It all started with a bear named Muhammad
December 3, 2007
A British primary school teacher spent over a week in Sudanese prison because of a teddy bear named Muhammad. Apparently Sudan is very persnickety about blasphemy and the teacher, Gibbons, could have faced a public lashing or up to six months in jail for allowing the bear to bare the name of the Islamic prophet. The Sudanese president found it in his heart to pardon her this morning and said she would be sent home to England immediately. I find it hard to believe that Muhammad would be terribly offended by the blasphemous teddy bear, but the school thinks the possible backlash from Islamic extremists is a serious possibility and has decided to close down until January. It’s a crazy world we live in.
Note to self: When in Sudan, do not let a group of seven-year-olds name the class teddy bear.
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. .
2 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1.
Julie | December 9, 2007 at 4:14 am
I see how most people, especially Americans, would see this incident as outrageous. Having lived a great portion of my life outside the U.S., I’ve learned that it’s not only knowing and understanding another culture that is a crucial fact of life, but respecting the customs of those where you are living. Although I do not agree with the school teacher’s arrest, I do understand that naming a toy after a religious prophet is a serious cultural taboo for many countries.
2.
mynameismegan | December 10, 2007 at 3:45 am
I grew up on military bases and had to deal with my father being deployed to foreign countries on a regular basis. He taught me from an early age that you need to be conscious and respectful of other cultures and their customs, but I think in this case it was blown out of proportion and had less to do with cultural differences and more to do with disgruntled individuals who wanted to get rid of the teacher and saw the bear as an excuse to become indignant. Even parents of the children in the class said that they supported the teacher and didn’t see why it was being made such a big issue.
It was made clear that the issue stemmed from an innocent mistake; the bear was named after the most popular boy in the class, not the prophet. At the most, the person in charge at the school should have sat down with the teacher, discussed why the bear’s name could be seen as inappropriate or disrespectful, and either changed the bear’s name or gotten rid of it. There was no reason for this to become headline news.