A bear named mohammed

[Harrison]

I know this is against the forum rules, being that it is religious and political, but what is everyone's thoughts regarding the recent events over the English teacher working in Sudan being arrested because she got her class of 7 year old children to name a Teddy Bear and they called it Mohammed?

It wasn't even her who named it, one of the children did. And they named the bear after their own name, not the profit, who's name is incidentally normally spelt Mohammad with an A, whereas this child and the bears name is spelt with an E. Although there appears to be many variations so that isn't really of importance.

And she could have received time in jail and 40 lashings for the offence against their religion, but has instead now just been given a few days in jail followed by deportation.

The maddest thing was that she was teaching in a Christian school who were happy to also include Muslim children from the local area. So why should the faith of a different religion be the one to take president over the one of the actual school in question?

Someone who used to live and work in the area posted an interesting statement on a news forum I was reading yesterday. They stated that this trouble wouldn't have been because of the teddy bear incident at all, and that was just the way to pin something on this English teacher. The real reason is more likely to be because she was too good at her job and was showing someone up, most likely a native teacher or someone of more power in the country. Sounds more like it to me.

We all know how religion can easily cloud logic and judgement, but it seems the Muslim faith is quickly spiralling out of control and is quickly heading for a period similar to the dark ages Europe experienced for 100s of years. It maddens me to think that in this time of technological advance that so many people are still blindly following illogic faith to the point of barbarism and death.

[Buleste]

From what i've heard it's little to do with the teacher and little to do with Islam. It's more like Sudanese polititians getting the own back on the West for criticising Darfur. Whilst it was not the teachers fault that the kids wanted to name the bear Mohammed, She should have been a bit more sensible and sensitive knowing how volatile Sudan is at the moment. As for the faith of the school being christian it's irrelevant as Sudan is a muslim country just as we expect muslim schools in Britain not to disobey our laws so christian schools in Sudan should obey sudanese laws.

At the end of the day it is political gesturing by the Sudanese government trying to gain some power back due to the ongoing problems in Darfur.

[AlexJ]

The key quote for this particular case is:

"God does not forgive idol worship (if maintained until death), and He forgives lesser offenses for whomever He wills. Anyone who idolizes any idol beside God has strayed far astray." (Qur'an 4:116)

It all therefore rests on whether naming this teddy bear after a prophet consitutes "idol worship". I think most regular people would agree that it certainly does not, especially as the teacher was unaware that it could be taken that way. How do you worship an idol if you aren't aware that what you've created is an idol?

It does indeed seem like they simply tried to find something to pin on a Western teacher working at a Christian school. Racism basically.

[Harrison]

just as we expect muslim schools in Britain not to disobey our laws

It seems that someone forgot to tell them this then!

The thing that amuses me even more is that the child who named the bear also had the name. Surely his parents are therefore guilty of the same crime being that they also named their child after the profit? As are a large majority of people in Muslim countries.

[Stephen Coates]

I was going to wait a while until I could write a good post about this subject, but I just heard on the radio that extremists are saying that she should be executed.

I understand why they may feel offended by having the bear called Mohammed, but going as far as sending her to prison is too much for such an offence in my opinion, never mind execution.

I think this is getting a bit ridiculous now.

[Harrison]

Ridiculous indeed. The most important thing you mentioned is that these people are extremists. But the bad thing is that it is these extremists who are the clerics and religious leaders of the main Muslim groups and factions, and due to a majority of Muslim countries being third world and with poor education these religious leaders have easy control over the populous and can easily influence the opinions of a whole country.

[Sharingan]

Some folks need to loosen up. Seriously.

It's scary how religion has been (mis)used for wanton violence and destruction throughout the ages. I find it hard to believe how people can so easily be manipulated into doing things any rational human would cringe at doing.

[Submeg]

very sad, I just don't get it...religion should not be used in the running of a country. It just does not work

[Harrison]

Umm... name a country who's rules and politics are not written under the shadow of a religion? British Law, which is also the basis for law in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many commonwealth countries contains many Christian references, as does the constitution of most of these countries. The same is true of the USA who actually state "One country under one god".

Have you all heard the latest? There have now been large crowds of Muslin extremists marching in the streets of the Sudanese city of Khartoum protesting that they now want the teacher to be put to death!

So the UK is sending out a Muslim Labour peer, Lord Ahmed, to meet with the Sudanese President to ask for her release.

[FOL]

The Worlds Gone Mad,