Teacher faces whipping over toy bear

[pegkerr]

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday that officials were working to secure the early release of a British teacher who faces being whipped in Sudan after she allowed her class to name a teddy bear "Mohammed."

It's hard to know what to say about this jaw-dropping story. Respect for other religions, yeah, yeah, but come on. I wonder what the Prophet might have thought about his followers raising respect for his name practically to the point of idolatry.

Edited to add: I also wonder why it doesn't seem to occur to anyone to also give 40 lashes to the 20 out of 23 kids in the classroom who voted to give the teddy bear the name "Mohammed."

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

The comment- "If the intentions are good, definitely she will be absolved and will be cautioned not to repeat this thing again," Mutrif Siddig, Sudan's under secretary for foreign affairs, said." certainly takes the bite out of opening line of the article, sounds like they're quite reasonable about it.

My question is, how on earth can she live there and teach there and be oblivious to the fact that this was a bad idea and poor choice?

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

People are routinely named "Mohammed" in that culture. Knowing it was inappropriate for a toy bear might not be obvious, especially if visiting teachers are mostly kept isolated from the locals outside of the classroom.

And, as has been pointed out, 20 of the 23 kids in the class thought it was appropriate.

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

Ah. Well, I'd think that in that case it would clearly indicate her intentions were good and she was taking her cues from the kids.

[rabican.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the article itself is straightforward and comparatively reasonable in contrast to the headline - she hasn't even been charged with anything, only detained.

Now, I do think it's ridiculous that she's being temporarily held without charges over the name of a teddy bear, but that's not the same thing as 40 lashes or 6 months in prison.