I Sure Am Glad I Don’t Live In Sudan…
Friday, November 30, 2007Posted in: Religion sucks ass, Violence against women
Just another reason to ban all organised religion.
The woman named a teddy bear Mohammed, and people think she should be put to death for that? I’m still reeling from the fact that they jailed her in the first place.
Hundreds of Sudanese Muslims, waving green Islamic flags, took to the streets of Khartoum on Friday demanding death for the British teacher convicted of insulting Islam after her class named a teddy bear Mohammad.
“No one lives who insults the Prophet,” the protesters chanted, a day after school teacher Gillian Gibbons, 54, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation from Sudan.
Never mind the problems with Darfur, drought, poverty, and sexual crimes against women that currently plague the country. Why worry about all that crap when it’s far easier to kill a woman in the name of God, just because she named a stuffed toy Mohammed.
I’d love to know how they manage to distinguish between God and The Devil.
I have the biggest urge to go buy a vibrator and call it Mohammed.
Shiloh Walker
November 30
11:25 pm
It hurts seeing something like that~and thinking about all the other sick things supposedly done in the name of God.
It’s amazing how mankind can pervert religion, but I do believe it’s mankind that does it.
God must weep when things like this happen.
Shirley
November 30
11:44 pm
I think I just crossed off all of Africa from my travel plans. That’s freakin’ scary. And considering the teacher isn’t exactly young, I guess I can’t hope that they’d let me go with a warning, LOL!
Gail
November 30
11:51 pm
The only result of this event is more of us so called western people will be sure Muslims are cruel, tyrannical killers. The gap between societies will widen.
On the personal level, what is happening to this teacher is horrific.
Teddy Pig
December 1
12:01 am
I really do not understand this at all.
Don’t these people name their kids Mohammed all the time?
Remember Cassius Clay named himself Mohammed Ali?
Was there protests over that?
Did anyone call for them to die?
I will never visit one of these backwards countries because being a Gay Man in their primitive religious legal system that would be putting my life at risk.
Shannon Stacey
December 1
12:06 am
I thought she let the boy who brought it in choose the name and he named it after himself. Did I dream that news bit?
And like Teddy said, it’s not like Mohammed’s a rare name. Somehow I think the world would be aghast if we tried to kill a woman for naming a teddy bear Jesus.
Eve Vaughn
December 1
1:09 am
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m so glad to live in America.
KCfla
December 1
2:07 am
Actually, she brought the bear in- and let her students name it. The fact is that a boy in her class ( who apparently is very popular) said he wanted the bear named after him. And so it was agreed to by his fellow students.
Which basically means that she’s been jailed for something that her students did. But she is a foreigner in a Muslim state, so she’s at fault here. Whether she truly is or not.
*According to the prosecuters* They said they would have gone after her if the bear had been named “Jesus” or “Buddah” as well. Which, of course is a whole pile of bullshite if you ask me.
I’ve already said prayers for her release, since at the age of 50+, 40 lashes ( which is part of the punishment she faces) could kill her, if not maim her for life. Over a flippin’ Teddy bear.
What has the world come to?????
azteclady
December 1
2:08 am
Shannon, if I remember correctly, the bear was named by consensus of the entire class. It was some sort of project in which the kids had to vote for their favorite name for the bear, or some such. And, apparently, not one parent saw anything wrong with it until after it was done.
As far as how common the name is… I don’t know, but I’m inferring that the problem is naming an object (or perhaps simply not a male human?) with the oh so sacred name.
Which still leaves me scratching my head about the whole thing.
Ann Bruce
December 1
2:48 am
I saw this article this morning and naive little me was shocked.
40 lashes ( which is part of the punishment she faces) could kill her
I believe the court decided to forgo the 40 lashes because they dismissed the charge of inciting religious hatred.
In Islam, naming an inanimate object Mohammed is considered blasphemous.
I wonder how the people calling for her death are going to feel when they die and are told that their intolerance is not going to get them through the pearly gates.
loonigrrl
December 1
9:05 am
Yeah, just reading about this makes me sick. I can’t even imagine how scared this woman must be. It terrifies me just thinking about it- because there’s no reasoning with that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred and blind faith that encourages killing in the name of their god. It’s just disgusting.
Rosemary Laurey
December 1
1:58 pm
Couple of things here. First do keep in mind the protesters are religious extremists NOT moderate muslims.
This furor is more over cultural misunderstanding than anything
else.
A bear in that culture would be the epitome of a wild ferocious animal.
Plus calling another human an animal of any sort is considered a terrible insult to a muslim.
So giving the prophet’s name to a reperesntaiton of a wild, ferocious animal was an insult – albeit totally unwittingly.
That poor teacher is in a terrible bind.
Probably brought the darn teddy in to show the children what English chidren played with, thought it would be a bit of a fun thing to do. The kids, understanding the significance of the toy, picked the name and everyone was fine until a rabble-rousing trouble-making parent (and they are in every school and culture in the world ) started shouting that she’d called the prophet a wild bear and made a big stink.
I can’t help think of that poor teacher caught up in this and the students upset knowing they had an innocent hand in sending her to jail.
sula
December 1
3:52 pm
hmm, I had typed up a somewhat lengthy comment last night but it appears to have been lost in cyberspace. In any event, the following info from the NYT might help give some background. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
…Despite the display of outrage, witnesses said that many of the protesters were government employees who had been ordered to demonstrate, and that aside from a large gathering outside the presidential palace, most of Khartoum was quiet. Imams across the city did bring up the controversial case in sermons after Friday Prayers. But few called for violence.
…It seems that Ms. Gibbons and the teddy bear got sucked into the larger struggle between the Sudanese government, which routinely accuses its Western critics of being anti-Islamic, and European and American officials pressing for an end to the crisis in Darfur. Earlier this month, Sudanese officials said that peacekeepers from Scandinavia could not serve in Darfur, the troubled region of western Sudan, because of what happened two years ago, when several Scandinavian newspapers published controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
United Nations officials have said that the Sudanese government was simply looking for ways to block or delay the deployment of an expanded peacekeeping force to Darfur. This week, United Nations officials said that unless the Sudanese government starts cooperating, the expanded mission may not be possible.
I’d be very sad if anyone extrapolates from events like this that all Muslims are raging wild-eyed fanatics or that the entire continent of Africa is unsafe. I’ve been with my Muslim boyfriend for over four years and have lived in and travelled around Africa and never ever seen any behaviour like this nor met anyone of that faith who would condone such extremism. Religion as a political tool is nothing new, unfortunately. It’s been with us forever (the Crusades anyone?) and will likely never be eradicated as long as people seek to control land, power, natural resources (remember Sudan is sitting on top of a lot of oil) and authority.
Regardless, I feel very sorry for this poor woman who obviously never intended to do harm to anyone. It makes me sick to think that people will scapegoat innocents to pursue a larger political agenda. 🙁
Shannon Stacey
December 1
5:51 pm
I’d be very sad if anyone extrapolates from events like this that all Muslims are raging wild-eyed fanatics
A couple of years ago or so (post-9/11, anyway) a comment was made in front of my kids that all (insert derogatory term) should be thrown out of the US because you can’t tell which ones are the terrorists by looking at them. While I’m not in the habit of engaging in that kind of discussion because they never end well, the fact it was in front of my kids forced me to ask that person if we would then throw out all the youngish white guys with crew cuts because you can’t tell which ones might be the next McVeigh by looking at them.
Wow, did THAT no go over well and I ended up taking my kids and leaving. So unfortunately that opinion is out there, but there are still sane people on the planet. Promise. 🙂
Desiree Erotique
December 1
11:10 pm
One has to wonder if the fanatics who rallied for such outrageous penalties against this teacher have once considered that their actions may, in the end, only turn their children away from their zealot brand of Islam?
azteclady
December 3
4:15 pm
Just read that she’s been pardoned!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22076390/
Dawn
December 4
9:22 am
I was shocked at the decision to jail the woman at what was obviously a misjudgement on her part.
But also I don’t believe that all Muslims are knife-waving fanatics. God knows that there are Christian fanatics out there too.
I’m glad that she has been released early through the effort of British Muslims.
azteclady
December 5
12:29 am
I just read a piece about this in Newsweek ( http://www.newsweek.com/id/73750 ), and the first several comments just floored me.
While I completely agree that any religious government is prone to abuse–witness o say the Inquisition or hey, the persecution in England of various religious groups, such as the Jews, or the Catholics, or the Puritans–I don’t see why being more intolerant that the most extremist of Muslims can help promote the idea that Christians are not intolerant themselves.