Life Under Sharia

It's not exactly one big teddy bear picnic:

A British teacher is facing 40 lashes in a Sudanese jail if convicted of insulting Islam's prophet by letting children name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Locked up: Gillian Gibbons

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested on suspicion of blasphemy on Sunday.

Ms Gibbons allowed her class of seven-year-olds at the Unity High School in Khartoum to name a teddy bear Mohammed as part of a lesson about animals' habitats.

Mohammed is sacred to Islamic philosophy and the penalty for blasphemy is 40 lashes, a large fine or a jail term. The British Embassy in Khartoum confirmed the arrest.

Ms Gibbons was a deputy headteacher at Liverpool's Dovecot Primary School from 2002 to this July when she left for Sudan.

Her MP, Louise Ellman, told Sky News: "This is very worrying. I understand Ms Gibbons is a very respected person, she is held in the highest regard and is seen as a person of the highest integrity.

"I'm in touch with the Foreign Office and it's right that they should be working hard to bring about a positive end."

What's sad is that Ms. Gibbons probably thought she was helping make the world a better place by giving up her deputy headteacher position in Liverpool to move to Sudan.  She also undoubtedly believed that allowing the students to name the teddy bear after Mohammed was culturally sensitive.  But sharia is apparently unforgiving of such inadvertent slights. 

Let's hope Sudan comes to its senses and refrains from meting out the harsh punishment of Islamic law.  If it continues down this path, Sudan will lose the most in the long run.

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Comments

[benning]

A silly woman, not to mention a not-so-good teacher. How could she go to the Sudan not knowing how easy it is to "offend" the fanatical Muzzie natives? I fear for her safety, but I wonder how fast she'll leave the country if she's "pardoned" by the Shari'a court. Or will she insist she can still teach there?