Guardian: Woman arrested for naming teddy-bear “Mohammed”
Yeah, you read that right…
I really have no comment to make on this story, apart from a great big
What The Fuck?
A British teacher has been arrested in Sudan for letting her children name a teddy bear Mohammed, the British Embassy said.
Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was detained on Sunday on suspicion of insulting Islam’s prophet.
The teacher let her class of seven year olds choose the name as part of a school project.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We can confirm a British national was arrested by police in Sudan yesterday. We are providing consular assistance.”
A spokesman for the British Embassy in Khartoum said Ms Gibbons taught at Unity High School in central Khartoum.
He said: “The children chose the name because it is very common here.
No shit. Every other man in the islamic world, it seems, has one part or other of their name that’s a variation on Mohammed. Hell, even in the UK (variations on spelling aside) it’s now the second most common name for boys (after Jack).
I think a nice, slow round of applause for islam is deserved.
November 26th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
You wrote:
“Every other man in the islamic world, it seems, has one part or other of their name that’s a variation on Mohammed.”
I guess some would say that the difference is that naming a person after the Great One (I don’t mean Wayne Gretzky) is respectful, whereas naming a child’s toy after him is not. Sounds like BS to me.
I respectfully disagree with your suggestion of a “nice, slow round of applause.” May I suggest a loud, sloppy Bronx cheer instead?
November 26th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Why they feel a need to venerate a power-hungry misogynistic serial murderer with paedophiliac tendencies, I’ll never understand.
And I have no idea what a Bronx cheer is, but it sounds suitably insulting, so I’ll concur, if only to be introduced to a new method of showing distaste. :-)
November 26th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Wikipedia tastefully defines the Bronx cheer, also known as the raspberry as the sound that is, “made by sticking out the tongue between the lips and blowing to make a sound reminiscent of flatulence.”
November 26th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
We were going to blog about this, but I knew you would have never let it pass!
It really is insane. Oddly, BBC radio news slipped it in as if it was almost a non-event. It is stark raving bonkers.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
[...] The story about the teacher arrested in the Sudan for letting kids call a bear Mohammed is too obvious a blog topic for an atheist blog so I’m ignoring it. Someone else is bound to do it better. I bet on Nullifidian and, oh yes,it turns out that he’s he’s done it. [...]
November 27th, 2007 at 3:32 am
I wish the teacher’s experience would prevent all other non-muslims from going anywhere near any of their damn countries.
when will they learn!?
check out The Lady magazine, where many London based employment agencies advertise huge wages to nannies mad enough to travel to Dubai (or wherever); and i won’t bore you with stories of Australian nurses lured to Saudi by huge wages who then have their passports confiscated and find out they cannot escape because they are in a place With NO Roads!
and don’t get me started on the EVIL trade out of Australia of live sheep and cattle packed cruelly into multi-storied ships for long journeys through terrible heat before their ritual effing slaughter for halal diets.
don’t get me started on bloodymuslims.
a violent lot, for all their squawking about Faith
November 28th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
[...] teaching in Sudan has been arrested because she allowed her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed (see nullifidian’s post on the matter). Despite the fact this teddy was apparently named after one of the boys in the school, this has [...]
November 28th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
[...] teddy bear fiasco in Sudan doesn’t look like it is going away. Null’s WTF is a good starting point, and from there the Times Online takes up some of the [...]
November 28th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Why is calling chn mohammed not equally blood curdling for fundies????
Don’t get it!
kez
November 29th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
That’s what the teacher gets for trying to impart civilized values to savages.
Although I must wonder what would happen to a teacher in our civilized part of the world who allowed his or her class to name a teddy bear “Jesus Christ” or “God.” No flogging, I’d assume, but I’m sure there’d be a pretty serious tongue-lashing involved.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
[...] News 24 has just reported that Gillian Gibbons, the teacher at the centre of the Sudanese Mohammed Teddy stupidity, has been found guilty of “insulting religion”, and sentenced to 15 days in prison and [...]
December 29th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
W…T….F
there is a guy in my class named Mohammed,
so if i name a teddy bear Mohammed AM iii going to get arrested??!!!…. please….
how do they know it’s actually that Mohammed the child was talking about, even if it is, maybe the child find that Mohammed cute and good-looking or something(-___-) isn’t that a complement, how is that insulting, unless in the lslam tradition, teddy bear symbolize the devil or w/e, which i don’t remember that being in my s.s textbook
if a mother named a fat ugly, or teddy bear looking child Mohammed is her grandmother going get arrested for letting her name her child Mohammed??!!
i can’t believe she was arrested for letting her kid name a dam teddy bear
ok so…she let her child name a teddy bear Mohammed
what’s said is said,
wth was the mom suppose to to do??!!
turn back time and cover his/her mouth with duck tape??!!!