Low Self-Esteem And Conspiracy Theories
Again and again, that's how Islam plays out. If their religion and their god is so great, how come tiny little men have to defend him against imagined insults by well-meaning schoolteachers? Yes, it's the story of the criminally blasphemous schoolteacher, who let the kids name a stuffed teddy bear Mohammed. Here's the Al Jazeera version about the Sudanese response to schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons -- now up for a jail term, a fine, and lashes:
Blasphemy alleged
Gibbons has been in custody for three days since parents complained that she had allowed pupils at the private Unity High school to name the bear Mohammed. She allowed boys and girls as young as six to name the bear Mohammed several months ago. Officials at the Christian-run school say the bear was named after a vote by the pupils. For devout Muslims, any physical depiction of Mohammed is considered blasphemous.Prison and lashes
Gibbons faces up to six months in jail, 40 lashes and a fine if she is found guilty of "insulting or degrading any religion, its rites, beliefs and sacred items or humiliating its believers", as stipulated in Sudan's penal code.
Some Islamic leaders in Sudan said on Wednesday that the law should be applied against Gibbons.
North Sudan's legal system is based on Sharia, which punishes blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.
"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 in a statement.
...Treated humanely
Zamrawi said Gibbons was being treated humanely.
"She is in a room and she has all the necessary things. She has seen her lawyer and is brought food," he said.
"She has basic rights. For us, she is innocent until her guilt has been proved ... Her relatives can visit her."
He said the authorities were working to ensure that Gibbon would not be exposed to angry mobs should she be released.
Backward barbarians.
UPDATE: She's been sentenced -- 15 days in jail and deportation for "inciting religious hatred." Yeah, right. You think the KKK is going to start burning teddy bears instead of crosses anytime soon?
Dimwits. Here's a lady who probably cares immensely for the kids who were under her tutelage, and probably brought to them some sense of a more reasonable, rational, and civilized world than the one they're living in, and they drop-kick her out of the country?
I guess when somebody challenges a culture's backwardness, no matter how inadvertently, they've just got to go.