As every one in Britain is probably aware, Gillian Gibbons, a British teacher in Sudan, has been sentanced to 15 days for allowing her pupils to name the class Teddy Bear Mohammed. This apparently was so anti-Islam, so hateful, so calculated to insult Muslims, she had to be punished. 15 days in a third world prison, with a crowd of a 1000 protesting, some demanding the death penalty.
Radio 5 phone in this morning seemed to divide into two camps- the “punish the wogs” type, and the “it’s her own fault for not researching the culture” band.
This is nothing to do with religeon. This is a classic case of people being used. Yes there are a few nutters to whom this is such a great insult that they want her dead. But they are a minority. There are Christian fundies in the US who would be no better, a point to remember before listening to those who would shout about Muslim barbarians. There are also too many so called “jihaddis” who seem to take offence at every little comment.
I do not believe that this has anything to do with religeon. Saddam wrapped himself in Islam to defy the West, though he seemed really not to care that much- Tariq Aziz, his PM is Christian, changing his name to fit in. Baghdad also has a synagog.
Likewise the Sudanese government is allowing its self the same luxury- using the religeous extremists to mask the position. Western governments know what the message is- they understand exactly what the Sudanese dictator ship is saying. “Stay out of Darfur”.
Sudan has been under sustained pressure over its actions in Darfur. Gibbons is a handy patsy. The message is clear “Intervene, and we will manufacture religeous hatred”. The Sudanese government are playing to the gallery, the same way as Saddam did- there will always people guillible enough to believe you are their hero, and an attack on you is an attack on them. It is just possible those protesters are helping to continue their own repression.
Saturday, 1 December, 2007 at 12:32 am |
try these guys views on the subject of the teddy bear
http://thewayweseeit.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/muhammad-the-teddy-bear/
Saturday, 1 December, 2007 at 12:58 am |
Its outrageous that this kind of bigotry goes unanswered by the British Goverment. Ive posted a verse to try and dispel some of my anger on my blog, but hell, Im still angry!
Saturday, 1 December, 2007 at 1:17 am |
Danny- that site has to be a spoof. No one could be that stupid. Fundies argue different to that.
Kevmoore- the problem every government has is- what do you do? The actions they have taken are, in international diplomacy terms, quite strong. The only action I’ve heard proposed is cut off aid. That won’t hurt the government, merely thousands of people who know only what the government tell them. If people starve the government will blame the west, not themselves. And the people will believe them.
Sunday, 2 December, 2007 at 1:32 am |
The whole thing is fucked up. Using a poor teacher and citizens…
Sunday, 2 December, 2007 at 11:43 am |
Update- British Muslims protest calling for Gibbons release outside Sudanese Embassy in London. They were wielding teddies.
Sunday, 16 December, 2007 at 12:49 pm |
I’m sitting in Saudi Arabia at the moment where it was kind of a neutral report (the Saudi’s were having enough problems with the Girl from Qatif and the Mansour and Fatima divorce). Trouble is, there are a number of sophisticated Muslims in developed countries and there are a number of less sophisticated ones developing ones. But many of them have a strong sense of belief in their religion.
Even here, magic is still believed true – see http://thomo.coldie.net/middle-east/vice-cops-unearth-magical-objects-hidden-in-graves/ for a report on a recent case. The Gibbons episode in the Sudan may not have been a put-up by the government but that local members of the population were generally incensed by the naming.
However, it is easy to take an incident like this, or like the death of the Muslim girl in Canada apparently killed by her father, and say “Islam is broken because of all these things happening”. Wasn’t there a Christian in the UK pushing a blasphemy case just recently. There are kooks everywhere.
The important thing is to be aware of your surroundings and what you can and can’t do in them. Anyone who has read an English language newspaper from a Muslim country and seen the acronym ‘pbuh’ after the name Mohammed would have half an inkling that there was something special about the name.
And – nice blog Ian
Cheers, Thomo the Lost <– well able to Google
Sunday, 16 December, 2007 at 11:09 pm |
Thomo you old nipple-painter. How the devil are you! Didn’t realise you were still on the Yahoo group.
I wouldn’t necessarily say “Islam is broken because x,y,z”, I haven’t much time for any form of religeous fundementalism (see http://lasthussar.wordpress.com/2007/11/19/hussar-vs-the-persuaders/). However the loonies in Islam do seem more extreme than Christian loonies.
While I am sure there were a few locals ready to act the Islamic version of Daily Mail readers, the whole way it was handled by the authorities means they are either 1) clueless- and clueless dictatorships have a life expectancy measured in how quickly their enemies can open the armoury or 2) Willing to ’spin’ this for all its worth- remember there was a Muslim classroom assistant who surely should have been aware if it was going to be an obvious problem.
PS I assume you found me via the wargame rules- Feel free to leave a comment on that thread.
Monday, 17 December, 2007 at 4:06 am |
I found you purely from the challenge you tossed to Ransome the Technophobe … took me about 18 seconds to find here and it would have taken less time except I misspelled Ian