BBC: Teddy Bear Teacher “pardoned”

3 December 2007 · Comments 

The BBC has just reported that the British teacher at the centre of the Mohammed-named-teddy stupidity, Gillian Gibbons, has been pardoned by the Sudanese president al-Bashir after a meeting with two British muslim peers.

While I’m sure this will be seen in some circles (e.g. those of an islamic and/or political bent) as the Sudanese government being magnanimous, we shouldn’t forget that there wasn’t any crime in the first place.

Just because some muslims are so hyper-sensitive and thin-skinned — so much so that I’m surprised that their internal organs don’t spill onto the floor — that they take offence at the drop of a kufie, it doesn’t mean that us non-muslims should censor ourselves to pander to their insecurities, respect their beliefs or treat their fairy-tales as a reflection of reality. And the same goes for all other unproven myth-believers.

Gibbons has been pardoned, but she shouldn’t have been arrested and, most certainly not convicted, at all.

Now, al-Bashir, sort out the rest of that fucking mess of a country of yours, especially Darfur.

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Guardian: Woman arrested for naming teddy-bear “Mohammed”

26 November 2007 · Comments 

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.

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