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| Africa Horn |
| Update : Briton Charged in Religious Hatred Case |
| 2007-11-28 |
| 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 Justice Ministry said. The charge against Gillian Gibbons was sure to heighten tensions between Sudan and Britain. In London, Foreign Secretary David Miliband urgently summoned the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the case, the British government said. Gibbons, 54, was arrested Sunday after some of her pupils' parents complained, accusing her of naming the bear after Islam's prophet. Muhammad is a common name among Muslim men, but giving the prophet's name to an animal would be seen as insulting by many Muslims. Prosecutor General Salah Eddin Abu Zaid said Gibbons was charged under article 125 of the Sudanese legal code and her case would be referred to court Thursday. If convicted, she faces up to 40 lashes, six months and prison and a fine, said Abdul Daem Zumrawi, the Justice Ministry's undersecretary. "What will be applied is (at) the discretionary power of the judge to issue the verdict," he was quoted as saying by the official Sudanese News Agency. The meeting between Miliband and the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the charge against Gibbons would take place as soon as possible, according to the British Foreign Office. "We are surprised and disappointed by this development and the Foreign Secretary will summon as a matter of urgency the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the matter further," said Michael Ellam, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office. Miliband would ask the "for the rationale behind the charges and a sense of what the next steps might be" amid an escalating diplomatic dispute in the case, he said. "We will consider our response in the light of that," Ellam said. In Khartoum, the British Embassy said diplomats had been allowed to visit Gibbons on Wednesday. "She said she was being well-treated and that she was OK," said embassy spokesman Omar Daair. Gibbons was teaching her pupils, who are around age 7, about animals and asked one of them to bring in her teddy bear, said Robert Boulos, a spokesman for Unity High School in Khartoum. She asked the students to pick names for it and they proposed Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad, and in September, the pupils voted to name it Muhammad, he said. Each child was allowed to take the bear home on weekends and write a diary about what they did with it. The diary entries were collected in a book with the bear's picture on the cover, labeled, "My Name is Muhammad," he said. The bear itself was never labeled with the name, he added. The Unity High School, a private English-language school with elementary to high school levels, was founded by Christian groups, but 90 percent of its students are Muslim, mostly from upper-class Sudanese families. Several Sudanese newspapers ran a statement Tuesday reportedly from the school, saying the administration "offers an official apology to the students and their families and all Muslims for what came from an individual initiative." It said Gibbons had been "removed from her work at the school." The Sudanese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday played down the significance of the case, calling it "isolated despite our condemnation and rejection of it." Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadeq said it was an incidence of a "teacher's misconduct against the Islamic faith" but noted the school's apology. The statement from the school in newspapers called it a "misunderstanding." It underlined the school's "deep respect for the heavenly religions" and for the "beliefs of Muslims and their rituals." Although Khartoum officials played down the case and said it was an isolated incident, 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. 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. Although an earlier report had suggested that only one parent had complained, the clergy statement Wednesday said that several had complained. There were widespread calls in Britain for Gibbons' release. The Muslim Council of Britain urged the Sudanese government to intervene. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #17 Sovereignty should not necessarily mean immunity from consequences of barbarism. I'd take that a step further, Kemosabe, and say that retention of any sovereignty should issue directly from staunch opposition to barbarity. Those who are non-committal should look forward to having their own sovereignty—amongst other things—decidedly violated. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-28 19:56 |
| #16 I don't know British history well enough, but there must have been a time when the Brits would not have let one of their subjects be so brutalized and humiliated - at least, not without sending The Parachute Regiment, an SAS regiment, a carrier battle group, and assorted other forces to recover their subject. But - I guess maybe that as before the era when a Royal Navy ship's boarding party could be seized, held, and humiliated without meaningful retribution. Sovereignty should not necessarily mean immunity from consequences of barbarism. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2007-11-28 19:24 |
| #15 I think yall are wrong to question her motives. Who knows what effect she might have on one single person who could change things. She wanted to teach children. A noble endevour. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-11-28 18:29 |
| #14 Carruthers! Summon General Gordon. I have a mission for him. |
| Posted by: Peter Carroll 2007-11-28 18:27 |
| #13 PlanetDan made a point. Zenster has made the same point many times. Reciproscity. Lack thereof. Imagine for a moment -if you can - the hate preached from the Koran, Hadith and Sira. Imagine further that the words Jew, Christian, polytheist, unbeliever, infidel...whatever... are taken out and you substitute the words muslim or islam. Imagine the world - from the time of Christ - if that world practiced the ideology of islam (has have muslims since the time of Moe). There would be no muslims and we would not be here at RB because there would not have been 9-11 and there would be no muslims. BUT FOR islam and muslims, how much conflict would you see in the world? Be honest. When you can honestly answer that question get back to me. The Brit teacher in Sudan held on bogus charges of insulting the so called prophet...if Brown had any balls..which we know he doesn't...he would order her safe surrender to the nearest embassy. Yesterday. Short of that, Khartoum goes bye bye. I would not placate the muzzie sensiblity for a moment. All of which goes a long way toward explaining why I am not a negotiator in Annopolis. |
| Posted by: Mark Z 2007-11-28 18:12 |
| #12 There are many motivations, none particularly well thought out. Now, the link below is about ladies on holiday in Kenya, and has nothing to do with islamomurderwackiness, but an element of disregarded danger lurks nonetheless: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071126/lf_nm/kenya_sextourism_dc_2 |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-11-28 16:42 |
| #11 I was wondering what would motivate a 50+ year old female teacher to travel to one of the world's depraved and brutal countries for a job. Is it so bad in the UK now that a teacher cannot find work suitable to her qualifications and ambitions? Or, is she a closet sympathizer or worse an idealist bent on copying the plot of The King and I? Remember that idiot that married Binny's son and that newspaper women who went over to the dark side in Afghanistan and is now a complete Dhimmi moron. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-11-28 16:22 |
| #10 The Unity High School, a private English-language school with elementary to high school levels, was founded by Christian groups, but 90 percent of its students are Muslim, mostly from upper-class Sudanese families. Ms. Gibbons is simply the means to shut down the Unity High School, or at the very least, extort an even higher tax. If the sponsors of the Unity HS play ball, Gibbons will likely pay a fine and be expelled. If not ... |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-11-28 16:01 |
| #9 I say we need some Kurtz types to be sent in. "Annihilate the all!" |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-11-28 15:55 |
| #8 Why bother? I'd wager it's because some Westerners are so consumed with guilt over how the Third World has been perpetually victimized by us Capitalist vultures that they just can't help themselves and must hurry off into the savage wilderness to uplift their poor little brown brothers. I'm sure there's also a contingent of Christians out there doing the Lord's will as well but I think that's all going to change as Islam continues to prey upon unarmed Christians in Islamic lands. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-28 15:48 |
| #7 I've decided to name my toilet Allah and my Bidet Muhammed. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-11-28 15:42 |
| #6 How pathetic, Mohammads just another dull boring name, a very un-original one at that. |
| Posted by: Oztralian 2007-11-28 15:40 |
| #5 I do understand some people's drive to help the underpriviliged, but I'm starting to wonder about westerners (especially older persons and women) who put themselves at risk for this sort of scenario by choosing to be teachers, aid workers, what have you in places like Sudan. If this is how the locals reward efforts to reach out, I ask, Why bother? |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2007-11-28 15:27 |
| #4 Reports out today (Drudge? I forget) seem to indicate that it was a student who suggested the name "I named after myself, she didn't do it" Will have to wait and see if that carries any weight. Color me sceptical. |
| Posted by: USN,Ret. 2007-11-28 14:31 |
| #3 The teddy was named after one of the children in class. Obviosuly allah is the worlds weakest god, after all which other supreme being would be insulted by a soft furry teddy bear? I think naming a bear moHAMed is appropriate as moHAMed also slept with children. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2007-11-28 14:27 |
| #2 calling the incident part of a broader Western "plot" against Islam Cuz naming teddy bears is how we undermine threatening cultures. "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. There can be no more clear indication that this Islamic body suffers almost tragically from Dangerous Quantities of Spare Time™. I suggest we liven up their next assembly with a brief but dramatic visit by Mister Spooky. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-28 14:09 |
| #1 Just imagine how cool it would be if we were allowed to play by the same rules. Could you imagine how many muslims would be punished for inciting religious hatred against Christians and Jews? Whew!!!! |
| Posted by: PlanetDan 2007-11-28 14:06 |