news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7112929.stm
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'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested
A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, said she made an "innocent mistake" by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name.
Ms Gibbons was arrested after several parents made complaints.
A spokesman from the British Embassy in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, said it was unclear whether she had been charged.
Embassy officials are expected to visit Ms Gibbons in custody later.
"We are in contact with the authorities here and they have visited the teacher and she is in a good condition," an embassy spokesman said.
The spokesman said the naming of the teddy happened months ago and was chosen by the children because it is a common name in the country.
"This happened in September and the parents did not have a problem with it," he said.
'Very sensitive'
The BBC's correspondent Amber Henshaw said Ms Gibbons' punishment could be up to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine.
The school has been closed until January for fear of reprisals.
Fellow teachers at Khartoum's Unity High School told Reuters news agency they feared for Ms Gibbons' safety after receiving reports that men had started gathering outside the police station where she was being held.
The school's director, Robert Boulos, said: "This is a very sensitive issue. We are very worried about her safety.
They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad
Robert Boulos
Director of Unity High School"This was a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam."
Mr Boulos said Ms Gibbons was following a British national curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals and this year's topic was the bear.
Ms Gibbons, who joined the school in August, asked a seven-year-old girl to bring in her teddy bear and asked the class to pick names for it, he said.
"They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad," Mr Boulos said, adding that she then had the children vote on a name.
Twenty out of the 23 children chose Muhammad as their favourite name.
Mr Boulos said each child was then allowed to take the bear home at weekends and told to write a diary about what they did with it.
He said the children's entries were collected in a book with a picture of the bear on the cover and a message which read, "My name is Muhammad."
Book seized
The bear itself was not marked or labelled with the name in any way, he added.
It is seen as an insult to Islam to attempt to make an image of the Prophet Muhammad.
Mr Boulos said Ms Gibbons was arrested on Sunday at her home inside the school premises after a number of parents complained to Sudan's Ministry of Education.
I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote
Muslim colleague in SudanHe said police had seized the book and asked to interview the girl who owned the bear.
The country's state-controlled Sudanese Media Centre reported that charges were being prepared "under article 125 of the criminal law" which covers insults against faith and religion.
No-one at the ministries of education or justice was available for comment.
Mr Boulos told the BBC he was confident she would not face a jail sentence.
"So far there is not any formal accusation, you see, so it wouldn't reach that, it will be just a fine. We are struggling with the authorities and our advocates to just release her, and then the whole case will be dismissed," he said.
One Muslim teacher at the independent school for Christian and Muslim children, who has a child in Ms Gibbons' class, said she had not found the project offensive.
"I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote," the teacher said.
In Liverpool, a family spokeswoman said Ms Gibbons' grown children, John and Jessica - both believed to be in their 20s - were not commenting on her arrest.
"I have spoken with her children and they do not want to say anything and aggravate the situation over there," she said.
Friends and neighbours of Ms Gibbons expressed their worry for the former deputy headteacher and respected educator who moved to Sudan in July.
"Gillian is a very talented and able teacher and she was extremely popular with the pupils at this school," said Gillian Jones, Ms Gibbons former colleague at Dovecot Primary School in suburban Aigburth.
Cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad printed in several European newspapers sparked violent protests around the world in 2006.
Follow-up:
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MSNBC News Services
updated 10:46 a.m. ET, Wed., Nov. 28, 2007
KHARTOUM, Sudan - A British teacher has been charged with inciting hatred, insulting religion and showing contempt of religious beliefs after her class named a teddy bear Muhammad, state media said on Wednesday."Khartoum north prosecution unit has completed its investigation and has charged the Briton Gillian (Gibbons) under Article 125 of the criminal code," SUNA said quoting a senior Justice Ministry official.
It added the file would go before court on Thursday.
In London, a British Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that Gibbons had been charged and officials said Foreign Secretary David Miliband was calling in the Sudanese ambassador over the affair.
"We are surprised and disappointed by this development and the foreign secretary will summon as a matter of urgency the Sudanese ambassador to discuss this matter further," Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said.
Earlier on Wednesday, three British embassy officials and a teaching colleague from the Unity High School where Gibbons worked were allowed to visit her for 90 minutes.
"I can confirm that we have met Ms. Gibbons and she said she is being treated well," said British consul Russell Phillips. "We remain in close contact with the Sudanese authorities on this case," he said, declining to give further details.
Gibbons was arrested Sunday and, if found guilty of insulting religion, could be punished with a whipping of up to 40 lashes, a fine or six months in prison.
On Tuesday, a Sudanese embassy spokesman in London had indicated Gibbons might soon be freed.
"The police is bound to investigate," embassy spokesman Khalid al-Mubarak told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "I am pretty certain that this minute incident will be clarified very quickly and this teacher who has been helping us with the teaching of children will be safe and will be cleared."
Gibbons was arrested after one of her pupils' parents complained, accusing her of naming the bear after Islam's prophet and founder. 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.
School apologizes
Several Sudanese newspapers ran a statement Tuesday reportedly from Unity High 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."In the first official comment on the case, 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," adding that "the misunderstanding that has been raised over this issue leads to divisions that are disadvantageous to the reputation of the tolerant Sudanese people."
The school has closed for at least the next week until the controversy eases. 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.
The school's director, Robert Boulos, told the BBC that the incident was "a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam."
Children reportedly chose name
Gibbons, 54, was teaching her pupils, who are around age 7, about animals and asked one of them to bring in her teddy bear, Boulos said. She asked the students to pick names for it and they proposed Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad, and in the end 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.
A former colleague of Gibbons, Jill Langworthy, told The Associated Press the diary lesson is a common one in Britain.
"She's a wonderful and inspirational teacher, and if she offended or insulted anybody she'd be dreadfully sorry," said Langworthy, who taught with Gibbons in Liverpool.
There were widespread calls in Britain for Gibbons' release. The Muslim Council of Britain calls upon the Sudanese government to intervene.
"This is a very unfortunate incident and Ms. Gibbons should never have been arrested in the first place. It is obvious that no malice was intended," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the council's secretary-general.
British opposition Conservative party lawmaker William Hague called on the British government to "make it clear to the Sudanese authorities that she should be released immediately."
"To condemn Gillian Gibbons to such brutal and barbaric punishment for what appears to be an innocent mistake is clearly unacceptable," he said.
Follows cartoon incident
The case recalled the outrage that was sparked in the Islamic world when European newspapers ran cartoons deriding the Prophet Muhammad, prompting sometimes violent protests in many Muslim countries. The prophet is highly revered by Muslims, and most interpretations of the religion bar even favorable depictions of him, for fear of encouraging idolatry or misrepresenting him.Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir earlier this month suggested he would ban Denmark, Sweden and Norway where newspapers ran the cartoons from contributing engineering personnel to a planned U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
Al-Bashir's government already has tense relations with the West, which has widely condemned his regime for alleged abuses in Darfur where more than 200,000 people have died in a conflict that began in early 2003.
The moral of todays story is: Never live under religious wackos and zealots.
So people can be named Muhammad, but not teddy bears? That makes sense...
I wish I could say I was surprised. I should start randomly naming things Muhammad. Like pencils.
~Tobe
Can I name them Dammahum?
No words can explain the extent of dumbfounded-ness that i am experiencing right now. Let this be a lesson: take this religion seriously or else non-believers who name toys after prophets will be slain.
Still totally F'd up though. You all know it.
U R ALL RACISTS AND I'M LEAVING THIS THREAD! >=O
...was the comment left by a moderator on another board I frequent, Even though, I think one person was basically saying "I believe that Islam is a oppressive religion", but then said that he hated all religions and the rest of us were saying "Tis wrong this!"
And the correct word is bigot.
So yeah, careful now! Tis wrong this.
Heh, and people say we Christians are sensitive. If a kid wanted to call a teddy "Jesus" I wouldn't mind. But yeah, I saw this on Fox last night and was wondering how long until someone posted it.
Muslims don't play...
Sudan, again? What's next from them?
That's just pathetic. I don't care how much you revere a person, there is no logical reason why someone should be arrested for naming a stuffed animal a common Muslim name. Islam is a peaceful, non-violent religion my aft.
Oh sure, but people get mad at Latino who are named 'Jesus'
This could also spark a diplomatic incident as the foreign secretary has summonded the sudan ambassador. Also this doesn't help the cause for charities that are trying to fund monies for the sudan regions, most people would hear this news and think "meh, sod them."
Also if people hear are willing to group together, we can cash in on this incident by flogging bears on ebay called Muhammad 
Islam is a peaceful, non-violent religion my aft.
Whoa whoa whoa. This is a heavily-publicized event, but this is just one isolated case that's been blown out of proportion by the media as well as the people involved. It is wrong to automatically use a single incident like this to blame an entire religion for the actions of some fanaticists, and it is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of good, decent people who quietly live their religion the way it's meant - not the way that the zealots interpret it. And remember that the news will not report things that are ordinary or normal - and frankly, I think the news stations are trying to take advantage of the whole war in Iraq situation by playing up how weird or strange Islam is by focusing on such bizarre incidents.
Yes, this is a sad incident and it's really dumb because the teacher wasn't even the one who chose the name - it was their kids who voted, meaning that the teacher is being used as a scapegoat, or worse, this is merely an excuse by people who want her out of the school to get her out. Regardless of what else happens, she won't work at that school again.
I'm kind of hoping the teacher slept with the students but it all went overlooked because of the bear.
they just reported on the news that it wasn't even one of the children or parents that complained to the police, it was the school's secutary.
anyone smell a hidden agender here? >>
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Oh sure, but people get mad at Latino who are named 'Jesus'
o.o Is that sarcasm?
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A British teacher has been charged with inciting hatred, insulting religion and showing contempt of religious beliefs after her class named a teddy bear Muhammad, state media said on Wednesday.
That sums it up well enough for me. It did not incite hatred - she obviously doesn't hate the religion if she's teaching a class where she is, which also goes to show it was not in contempt, and whether it was religious or not depends entirely on perspective.
The Islamic people incite hatred of themselves by threatening to imprison and beat teachers, not teachers letting kids name a teddy bear.
Persecution complex maybe?
o.o Is that sarcasm?
No it isnt. I actually did met people who got upset act the fact. lol
^ I can't imagine why. It's not even pronounced the same way.
I didn't see this in any articles I've come across, but couldn't the school head taken the teacher aside and have her renname the bear before it blew into this?
I've never seen any Muslim have a problem with Muhammed Ali. What makes a teddy bear any different?
The people that get pissy with the latino name Jesus are akin to the idiots in this article. They all need to have something heavy dropped on them. Like a piano... or a blue whale.
~Tobe
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I've never seen any Muslim have a problem with Muhammed Ali. What makes a teddy bear any different?
Ali was (or still is) a member of the Nation of Islam. Muhammed Ali is his Muslin name (Cassius Clay is his real name) which is why there isn't a huge backlash about it.
It's sad when incidents like this happen, because the whole thing gets blown out of proportion. Even so, these people are TOO RELIGIOUS.
As opposed to Chrustianity, whose holy book still says that it's permissiible to stone adulterers and buy slaves from your neighbours?
Applying approval of Sharia law to Islam as a whole sounds like Muslim-bashing. Please don't.
As far as the story goes: yes, it's ridiculous as far as I'm concerned.
And there's been plenty of backlash from Muslims in this country for it giving them a bad name.
Naming toys, pets, children or anything else Muhammad happens all the time - and it doesn't man that they're all named after the prophet, any more than every John is named after John the Baptist.
I don't think that mass media coverage has helped, either. This woman's received the lightest sentence possible, rather than any of the draconian threats being published.
Even on its own soil, this decision's seen as over the top. If it wasn't for that mass media pressure and the UK's government getting involved - which might prompt the country involved to want to be seen as not just doing what the foreigners told it to do - I honestly wonder whether or not the whole mess might've been dropped quietly.
Not according to the protests on the street in Khartoum (if you believe the reports). Apparently the latest hard-liner demand is that she be taken to a firing squad and shot.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...121025.stm
As I said to you the other night, there is no way I would live in *any* country that is highly religious, be it Islam, Roman Catholic, Protestant, whatever. There are just far too many opportunities to offend and get into serious trouble...
I agree though that the actions of one set of people cannot be taken as representative of everyone. And let's face it, no medium is entirely free from bias.
DW
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Shoot UK teacher, say protesters.
Thousands of people have marched in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to call for UK teacher Gillian Gibbons to be shot.
Mrs Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was jailed by a court on Thursday after allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear Muhammad.She was sentenced to 15 days for insulting religion, and she will then be deported.
A Foreign Office spokesman has said Ms Gibbons said she was "fine" when visited by consular staff on Friday.
'Kill her'
The marchers took to the streets after Friday prayers to denounce the sentence as too lenient.
The protesters gathered in Martyrs Square, outside the presidential palace in the capital, many of them carrying knives and sticks.
Marchers chanted "Shame, shame on the UK", "No tolerance - execution" and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad".
D:
Things like this don't do international relations well, and will probably end up playing into the hands of people like Nick Griffin. Thankfully as already mentioned there are many members of the islamic community who feel that these actions taken by the sudan authority to be outrageous.
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"This case should have required only simple common sense to resolve. It is unfortunate that the Sudanese authorities were found wanting in this most basic of qualities. They grossly overreacted in this sad affair and this episode. Gillian should never have been arrested, let alone charged and convicted of committing a crime. We hope that Gillian will be able to return home without much further delay," said Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Britain.
souce
Fair enough - but I still hear that opinion is fairly divided and the opinion of the Muslim in the street over there is more likely to describe this as a misunderstanding blown out of proportion.
Demonstrations make good photo opportunities, and proportion should also be taken into account. Yes, a few thousand people're out there - but to grab a more domestic example, the Countryside Alliance stalking up and down Whitehall didn't mean that over 80% of the country weren't still in favour of banning hunting with hounds, either.
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As opposed to Chrustianity, whose holy book still says that it's permissiible to stone adulterers and buy slaves from your neighbours?
huh, good thing I'm a Christian... Those Chrustians sound like jerks. I think some Jesus dude once said "Let he who is sinless cast the first stone"... Crazy bearded freak!
And why don't they punish the children?
I'm not saying they should, but they are the ones who wanted to name their bears, Muhammad
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As opposed to Chrustianity, whose holy book still says that it's permissiible to stone adulterers and buy slaves from your neighbours?
I believe that only applies to Old Testament Jewish law, as I don't recall anything of the sort in the New Testament (which is pretty much where Christianity got its start).
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It is wrong to automatically use a single incident like this to blame an entire religion for the actions of some fanaticists, and it is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of good, decent people who quietly live their religion the way it's meant - not the way that the zealots interpret it.
You are right...an entire nation/ethnic group/religion/etc should not be judged on the basis of one action. However, the Islamic holy books do indeed call for harsh judgement in many cases, often involving death. Read the Koran, Terg, you'd be surprised.
As it is, I agree with Ultra on that one. Indeed it was legal under the "Law of Moses" to stone adulterers (indeed, both the man and woman were to be stoned to death under the law as written), though with the coming of Jesus, the manner in which the law was administered had more to do with mercy than wrath. In addition, slavery had an entirely different meaning then. It was closer to an indentured servitude than slavery. You worked to pay off a debt, your children and relatives couldn't inherit the debt, and once your contract was up, you often were paid a sort of compensation and let free. It wasn't the abomination it has become(or if you happened to be indentured in the Year of Jubilee, you were flat out set free with your debt reduced to 0). Also, as a slave, you were treated closer to a butler than an animal.
