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

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

"Way to go, guys", perhaps?

[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?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Also 40 lashes to any parents who name their child Mohammed.

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

As I am currently in the UK the press this is getting is interesting. They are concentrating on the fact that the kids voted for the name, and that she has only been there since August and thus she may not have been aware of the implications.
I must admit I struggle with the fact its okay to call your kid Mohammed by not an inanimate object...(though some kids do damn good impressions of inanimate objects).

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

Maybe they should compromise, and give her 20 lashes.

(No, I'm not serious. Nor, for that matter, do I think that the gang rape victim in Saudi Arabia should have been sentenced to, now, 200 lashes.)

[sternel.livejournal.com]

I'd say lash the teddy bear, but since it's been named Mohammed, that means they'd be beating on the prophet, wouldn't it...

[ceilidh]

For heaven's sake. It's not like she named something vulgar/offensive with that name, or named something that was clearly intended to be used in a rude way.

Teachers: We're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I thought that the entire reason that the term "Mohammedan" is offensive is exactly because it implies that followers of Islam deify the prophet Mohammed.

[trogon.livejournal.com]

She has been found guilty, and sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation (a much lighter sentence than it could have been):

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/reuters-sudan.html

As it happens, the name of the judge in the case was Mohammed. (Given the popularity of the name in the culture, it would have been surprising if one of the major participants *hadn't* had that name.)