Common Sense Political Thought

She got lucky

29 November 2007, 2:19 pm by Dana Pico

Teacher guilty in ‘Muhammad’ teddy bear case

She avoids whip, but Sudan court orders 15 days in prison, deportation

KHARTOUM, Sudan - A British teacher â€” accused of inciting religious hatred by allowing her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad â€” was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation from Sudan, her lawyer said Thursday.

Gillian Gibbons could have been sentenced to up to 40 lashes, six months in jail or a fine. The final verdict was at the discretion of a judge who held the brief trial.

Gibbons, in a dark blue jacket and blue dress, was not handcuffed when she walked into the courtroom in Khartoum, according to reporters who were briefly allowed inside but were subsequently dismissed.

I would guess that international pressure and the British Foreign Office led to this result. I’d imagine that a Sudanese jail isn’t the most pleasant vacation spot, but she could have gotten six months in there, along with the lash.

Category: Crime and Punishment, Foreign Lack Of Policy, Foreign Policy, War Against Islamic Fascism | Comment (RSS) | Trackback

8 Comments

Rovin:

Imagine if she had named the little bear “Wee-Willy-Muhammad”

Still no,(NONE-ZERO-ZELCH) statement from CAIR or the NOW gang……pathetic
29 November 2007, 7:35 pm
Yorkshire:

Great PR move by Sudan and Saudi on their handling of this case and the rape victim getting 200 lashes for the tenderness and forgiving mode of Islam.
29 November 2007, 9:21 pm
Around the Horn Friday: Mmmmm, Uterus Edition « DelawareLiberal.Net:

[...] Common Sense Political Thought has the story for us of the Briton in Sudan that almost got 40 lashes for insulting Islam (by naming a Teddy Bear Muhammed). [...]
30 November 2007, 6:03 am
Art Downs:

One should not forget that Sudan is still rather tolerant of slavery. Christian tribesmen are often enslaved by Muslims.

Perhaps another Mahdi skull needs to be made into a desk ornament.
30 November 2007, 6:34 am
EtheWise:

I’d say this post is aptly titled considering the throngs of “peaceful” Islamists gathered outside the courthouse calling for her death.
30 November 2007, 12:44 pm
pgwarner:

Insensitivity Training is what I sometimes think the BBC needs but there are limits. On todayâ€™s six-o-clock news, a BBC reporter spoke of the â€˜insensitivityâ€™ of the school teacher in Sudan who allowed her class to name their teddy bear â€˜Mohamedâ€™.

Great Site, check it out.
30 November 2007, 7:01 pm
Dana Pico:

It seems that many of the Sudanese people believe that Miss Gibbons is getting off too lightly:

Sudanese Call for Execution of Briton
By MOHAMED OSMAN,AP

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Nov. 30) - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.”

The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pickup trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation. She avoided the more serious punishment of 40 lashes.

They massed in central Martyrs Square outside the presidential palace, where hundreds of riot police were deployed. They did not try to stop the rally, which lasted about an hour.

“Shame, shame on the U.K.,” protesters chanted.

They called for Gibbons’ execution, saying, “No tolerance: Execution,” and “Kill her, kill her by firing squad.”

The women’s prison where Gibbons is being held is far from the square.

Several hundred protesters, not openly carrying weapons, marched about a mile away to Unity High School, where Gibbons worked. They chanted slogans outside the school, which is closed and under heavy security, then marched toward the nearby British Embassy. They were stopped by security forces two blocks away from the embassy.

The protest arose despite vows by Sudanese security officials the day before, during Gibbons’ trial, that threatened demonstrations after Friday prayers would not take place. Some of the protesters carried green banners with the name of the Society for Support of the Prophet Muhammad, a previously unknown group.

Many protesters carried clubs, knives and axes - but not automatic weapons, which some have brandished at past government-condoned demonstrations. That suggested Friday’s rally was not organized by the government.

A Muslim cleric at Khartoum’s main Martyrs Mosque denounced Gibbons during one sermon, saying she intentionally insulted Islam. He did not call for protests, however.

“Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion,” the cleric, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a well-known hard-liner, told worshippers.

“This an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad,” he said. . . . .

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, said Gibbons’ prosecution and conviction was “an absurdly disproportionate response to what is at worst a cultural faux pas.”

Here’s where Western liberals need to learn a very hard lesson: What Dr Williams has described as “at worst a cultural faux pas” is not just a faux pas to the Muslims; to them, it was blasphemy, something punishable by harsher treatment than Miss Gibbons will receive, and what many of the Sudanese believe ought to be punished far more harshly than even their law allows.

THis is what happens when smug Westerners go into a foreign land and just assume that everybody thinks and reasons like Westerners.
1 December 2007, 8:33 am
Mike:

THE HELL WITH SUDAN AND THE WHOLE SORRY LOT OF HYPOCRITES WHO KILL, TORTURE, ENSLAVE AND ABUSE HUMAN BEINGS IN THE NAME OF ISLAM. IF ANYONE OF THE SORRY BASTARDS LAID A HAND ON THAT LADY, IT WOULD BE MY HOPE THAT THE U.S. AND THE BRITS MADE SHORT ORDER OF SUDAN AND WIPE OUT THE WHOLE DAMN BUNCH.

OUR PROBLEM AS WESTERNERS IS WE SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO OUR OWN BUSINESS, AND LET SUDAN WALLOW IN THEIR OWN PITIFUL EXISTENCE. THE SAME HOLDS TRUE FOR THE REST OF THE THIRD WORLD. THEY CAN’T STAND AMERICANS OR ANYONE FROM THE WEST. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO LEARN? THEY’VE BEEN FIGHTING IN THESE COUNTRIES FOR 2000 YEARS. IT’S TIME TO PAY ATTENTION TO OUR OWN AND STOP BEING BLEEDING HEARTS FOR ANY COUNTRY WHO WILLINGLY TAKES BUT GIVES NOTHING BUT MISERY IN RETURN.
12 December 2007, 11:17 pm