2008 Woodie Awards
Religious sensitivity, radicalism reason enough to become less involved
Richard Fogal
Issue date: 12/11/07 Section: Opinion
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Of course you have heard the news by now. A few weeks ago, a British schoolteacher named Gillian Gibbons, who had been selflessly donating her time to needy children in the third world state of Sudan, was arrested by that nation's Arab-led government (the very same government which is committing mass genocide against Africans in Darfur).
The arrest came after she polled her class of 7 year olds on what they should name the class teddy bear, a completely innocuous and innocent act in which nearly all of us partook in some fashion when we were in kindergarten and nursery school (I, for one, still remember my 'Mommy & Me' teddy bear picnics back in 1989). Well, the class voted, and, in honor of the most well-liked student in the class, chose to name the teddy bear "Mohammed."
You can pretty much guess what happened next.
Without knowing it, Ms. Gibbons's pupils and their cute, cuddly, button-nosed menace to Islam ignited an international firestorm of controversy. The teacher was accused of "insulting Islam" (Islam is strictly iconoclastic -- that is to say, images or representations of Mohammed are strictly forbidden) and detained.
Despite the fact that all of the students in her class, and many of their parents, as well as the West at large, had objected that her actions were not at all meant to be even remotely insulting, after a show trial before a Sudanese "court," Ms. Gibbons was actually found guilty of this ludicrous charge.
Ms. Gibbons was sentenced to a fortnight in jail (though she could have faced capital punishment according to Sudan's absurdly perplexing mix of British common law and Islamic Sharia law).
The very next day, hard-line jihadists (of the very same caliber as those who release a new videotape taunting America and Europe every two months or so) took to the streets, demanding capital punishment for Ms. Gibbons.
Imagine! The death penalty for naming a teddy bear the most common male name on Earth (and you thought Texas was liberal with their use of the death penalty).
The arrest came after she polled her class of 7 year olds on what they should name the class teddy bear, a completely innocuous and innocent act in which nearly all of us partook in some fashion when we were in kindergarten and nursery school (I, for one, still remember my 'Mommy & Me' teddy bear picnics back in 1989). Well, the class voted, and, in honor of the most well-liked student in the class, chose to name the teddy bear "Mohammed."
You can pretty much guess what happened next.
Without knowing it, Ms. Gibbons's pupils and their cute, cuddly, button-nosed menace to Islam ignited an international firestorm of controversy. The teacher was accused of "insulting Islam" (Islam is strictly iconoclastic -- that is to say, images or representations of Mohammed are strictly forbidden) and detained.
Despite the fact that all of the students in her class, and many of their parents, as well as the West at large, had objected that her actions were not at all meant to be even remotely insulting, after a show trial before a Sudanese "court," Ms. Gibbons was actually found guilty of this ludicrous charge.
Ms. Gibbons was sentenced to a fortnight in jail (though she could have faced capital punishment according to Sudan's absurdly perplexing mix of British common law and Islamic Sharia law).
The very next day, hard-line jihadists (of the very same caliber as those who release a new videotape taunting America and Europe every two months or so) took to the streets, demanding capital punishment for Ms. Gibbons.
Imagine! The death penalty for naming a teddy bear the most common male name on Earth (and you thought Texas was liberal with their use of the death penalty).
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