The Sudanese Teddy Bear Saga

Well written by Mahir, but then she's a good writer. That's her opinion, mine has always been to try and see the issue from all sides and not be too judgemental.

Like that Nasah Mian?

Mahir Ali in Dawn:

WHEN she arrived in Khartoum four months ago, Gillian Gibbons couldn’t possibly have had any inkling that she’d be headed back to England some four months later, following a stint in prison.

In a statement issued last Saturday, the incarcerated 54-year-old Liverpudlian said she wasn’t keen to leave Sudan and would much rather return to work. “The Sudanese people in general have been pleasant and very generous,’’ she noted, “and I’ve had nothing but good experiences during my four months here.”

What makes the level of equanimity and goodwill remarkable is that the previous day, following Friday prayers, there were mobs baying for her blood, demanding that the 15-day prison sentence handed down by a Khartoum court be upgraded to death by a firing squad. So, what exactly did Gibbons do to inspire such demands for vengeance?

Well, a month into her stint as a teacher at the Unity School, where she was in charge of seven-year-olds, she came up with a device for engaging the kids’ interest in one of the designated topics: bears.

One of the children brought her teddy bear to school and her classmates were assigned the task of taking the teddy home, one by one, and writing about their experiences.

Before the project got underway, Gibbons asked the kids to choose a name for the cuddly toy. There were various suggestions, including Abdullah and Hassan.

A little boy called Mohammad put forward his own name for consideration. The teacher arranged a class vote and Mohammad won hands down. She accepted the democratic verdict.

Reasonably enough, the idea that anyone would find this objectionable appears not to have so much as crossed her mind. Two months later, police arrived at the Unity compound to arrest Gibbons for insulting Islam.

The school’s director, Robert Boulos, was told that some parents had complained to the ministry of education. It subsequently turned out that the sole complainant was in fact an office assistant at the school, who served as the main witness for the prosecution - or, to be more precise, persecution.

The verdict of 15 days in prison followed by deportation occasioned sighs of relief, given that it could have been worse: six months in prison and 40 lashes. At the weekend, two Muslim British peers were engaged in negotiations with the Sudanese authorities in Khartoum, and they were expected to fly back to London with Gibbons after obtaining a presidential pardon.

That’s all very well, but the point remains that the only insult in this case - an insult to common sense, if not to Islam - came from those who pursued a vendetta on patently absurd grounds. It has been argued that Gibbons erred inadvertently, that as a novice in Sudan she was unaware of cultural sensitivities.

That’s an unnecessarily patronising point of view; I suspect she erred only in failing to make an allowance for the idiocy of some Muslims.(DAWN)

Like Sherbaz miaN?

kulharee I'd rather not get dragged in to a debate on Sharia'a law. The point that the author was trying to make was that illiteracy and overt religosity is a potent mixture that resulted in the Teddy Bear issue. Illiteracy and overt religosity are prevelant across the globe and incidents of both can be found all over the place. To blame Islam for purely human failings is unfair.

To your comment on how muslims need to be less sensitive, you need to understand that Islam is not just a religion but a way of life. It is hard not to be sensitive if your entire life is governed by an ideology that you feel is threatened. How would a strict vegetarian Brahmin feel if a nice juicy steak was forced down his throat and would'nt a Hassidic Jew be a little irate if his forelocks were threatened by a pair of scissors? Thats the main point Homeboy

Lord ahmed may have been a grocery store owner but, he is also a graduate as well. He is not very articulate but he’s improving, It is labour party policy to have peers from across the wide spectrum of society. Parliament should reflect the people it serves.

Baroness warsi is a shadow minister as well, she is very articulate, well spoken, as soon as I saw her in a T.V debate I knew she was going places, I think she would have had far better impact as a MP and then cabinet post, I suppose it’s her decision may be she was impatient to get into parliament.

Another thing:

Why do these stupid idiots who call themselves Muslims get insulted at every little thing.

Why would Muhammad really care if some insulted him fourteen hundred years after his death.

Why dont these people get insulted at their levels of ignorance?

Their Poverty?

Their lack of the will to change their situation?

The honor killings, the domestic violence?

The high incidence of child sexual and physical abuse?

Like people got all up and arms about the woman who wrote the Quranic verses on her body.

Last time I checked, Muhammad was carried to term within a female body.

How is lines written in ink more sacred than a human body?

It is all in the mindset. The priorities of these people are screwed up?

The human body that should be the most sacred of all things has no value?

Yet, people are willing to shed human blood over the same book that teaches,

"If you kill one human, its as if you killed the whole humanity."

I totally agree with Kulharee.

If anything makes Muslims look like the laughing stock of the world, its the Sudanese Teddy Bear Episode.

What fascinates me is that how these people in Sudan were protesting with swords and clubs outside the presidential palace.

Makes you wonder, Dont they have jobs and better things to do.

Rather than call for the death of an innocent woman.

The prophet himself forgave countless people who insulted him, spit on him, threw trash on him.

Where is the following of SUNNAH in this case!

The Stupid idiots will keep beards, and pull their little pants above their ankles because its the Sunnah.

But what about following the example of mercy and compassion, the prophet showed those who wronged him.

Muslims who get all worked up over such things are surely perverted, and have no understanding of the true spirit of Islam.

The point homeboy is that there are no “laws” in Mexico to put the stupid American in Jail or to try him for wearing such a t-shirt or for naming his teddy bear. Muslims need to be less sensitive, for a change. These events should be seen as an opportunity for Ummah to reflect upon their collective inconsequentiality. What you termed as a “tragedy” is in reality a Genocide. Tragedy is when a bus goes down in a ditch and some school children die.

Six weeks ago, a college buddy of mine was in Mexico and was assaulted by some villagers for wearing a T-shirt which read " Jesus is my Homeboy". While this caption usually elicits chuckles in the U.S and other parts of the world, it obviously offended the religious sensibilities of a certain strata of Mexican society.

Should my friend have known better? I honestly think so. In his defence, it can be said he was simply an 'ignorant tourist' the proverbial "Ugly American". Gillian Gibbons is an educationist who has a responsibility to be sensitive towards prevelant emotions in her host country. I strongly feel that her lack of judgement was a main ingredient in the entire episode alongwith illiteracy, Islamic fundamentalism and the growing resentment in less developed Muslim countries against the West.

Please refrain from swinging the "kulharee" on your own foot. Unfortuanately what's pathetic is your lack of comprehension of the written word.

In a round about way the author is still placing blame of “ignorance” on the teacher. Pathetic, really. No one in a Catholic country would ask for someone’s neck for naming a stuffed monkey Jesus. How is that even an Insult? Isn’t Osama also Mohammad? The guy with blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands? Shouldn't he be asked to change his name?