Teacher held for teddy bear 'blasphemy'

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Teacher held for teddy bear 'blasphemy'
By Terri Judd
Published: 27 November 2007
A British primary school teacher in Sudan is facing 40 lashes and up to a year in jail for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear after the Prophet Mohamed. Gillian Gibbons has been imprisoned under strict blasphemy laws for showing "contempt and disrespect against the believers".

Colleagues of Ms Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, claim she made an "innocent mistake" by allowing her class of seven year-olds to choose the name. But she was accused of insulting Islam's holiest prophet and arrested. Her actions have sparked protests in Sudan and forced the school to close until January for fear of reprisals.

Ms Gibbons' friends and colleagues said any suggestion that she would have intentionally caused offence was ridiculous.

She is being held at a police station in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. She was said to be in good health but shaken when British embassy officials visited her yesterday. The Foreign Office said she had not been charged but detained on suspicion of the crime.

Ms Gibbons had been working at Unity High School, which is popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates, since August after leaving her position as deputy head at Dovecot Primary School in Liverpool.

She was taken from her home in the school grounds on Sunday after several parents complained to the Education Ministry.

The school's director, Robert Boulos, said it was such a sensitive issue that he had decided to close the school until January for fear of reprisals in Sudan's predominantly Muslim capital. "We are very worried about her safety," he added. "This was a completely innocent mistake. Ms Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam."

The teacher was following a British national curriculum course designed to teach her Year 2 pupils about animals and their habitats. In September, she asked a girl to bring her teddy bear into class so that the children could name the stuffed toy.

Eight names were suggested so, in an attempt to teach the pupils about voting, she held a ballot. Twenty of 23 children chose the name Mohamed. Each child was then allowed to take the bear home at weekends and asked to write a diary about what they did with the toy. Each entry was collected in a book which bore a picture of the bear and the words "My name is Mohamed". Police have confiscated the diary and plan to interview the girl who owned the bear.

The state-controlled Sudanese Media Centre said Ms Gibbons was arrested "under article 125 of the criminal law", on suspicion of insulting faith and religion.

Mr Boulos said the first he knew about the course was last week when he received a phone call from the Education Ministry to say that some Muslim parents had made formal complaints.

One teacher said: "I had no problem with it at all. I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed she got them to vote." Another source said it was believed that a teacher with a grudge against Ms Gibbons brought the case to a head.

The teacher's friends said she decided to take up the challenge of working in east Africa after separating from her husband of 20 years. She planned to spend two years in Sudan and was finding the work rewarding.

Unity, founded in 1902, is an independent school for Christian and Muslim children aged four to 18 and is governed by a board representing major Christian denominations in Sudan. It prides itself on providing a British-style education to students, whatever their gender, nationality, religion or ethnic origin, "whilst encouraging mutual respect". Ms Gibbons is one of several Western teachers who work there.

She has two children Jessica, 27 - also a teacher - and John, 25, and used to live in Aigburth, Liverpool. Her former neighbour Peter Sorensen, 64, described her as a normal working mother who was a wonderful neighbour and "would not hurt a fly".

"We are very worried about the kind of conditions she is subjected to. Being held in police cell in Khartoum must be an horrendous experience," he added.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article3198874.ece

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Yeah, but burn a flag or piss on a crucifix here in the civilized world and if it's not the government it'll be a bunch of self righteous hillbillies jumping over top of each other to teach you a lesson. The problem is once you start building castles in the sky there's no such thing as my freedom extending as it will unless yours is impeded cuz you think you've got the right to live in heaven - that is unless you decide to keep the ground rules here on earth the same - but there aren't many people that clever and pure of vision, I can't say I'm one - so my policy is to keep an eye on everyone afflicted with superstition...

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Self righteous hillbillies, yep would be a good description!

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...school closed until january for fear of reprisals...

I'm reading "scool closed until january so some hothead fanatic doesn't blow up the children".

Anyone who holds a dead prophet to be holier than a living child, a living adult for that matter, needs to get his priorities straight. And that's no insult. It's just the truth.

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Cyracuz wrote:

Anyone who holds a dead prophet to be holier than a living child, a living adult for that matter, needs to get his priorities straight. And that's no insult. It's just the truth.

You won't get a direct argument from me on that as I agree!

However, I will propose an indirect argument because moral relativism dictates any such viewpoint is arbitrary.

Witness: certain aspects of Greco-Roman morals
Witness: certain aspects of Mayan-Aztec-Incan morals
Witness: certain aspects of US morals
Witness: the above quoted article

Quote:

In philosophy, moral relativism is the position that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective and/or universal moral truths, but instead make claims relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances. Moral relativists hold that no universal standard exists by which to assess an ethical proposition's truth; moral subjectivism is thus the opposite of moral absolutism. Relativistic positions often see moral values as applicable only within certain cultural boundaries (cultural relativism) or in the context of individual preferences (moral subjectivism). An extreme relativist position might suggest that judging the moral or ethical judgments or acts of another person or group has no meaning, though most relativists propound a more limited version of the theory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_relativism

If there are universal moral truths, I might argue some of these could be built on the behavioral-evolutionary advantages of altruism.

Quote:

Altruism is selfless concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and central to many religious traditions. In English, this idea was often described as the Golden rule of ethics. Some newer philosophies such as egoism have criticized the concept, with writers arguing that there is no moral obligation to help others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism

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Hmm.. I'm guessing these people who want to punish the teacher over this teddybear incident don't have much regard for moral relativism.

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Jesus - can you imagine how terrified she must be? All this over naming a teddy-bear? I guess she must be figuring out reason and rational thought are not exactly at the forefront right now. I'm focusing my thoughts her way-I just want her to make it back to Liverpool.

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Cyracuz wrote:

Anyone who holds a dead prophet to be holier than a living child, a living adult for that matter, needs to get his priorities straight. And that's no insult. It's just the truth.

A dead prophet who just happened to be an illiterate paedophile goat herder no less.

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Mohammed (MHBH) was basically a bandit chieftain And I-slam is basically a religion crafted specifically for governing increasingly larger confederations of bandit tribes.

The last real prophet died several centuries before Christ.

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Homer?

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spendius wrote:

Homer?

More like the tomb of the unknown soldier, i.e. some nameless prophet who died around the time of Zechariah.

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Cyracuz wrote:

Hmm.. I'm guessing these people who want to punish the teacher over this teddybear incident don't have much regard for moral relativism.

You got that right!

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I've been following this storyin the news, and it's really upsetting. The sources I've seen have reported that she didn't even name the bear but granted permission for the bear to be named. She probably didn't even think twisce about it.

A question for those more versed in Islam: Is the name Muhammed, forbidden? I understand this is an issue because the profit is not supposed to appear in any image etc, but I thought the name was fairly common.

What about Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay)? It was his muslim name correct?

I'm very upset and confused about this incident.

T
K
O

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Diest TKO wrote:

I've been following this storyin the news, and it's really upsetting. The sources I've seen have reported that she didn't even name the bear but granted permission for the bear to be named. She probably didn't even think twisce about it.

A question for those more versed in Islam: Is the name Muhammed, forbidden? I understand this is an issue because the profit is not supposed to appear in any image etc, but I thought the name was fairly common.

What about Muhammed Ali (Cassius Clay)? It was his muslim name correct?

I'm very upset and confused about this incident.

T
K
O

Mohammed is a common name in the slammite world. The ****ers were looking for any sort of an excuse to do their little S/M thing with the English schoolmarm.

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Sudan has granted a full pardon to the British teacher jailed for blasphemy after two British Muslim peers met the Sudanese President this morning to plea for the release of Gillian Gibbons.

Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed had been due to fly home this morning but cancelled their flights last night and met the President Omar al-Bashir this morning. An advisor announced the full presidential pardon as the meeting continued today, and it was reported that Ms Gibbons could be on a flight to the UK within a few hours.

The British teacher was serving a 15-day sentence at a secret government villa in the Sudanese capital.

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aidan wrote:

Jesus - can you imagine how terrified she must be? All this over naming a teddy-bear? I guess she must be figuring out reason and rational thought are not exactly at the forefront right now. I'm focusing my thoughts her way-I just want her to make it back to Liverpool.

That's the heartbreaking part of this. She was trying to make a fresh start of things after her marriage broke up about a year ago, if I have my facts straight. So, she goes to a third world country to do something good and have a life adventure. Well, she did some of the first and got one whale of the second.

This thought keeps bubbling up in me: the more uncertain a believer is about the truths of his beliefs, the angrier he will get when those beliefs are challenged.

Joe(touchy touchy)Nation

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It's a pinprick compared to a Saudi story that peeped out last week but has not been mentioned since. Negative stories about Saudi are downplayed.

Don't you think Joe that it's a bit odd to be going to a dump like that in order to make a fresh start and have a life adventure.

But I'm glad she's out. It's been top story here for a week and I'm a bit fed up about how the newsreaders kept rolling their tongues around the word "lashes".

It has been very useful to Islamists here. In condemning the Sudanese they have polished up their image a little.

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Quote:

This thought keeps bubbling up in me: the more uncertain a believer is about the truths of his beliefs, the angrier he will get when those beliefs are challenged.

If I thought this incident was due to anyone's true religious beliefs, it'd make me even angrier and/or sadder, but I don't think belief in anything, (except the power of hatred and intimidation and revenge) had anything to do with it.
I think this was a powerplay, enacted in vengeance (with this innocent woman as a pawn) and now that I see how it's ended, very politically savilly (is that a word- I mean 'with savvy') played out.

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aidan wrote:

Quote:
This thought keeps bubbling up in me: the more uncertain a believer is about the truths of his beliefs, the angrier he will get when those beliefs are challenged.

If I thought this incident was due to anyone's true religious beliefs, it'd make me even angrier and/or sadder, but I don't think belief in anything, (except the power of hatred and intimidation and revenge) had anything to do with it.
I think this was a powerplay, enacted in vengeance (with this innocent woman as a pawn) and now that I see how it's ended, very politically savilly (is that a word- I mean 'with savvy') played out.

There is no doubt that the Sudanese government played this up for it's political benefit. (This is the same Sudanese government who couldn't find Osama bin Laden in time to turn him over to waiting US officials yet finds lots of time to murder thousands in Darfur.) Anything to foment anti-Western feelings amongst it's people and keep any UN troops out of it's southern regions. But what allows them to foist this kind of 'hot controversy' onto the world stage is the fervent belief in a figment of the imagination and the fear of death. Combine salvation, holy or otherwise, with the end of life and you get a potent power to use over any group of gullibles.

What's really pathetic is how Western officials respond to these incidents.
The Sudanese should not have been allowed to 'pardon' this woman. They should have been shamed into releasing her because she committed no action to be pardoned for, but we can't do or force such things because we are stuck in the same figment of our imagination syndrome and have to be sensitive to the figments of all the other imaginations flying about out there.

We can't say "Get a grip on reality." because we don't have one either. At least not an official one. Their prophet flew up to heaven on a white horse, the Christ just floated up after changing bread and wine into His Flesh and Blood which we are supposed to eat and ... . (Wait. We teach children these things.)

Joe(Holy Cow)Nation
PS I'm glad the Islamists in England are condemning the Sudanese actions. The word to stop must come from within. That's what just happened recently in Northern Nigeria after a long bout with fanaticism. In another time, the Irish finally stopped killing each other in Ulster only after calls from within each faction were made and further back the Christians of Europe stopped their own 100 Years War (after only One Hundred and Twenty Five Years ) when the factions pointed out to their own members how inhuman their actions had become. (They did, however, keep killing Jews quite enthusiastically.) Christ, if he exists, must weep over their stupidity and arrogance.

Some people can get a fresh start by walking around their own block, some have to go to long and uncertain lengths. I'm of the latter sort and I've fresh-started myself several hundred times. The Sudan seems to be an unlikely spot for you and me, Spendius, but I'll bet when she saw the brochure it looked delicious.

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Well, she's back home now, so y'all can stop with the handwringing.

This would all have more perspective for me if a lot of those groaning loudest about how ridiculous this was to be considered "blasphemy" actually believed there was such a thing AS blasphemy.

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Teacher held for teddy bear 'blasphemy'

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