Teacher charged in Sudan over Teddy Bear.

[OmegaNYC]

I don't know if someone post this all ready ( I know I should check).

Sudan Charges Teacher for Teddy Bear Name
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU
Associated Press Writer



http://te.ap.org/tte/blank.gif?0.44299323618662556&snippet_version=1.3.a&referrer=&page=http%3A//breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/S/SUDAN_BRITISH_TEACHER%3FSITE%3DNYNYP%26SECTION%3DH OME&timezone=300&var_SECTION=INTERNATIONAL%3B%20MIDDLE%20EAST

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Sudan charged a British teacher Wednesday with inciting religious hatred after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, an offense that could subject her to 40 lashes, the country's official news agency reported.

The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, was arrested after one of her pupils' parents complained, accusing her of naming the bear after Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
The case was sure to heighten tensions between Sudan and Britain. After announcing she was charged, Britain responded by summoning the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the charges, the spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Sudan's prosecutor general, Salah Addin Abuzeit, said Gibbons was charged under article 125 of the Sudanese legal code, which carries a punishment of up to 40 lashes and six months in prison.

"The case will be referred to the court tomorrow," the news Sudanese News Agency quoted Abuzeit as saying.
Gibbons' employer, the Unity High School in Khartoum, has said she never intended to insult Islam and has apologized to Muslims who were offended.

Officials at the school say she was teaching her 7-year-old students about animals and asked one of them to bring in her teddy bear. Gibbons then asked the students to pick names for the bear and in the end, they voted to name it Muhammad, school officials say.
Khartoum officials have downplayed the case, saying it was an isolated incident. Sudanese diplomats in Britain and at the United Nations in New York had said they expected the 54-year-old teacher to be released soon, stating authorities were cautious to guarantee her safety in jail.

But Sudan's top clerics said in a statement Wednesday that the full measure of the law should be applied against Gibbons, calling the incident part of a broader Western "plot" against Islam.
Northern Sudan's legal system is based on Islam's Sharia law, which harshly punishes blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad. Any depiction of the prophet is forbidden in Islam, for fear it would provoke idolatry. Caricatures of Muhammad in some European media last year sparked riots in several Muslim countries.

The Sudanese clerics said this was blasphemy and believed it was intentional.
"What has happened was not haphazard or carried out of ignorance, but rather a calculated action and another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam," the Sudanese Assembly of the Ulemas said the statement.

"It is part of the campaign of the so-called war against terrorism and the intense media campaign against Islam," they said.
The clerics said the "plot" was exemplified "in the writings of renegade Salman Rushdie and the blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad." Rushdie has received multiple death threats from hardline Muslims for publishing a novel questioning Muhammad's morals.

Sudan's Assembly of Ulemas is a semiofficial body of top preachers, clerics and scholars of Islam. It is generally viewed as a moderate body that has the ear of the Sudanese government.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy (http://apdigitalnews.com/privacy.html).
http://breakingnews.nypost.com/icons/ic_sm.gif Purchase this AP story for (http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/S/SUDAN_BRITISH_TEACHER?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME#)

[Ninjahedge]

BS.

The clerics are just rousing the rabble again. They see this as an easy issue to cause contention over.

If it was a murderer that made a picture of Muhammad, not too many people would see any problem with giving him a lashing and they would have nothing to squabble over, but GOD FORBID a heathen teacher for naming a teddy bear after a prophet.


Question: Are there any people named Muhammad?

Also, does anyone else find it ironic that the policy was put in place to discourage idolatry, but putting up giant signs with his name on it in churches is not? Or that somehow idolatry is worse than zealotry?

These people need to be educated, otherwise they are just being led as sheep by anyone who wants that kind of control.

[ZippyTheChimp]

an offense that could subject her to 40 lashes, Change of venue is needed.

The should all take a trip to the UK, visit Capn Birdseye, put on some pirate clothes, and throw back rum and sing songs until they get stinking drunk.

[ablarc]

Humor is in short supply in some of these lands.







(Kill the cartoonist.)

[MidtownGuy]

Now there's a 'rogue regime' that needs to be taken out.

[Eugenious]

Ahh nothing like some fundamentalist islamists in one of the poorer countries in africa

[OmegaNYC]

KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- A court in Sudan on Thursday found a British teacher guilty of inciting religious hatred by allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Mohammed" and sentenced her to 15 days in prison and deportation, her defense laywer told CNN.
http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/WORLD/africa/11/29/sudan.bears/art.gillian.gibbons.jpg
An undated amateur photo of Gillian Gibbons, who has been charged with offending religion.



The court in Khartoum ordered Gillian Gibbons, 54, to be incarcerated in the city's Omdurman women's prison, her lawyer said, adding that the verdict was "disappointing" and they would be mounting an appeal.
Journalist Andrew Heavens said the appeal would probably take at least 15 days to mount.

The UK Foreign Office said they are aware of Gibbons' guilty verdict and sentencing. They said her sentence will be 15 days from the date of her arrest. She was arrested on Sunday, so she has 11 days left.
Gibbons was detained after it emerged she had allowed her class of 7-year-olds to choose the name of the toy as part of a school project, Robert Boulos, the head of Unity High School, told CNN.

She was ushered into the courthouse earlier through a crowd of reporters by Sudanese police earlier in the day. She looked somber and dazed and was dressed in a black blazer and light blue skirt.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband called Gibbons' actions an "innocent misunderstanding," following a meeting with the Sudanese Ambassador to Britain, Omer Siddig, who was summoned to the Foreign Office in London.
"I explained to him that we were very concerned by the case. We believe that this was an innocent misunderstanding," he said in a statement released after the meeting.

"The Sudanese ambassador undertook to ensure our concerns were relayed to Khartoum at the highest level. He also said he would reflect back to Khartoum the real respect for the Islamic religion in this country," the statement added.

Boulos told CNN Wednesday that the complaint about Gibbons' actions came from a staff member at the school, not from a parent as originally thought.
Speaking outside the court, Boulos said a letter from Sudan's Ministry of Education claimed that parents had raised concerns over the naming of the bear. He said he did not know who was responsible, but was "horrified" when he found out it was a member of his own staff.
Defense counsel later confirmed that the complaint came from Sarah Khawad, a secretary at the school. The counsel, who did not give his name, said the hearing had been delayed as it waited for Khawad to arrive at court to give her evidence.

British consular staff and Gibbons' defense team were at first refused access to the court by Sudanese police.
The defense lawyer was later allowed in to see his client but came out after 30 minutes and told reporters the hearing had been adjourned while judges waited for the prosecution team to arrive.

On the first floor of the courthouse, around 25 police linked arms and forced journalists and British officials away from the court entrance. Police detained some journalists, and confiscated a camera belonging to a freelance CNN cameraman.
Four vans filled with riot police were waiting outside the courthouse, but there were no signs of street disturbances or protests. Staff from Gibbons' school, including Boulos, were present. They refused to comment on their colleague's predicament.
The charges against Gibbons were announced Wednesday in Arabic on by state-run news agency.
Although there is no ban in the Quran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed, likenesses are considered highly offensive by Muslims.

Gibbons has been working at the school -- popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates -- since August, after leaving her position as deputy head teacher at a primary school in Liverpool this summer, said Boulos.
He said Gibbons asked the children to pick their favorite name for the new class mascot, which she was using to aid lessons about animals and their habitats.

Journalist Andrew Heavens contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press (http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP) contributed to this report.

[Ninjahedge]

Screw them.

They are picking on the wrong person. Someone who is coming in to help with their kids and their education. Taking this much of a stance because of a secretaries complaint it ridiculous. The secretary should be fired.

This event has brought a lot of bad press and bad feelings and had gotten rid of a woman who had no more interest in "subverting" youths than the ice cream man.

GJ on scaring off other people from a thankless job Sudan! May your kids grow up just smart enough to give you trouble.

[MidtownGuy]

I hate Sudan. Can you hate a country? Oh yeah, ok, I hate its government. This story is revolting.

Khartoum is rabidly and murderously anti-Christian.

[OmegaNYC]

From the Daily News:

Sudanese call for teddy bear teacher's death

DAILY NEWS STAFF
Friday, November 30th 2007, 11:34 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/12/01/amd_sudanprotesters.jpg AFP/Getty Thousands of Sudanese protesters, some brandishing swords and knives, demand the execution of British teacher Gillian Gibbons.

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/11/29/amd_gillian_gibbons.jpg
Colleagues said teacher Gillian Gibbons did not mean to insult Islam when she allowed her 7-year-old pupils name their teddy bear Muhammad.


Thousands of protesters, many brandishing clubs and swords, took to the streets of Sudan’s capital Friday, demanding the execution of a British teacher who let her students name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Gillian Gibbons, 54, was moved from the women’s prison near Khartoum to a secret location for her protection, her lawyer said.
Gibbons was found guilty Thursday of insulting Islam and sentenced to 15 days in jail. She was spared the more serious punishment of 40 lashes.
That angered many in Khartoum, who rallied in Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace. Protesters waved sticks, knives, axes and swords.

“Kill her, kill her by firing squad!” they chanted. “No tolerance, execution!”
Others shouted, “Shame, shame on the U.K.”
A cleric at Khartoum’s main Martyrs Mosque claimed Gibbons had intentionally insulted the Muslim faith.
“This an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad,” Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri told worshippers at a Friday sermon.
“Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan,” he said.

Britain was working through diplomatic channels to try to free Gibbons. Foreign Secretary David Miliband summoned the Sudanese ambassador late Thursday to express Britain’s disappointment with the verdict.
Gibbons, from Liverpool in northern England, moved to Sudan in July and began teaching at the Unity School in Khartoum. She was arrested Sunday after some parents complained that she had allowed her class of 7-year-olds to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
School officials have said the students suggested names for the bear and then voted. Their choice was Muhammad - the most popular boy’s name in the Muslim world.

But while naming a child after Islam’s revered prophet is acceptable, many consider using it for an animal or toy to be insulting.
In Britan -- where Muhammad is now the second most popular name for baby boys -- the reaction had been shock and disbelief, from both non-Muslims and Muslims.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said Sudanese authorities had “grossly overreacted.”
“Gillian should never have been arrested, let alone charged and convicted of committing a crime,” he said.

With News Wire Services

[Ninjahedge]

That angered many in Khartoum, who rallied in Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace. Protesters waved sticks, knives, axes and swords

“Kill her, kill her by firing squad!”

Irony?

[lofter1]

The endgame ^ of literal belief in The Word :mad:

[Ninjahedge]

Thing is, most people that yell that loud about something are either:

a) hiding something about themselves.
b) trying to be accepted by people who would normally reject them
c) worried that they would not be able to deal/compete with any change in the way things are and "should be".

or

d) planted by those in power that would like to keep their positions, either in the theocracy or the government (or both).

[investordude]

I know Britain has war fatigue, but isn't it time someone took this government out? You could argue they previously had no right because the genocide wasn't an external matter, but now they are starting to get belligerent with the west.

Brown is kind of a wimp and the people who voted for him don't like the Iraq War, but this is nothing like that. This is an unpremediated attack on a British person who was lawfully admitted to Sudan. They could deport her, but if they put her in jail, they should get a visit from the RAF. Some government in the world are bad enough for the west to get rid of, and this seems like one of them.

[lofter1]

Or they ^ just want to see a bleeding lump of a human being.

We can get into the psychology of a group of people who claim that a woman who shows the merest bit of skin is such a powerful presence as to render men unable to think logically.

And who claim that a Teddy Bear = The Devil.

Or we can say, "They're NUTS. Ergo DANGEROUS to a free thinking world."

Due to stories such as this (and countless others) I am becoming more of a misanthrope by the day.

Does mankind deserve to continue living on this planet :confused:

Don't forget that we here in the USA execute folks to a greater degree than nearly any other country on earth.

[Eugenious]

I know Britain has war fatigue, but isn't it time someone took this government out? You could argue they previously had no right because the genocide wasn't an external matter, but now they are starting to get belligerent with the west.

Brown is kind of a wimp and the people who voted for him don't like the Iraq War, but this is nothing like that. This is an unpremediated attack on a British person who was lawfully admitted to Sudan. They could deport her, but if they put her in jail, they should get a visit from the RAF. Some government in the world are bad enough for the west to get rid of, and this seems like one of them.

lol, no western government is going to send their young boys to Africa after what happened in Somalia etc. The UN can't even send more than a few hundreds peace keepers to Darfur who are toothless and can't do anything other than defend themselves from murderous ravaging bands.

Africa is like Europe in Middle Ages, there's lots of desease, poverty, mercenaries hired by absolutist rulers, disregard for human life, and overall absense of any kind of accountable government.

(Russia is the same minus the mercenaries.)

[investordude]

I think good people can disagree about the death penalty, but in the US, the death penalty is applied to crimes like premeditated murder and other unequivocally evil acts - usually after a protracted due process. The Sudanese are committing wholesale gratuitous genocide against people who are primarily unarmed civilians. And now they are attacking a westerner because one of her students says something about a teddy bear.

If Margaret Thatcher were PM (or for that matter if anyone was PM except Brown) this wouldn't be happening. Reagan was right to bomb Libya in 1986, and if Brown did this now, he'd be SO MUCH MORE unequivocally right is unbelievable - let's get rid of a genocidal Islamist state that is now trying to test the waters on imposing sharia punishment on a British citizen. Sudan can deport her with no punishment or get obliterated. That's what Britain's message should be.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Don't forget that we here in the USA execute folks to a greater degree than nearly any other country on earth.With relish?

[Eugenious]

With relish?

they used to lynch people in this country regularly not too long ago, so it seems like they are such animals over there in Sudan but it's not too long ago they did the same things here for even worst reasons...

just FYI

[MidtownGuy]

I know Britain has war fatigue, but isn't it time someone took this government out? ...Some government in the world are bad enough for the west to get rid of, and this seems like one of them.

I agree with this. I am sick and tired of hearing about the actions of Sudan, and its (apparentlly) insane northern population. I support intervention here. What they have been doing to the southerners, and their crazy brand of religion, make them a menace.
This poor woman. I hope Britain will stand up for her. If they let her be put to death I will be so angry!
Canada also needs to stand up, Talisman Energy is still heavily invested there, isn't it?

Does mankind deserve to continue living on this planet
lofter, I ask myself this question so often.

[MidtownGuy]

let's get rid of a genocidal Islamist state that is now trying to test the waters on imposing sharia punishment on a British citizen. Sudan can deport her with no punishment or get obliterated. That's what Britain's message should be.

God help me, I'm agreeing with all of this. I can't remember when I've ever called for war.
Britain, you gotta take a stand here.

[ZippyTheChimp]

they used to lynch people in this country regularly not too long agoLynchings are extra-legal. It has nothing to do with how state sanctioned executions are regarded by the population.

[Ninjahedge]

It's when they grab someone officially and threaten punishment for such a small infraction that hurts noone.

This is not like caning of whats-his-face in (Shanghai) for, was it littering? That act, although equally minor, was still something commited with little regard to others and when confronted with it, the snot thought himself above th elaw.

But a teacher?

These guys are seriously skewed if they are calling for her death. Something has to be done to see where this is coming from, the root, and efforts need to be made to remove it.

You can burn a dandelion, but unless you:

Pull the root

or

Turn the ground to glass

It will only come back later.


I think one of the main problems was the forced modernizations of these areas. They are going through a technological evolution in a hundred years that took us thousands. Some areas are going from farmers to aremd fighters in one generation!

Imagine what would have happened if we dropped a bunch of automatic weapons on central Europe in the 9th century!

Now imagine if there were people making money off of doing so.

Maybe the aliens will come and drop nano-tech on us so we can all kill ourselves faster. :p

[OmegaNYC]

Pardon possible for British teacher imprisoned in Sudan over bear named Muhammad

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, December 1st 2007, 12:04 PM
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Visiting British parliament members met Saturday with a British teacher imprisoned in Sudan for allegedly insulting Islam by letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad and they said she was in good spirits.

The two Muslim members of Parliament's upper house also met with Sudanese officials and said afterwards that the government in Khartoum wants to resolve the case.
A lawyer for Gillian Gibbons said President Omar al-Bashir could inform the visiting parliamentarians that he had pardoned the teacher.
Labour peer Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi, a Conservative, arrived in Sudan Saturday on what the British Foreign Office called a private visit to meet with Sudanese officials and seek the release of Gibbons. They visited Gibbons in prison for more than an hour.

"Gillian was surprisingly in good spirits considering the last seven days," Warsi told Sky News.
Warsi said she and Ahmed met Sudanese officials Saturday morning and more meetings were scheduled later.
"The Sudanese government do want to resolve this matter. ... (We) hope we can come to an amicable resolution soon," she said.
Gibbons' lawyer Kamal al-Gizouli said Sudan's president could deliver news of a pardon when he meets the British visitors. But it was not immediately clear when they would meet.

"I would not be surprised if president of the republic will tell delegation we have dropped this charge," al-Gizouli told The Associated Press.
Gibbons, 54, was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in jail and deportation for insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad - the name of Islam's prophet. The naming was part of a class project for her 7-year-old students at a private school in Sudan.
Al-Gizouli said only the president has the power to lift Gibbons' 15-day sentence which runs until Dec. 9.

Gibbons was moved from the Omdurman women's prison to a secret location on Friday after thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of her and demanded her execution.
There was no overt sign that the government organized the protest, but such a rally could not have taken place without at least official assent.
The teacher's conviction under Sudan's Islamic Sharia law shocked Britons, and the British government has said it was working with Sudan's regime to win her release.

Gibbons escaped harsher punishment that could have included up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine. Her time in jail since her arrest Sunday counts toward the sentence.
During her trial, the weeping teacher said she had intended no harm. Her students, overwhelmingly Muslim, chose the name for the bear, and Muhammad is one of the most common names for men in the Arab world. Muslim scholars generally agree that intent is a key factor in determining if someone has violated Islamic rules against insulting the prophet.

But the case was caught up in the ideology that al-Bashir's Islamic regime has long instilled in Sudan, a mix of anti-colonialism, religious fundamentalism and a sense that the West is besieging Islam.
The uproar comes as the U.N. is accusing Sudan of dragging its feet on the deployment of peacekeepers in the western Sudanese Darfur region.

[BrooklynRider]

This incident combined with the persecution and execution of homosexuals in Iran, the recent sentencing of a woman and who were VICTIMS of rape in Saudia Arabia represent my end point with erring on the side of caution.

The teacher did not name that teddy bear - her students did - the sons and daughters of those calling for HER death.

I find it outrageous, maddening, and it moves me toward supporting multilateral actions.

The only counter argument I have in my head to these incredibly sick and offensive acts is the fact that we have religious extremists on the Christian right and an equally obnoxious group of PC folks on the left who attempt and in some cases undertake similar actions. Before this country and its leaders speak out against this kind of "extremism" we ought to end it domestically as well. It is dangerous from any quarter.

[Ninjahedge]

The key thing here is that 90% of the people out there do not take any of these positions.

We only hear from those that are shouting the most.

Even online in conversations with like minded people, you are portrayed as "one of them" if you do not agree on this issue or that.

It is like people forgot how to come to an agreement and work with each other.

Or did we never really know how in the first place?

[Landwatch.com]

Well Ninja, that is a very good point of view. Even though we are saying many things in different ways, still all we want to say is that we don't like it and it just wasn't right.