Gillian Gibbons, the British teacher who allowed her class to name their teddy bear Mohamed, has been sentenced to 15 days in jail followed by deportation from Sudan.
Her lawyers announced that Ms Gibbons was found guilty of insulting Islam. The 54-year-old former Liverpool primary school teacher had faced a maximum penalty of 40 lashes and a six-month jail sentence.
Tonight David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the sentence and summoned Omer Siddig, the Sudanese ambassador to London, to the Foreign and Commnwealth Office (FCO) to make Britain’s position clear.
Good grief I’m glad she didn’t get the lash. But in human terms, what a tragic loss to the Sudanese children and what a deeply disappointing, not to say catastrophic time for this woman. I’m very sorry for her, as she must be miserable with the whole thing.
No good deed will go unpunished.
Any word on the teddy bear? Will it just be a paw lopped off or will it have to pay with its head?
Perhaps this will make a lasting impression on the child named as the source of the teddy bear’ name.
I saw the end of a report this morning that said over 100,000 Sudanese marched in the street demanding the teacher’s execution for this hideous crime. The next time I see a CAIR official doing his on-camera whine about how Muslims are stigmatized as mouth-breathing lunatics, I’m going to e-mail him the story.
Let’s remember that this blog is viewable world-wide. Making agitating statements will not serve to insure the safety of the teacher.
And when will the call be made for Mohammed Al-Baradei to be executed? Is this not also denigrating to the Prophet?
#5 – In a world where a handful of cartoons are cause for the torching of embassies, death threats, rioting and the deaths of scores of people it is becoming clearer that violence and the threat of same are becoming the strategy, not simply a tool in that strategy. Walking on eggshells will only encourage more. Agitated? Tough. Get agitated and be damned.
It reminds me of Robert Curzon writing about Wahabbis in the 1840’s or so. A group of them stormed a Sultan’s palace, and ignored the riches there, preferring to make off with a big mirror. They were convinced it was the fabled diamond of a pre-Adamite ruler….Let the Bronze-age be Bronze-age. No particular comment needed here about “Religion of Peace”.
The news reports are saying now that the Sudanese people are calling for her execution. They need to get her out of there — FAST.
I disagrr, NWlayman, a simple:
“Religion of peace, indeed!”
will suffice.
I hope the British Ambassador has a ‘moment of prayer’ with the President-for-life/Defender-of-all-things-Islamic/Head-slaver; the topic being how a hundred million Euros in the hands of the rebel movements in the south might impact his regime. These Islamic Thugocracies need to be thumped hard. They are the Barbary Pirates of 2007. The irony is that some Westerners will feel the need to justify the worst sort of barbarian behavior from these sorts of nationalized hoodlums and then decry the harshness of the penal systems in their own countries.
Let’s all order Vermont Teddy Bears with Mohammed stitched on them and airdrop them over Sudan…how absurd Muslim culture is that it encourage atrocities e.g., beheadings (by individuals named Mohammed) but cannot contenance a lovable little fuzz ball…hmmmm.
The British PM should threaten to push the Sudanese off the edge of the world. Also take away their fire.
It is sad that such a small match can light off a gigantic forest fire. Nuff said !!
I like Leighton’s idea. In fact, I think a Canadian Muslim group is considering a ‘teddy bear’ mailing to the Sudanese Ambasador. I wish them luck, and think we should do likewise to the Sudanese Amercian counterpart .
There’s a kid in my daughter’s second grade class named “Jesus”. Jesus Martinez, to be precise. I’m going to see what we can do about getting the school board to approve some jail time for the parents.