Filed under: Fraccing, News, Religion, Uproars, World | Tags: , 40 lashes, blasphemous, blasphemy, freedom, Gillian Gibbons, Islam, Islamic Sharia law, Muhammad, outrageous Islamic punishments, Prophet Muhammad, Sudan, teddy bear named Muhammad
Blasphemy in Sudan could lead to 40 lashes, jail, or a large fine. Apparently, naming your child isn’t, but naming a teddy bear Muhammad is considered blasphemy. In this article, I learned that Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, is facing something I as a Canadian, need never worry about. Well… so long as I don’t leave Canada to teach in Sudan.
Robert Boulos, the Unity director, said Gibbons was following a British National Curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals and their habitats. This year’s animal was the bear.
In September, she asked a girl to bring in her teddy bear to help the class focus and then asked the children to name the toy.
“They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad. Then she explained what it meant to vote and asked them to choose the name,” Boulos said.
Twenty out of the 23 children chose Muhammad. Each child was allowed to take the bear home for weekends and asked to keep a diary about what they did with the toy. Each entry was collected in a book with a picture of the bear on the cover, next to the message “My name is Muhammad.”
Regardless of where one reads about this story, one will find the same details.
Officials at the Unity High School, a private school where Gibbons teaches, say the teddy bear was part of a class project to teach her 7-year-old pupils about animals. She asked the students to name the bear and they chose the name Muhammad, a common name among Muslim men.
Gibbons is being charged with blasphemy, yet in Islamic Sharia law, for blasphemy to take place there must be an insult to the religion. If it’s an insult to name a teddy bear Muhammad, why is it not an insult for a person to name their child the same? Muhammad is a popular Islamic name, and yet, it is a certainty that some of the babies born and named Muhammad must surely grow up to act in a manner that would be considered blasphemous to the religion. Are the parents of such offenders taken out and jailed, receiving lashes?
They are not. Again, quoting The Jerusalem Post,
“There is a very big difference between the holy character of Prophet Muhammad and the name Muhammad given to a person,” he said, pointing out that it is the most widespread first name in the Arab world. “When somebody is named Muhammad by his parents and then turns out to be a thief, is it an insult to religion to say, ‘That Muhammad is a thief’? Of course not.”
So today, if you find this outrageous, create a post about it, link to this one and add your voice to the many…including the many people of Sudan who will recognize that if Gibbons is guilty of blasphemy and should receive those lashes, then so too, should the 23 children who voted for the name, and so too (in my logical and able to think as a free person because I am one) should the parents of every “Muhammad” out there who grew up and turned out to be a huge ass.
And then take a moment to be thankful that you live where you live and were born a free person who can get on a blog and type “ass” or choose to name your teddy whatever you wish.
Other related links:
This Hot Air article links to other cases of this type of “justice”.
This article deals with what can and can’t be named Muhammad.
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I read the Fox News story. Gah. That’s the most dumbass thing I’ve read in a long time. First of all, she did not name the bear. Twenty children did.
It’s a bit like the N word controversy. If using the name Muhammad is blasphemy, then they shouldn’t be naming children it, either. If it’s good for you, it’s good for me.
Does it outrage me? No. The fact that in Mali, you can buy a little boy for $30 USD or a full grown man for $90 USD to use as a slave and throw away when they wear out…. THAT outrages me.
The fact that full grown men pick up runaway little 13 year olds and take them to Atlanta and force them into prostitution.. THAT outrages me.
This? This is just dumbass. I would like to try see their point of view, but I can’t bend over far enough to shove my head that far up my butt. Hope the Brit govt goes to bat for the woman.
*sigh* Rant over.
Comment by linda November 29, 2007 @ 1:19 PMUm.. she could (or is, I have to check) be sentenced to lashings for it.
They’re trying to flout it as “Idolatry” to have named a bear, but other stories talk of a political nature to this whole thing because other times something like that goes without a fuss there.
The outrage is that someone could be sentenced to lashings for something like that… or like the additional examples in the Hot Air link at the bottom of my post, where a woman who was gang-raped was the one who gets punished with lashings for being in the presence of men she doesn’t know.
Women who live in those cultures are just as vulnerable as the little boy in Mali or the 13 year old girl in Atlanta.
These people are sick. No God would treat people like that. It’s not about their God, it’s about men who want to think they are God.
I hope every man who believes in such crap, who might be reading this understands one thing…
Their actions tell a WHOLE WORLD that they have little penises.
Comment by fracas November 29, 2007 @ 1:42 PMYes, I did read that she could be sentenced to lashings. That’s why I mentioned that I hope the British govt goes to bat for her.
The one about the woman being gang raped and punished with lashings for being in the presence of men she doesn’t know makes me want to do very bad things to the people who perpetuate that kind of thinking.
When you think about it, women who live in any culture are vulnerable. Did you know that 50% of Canadian women will be either raped or physically abused in her life? Or that every 2 minutes, an American women is being raped? Or that in Australia, in any given year, 20% of the women aged 18-24 will be a victim of violence?
Gah… can’t go there. It gets me too mad. Then I’ll end up hijacking your post and that’s not my intent. lol.
There’s a lot of sick people.
And small penises.
And even smaller brains.
As the saying goes, all that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
Which is why I hope the Brits stand up for the woman.
Comment by linda November 29, 2007 @ 2:16 PMLol, you sure can tell we’re sisters.
I thought you missed the part about the lashings. No matter how many times I hear that stuff, it makes me furious.
But you can hijack a post here anytime. I really don’t mind. I like a good fracas. ;-)
Comment by fracas November 29, 2007 @ 7:40 PMPLEASE…don’t anyone ever send me there!!!
Comment by Olga, the Traveling Bra November 30, 2007 @ 11:58 AMDear Fracas, please read my post today – I have something for you. :)
xoxoxo
~Olga
hi fracas, dearest sister! ;)
where have you been? or, maybe where have i been? *giggles*
sorry for the long dissapearance! ;) but, i’m all back again now! happy weekends! ;)
*twirls… now, you’re getting good at twirling! yayyy! probably daddyP will have problems with that!* ;)
Comment by baby November 30, 2007 @ 3:23 PMthe whole thing leaves me totally stunned…. there are bigger political evils a foot here…………. it is media and politics gone mad …. oh lets everyone including the fanatical looneys PLEASE just get a grip .. there is not an evil a fore thought here in the slightest, even devote Muslims I know & are friends are baulking at this
Comment by 70steen November 30, 2007 @ 5:57 PMI think it’s very interesting. We were discussing this on a messageboard and the REASON that this is consider blasphemy while naming children is not is because naming a child Muhammad is naming them in honor of basically. By naming a teddy bear is considered beneath a place of honor. But there is a LOT of outrage by Muslims in LOTS of other countries by the whole thing. However, as the TEACHER she SHOULD have KNOWN the rules/laws governing the country in which she was teaching. What are you doing teaching children if you are unaware of the culture you are teaching in? (No I don’t think she should be KILLED by any means but a few lashings isn’t going to kill her…it might be good for her.)
Comment by Carrie November 30, 2007 @ 10:12 PMI strongly believe that there are many Muslims who do not look upon this situation in the same way the Sudanese authorities did. I sincerely hope they will re-consider.
Comment by timethief November 30, 2007 @ 10:30 PMHow right you are.
I actually just posted an entry about caning as punishment in Malaysia. I’m from the US, but I’m currently living in Malaysia and as I learn about the country it hasn’t ceased to amaze me how vastly different this nation is from the good ‘ole US of A. Not saying US doesn’t have its problems, I just find it incredible how cultures can differ so much.
It can be pretty overwhelming to think of all the injustices dealt by the government’s own hand.
But I completely agree with you, people should be free to name their teddy bear any damn thing they want!
Comment by Jackqueline Lou December 1, 2007 @ 1:40 AMBarmy isn’t it? How the yellow rubbery fuck can a rather sweet classroom project be demonised into a crime against Islam? Madness.
I have a teddy bear. He is called ‘Teddy’. For which I deeply apologise to all members of the Kennedy and Roosevelt families.
Comment by misterwoppit December 1, 2007 @ 9:23 AMas the TEACHER she SHOULD have KNOWN the rules/laws governing the country in which she was teaching. What are you doing teaching children if you are unaware of the culture you are teaching in? (No I don’t think she should be KILLED by any means but a few lashings isn’t going to kill her…it might be good for her.)
Yes, she probably should have known. But obviously she didn’t. I fail to see how inflicting a lashing that breaks skin, causes bleeding and leaves scars for life would be “good for” anyone.
IMHO, one of the biggest problems with the human race is that too many of us seem to think that inflicting bodily damage on another human being is acceptable.
And no, I’m not a bleeding heart. Pedophiles and murderers and the like – I could fry without blinking.
As misterwoppit pointed out, it was a classroom project. With children. And good intent. Not a crime against Islam for cripes sakes.
That’s my biggest beef against religion of any sort. Too often, religion turns people into judgemental knobs that have lost any ability to have perspective. And yes, i believe in God. Just not sure I believe in religion.
*sigh*
Comment by linda December 1, 2007 @ 10:27 AMCheck this out:
Comment by Olga, the Traveling Bra December 1, 2007 @ 1:06 PMhttp://whenyouronlytoolisahammer.blogspot.com/2007/11/just-in-time-for-christmas.html
oooo Olga ….. there will be a Fatwa (goodness knows how you spell it ) out on you
Comment by 70steen December 1, 2007 @ 3:19 PMI’m wondering if the focus here couldn’t be directed towards writing letters to pressure the Sudanese to reconsider and let Gillian Gibbons out of prison.
Comment by timethief December 1, 2007 @ 4:18 PMThanks all for your comments. I know you all know I was busy during this time playing nurse. It’s nice to know you all feel comfortable enough at fracas to just carry on even if I disappear for a bit. Keep on doing that… I’ll leave wine and cheese (okay, and that icky beer drink) and some good coffee and chocolate in the fridge for when I’m not here.
;-)
Comment by fracas December 5, 2007 @ 10:48 AM