she very nice and doesn't mention religion! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kijikun 2007-11-30 09:34 pm UTC (link)
	And my mother wonders why I don't watch the news on a daily basis. I'd never stop being pissed off if I did. (Reply to this)

	rennyn_alerothi 2007-12-01 02:21 am UTC (link)
	It like there's enough going on in Sudan right now as it is for them to be upset about. Geez! (Reply to this)

	emiweebee 2007-12-05 02:00 am UTC (link)
	Well, luckily, most of the protests asking for her death were, you know, staged, so it's not actually like the world has lost its mind. Except that people believe that they weren't staged. But whatev. (Reply to this)