'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested

A British school teacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, said she made an "innocent mistake" by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name.

Ms Gibbons was arrested after several parents made complaints.

A spokesman from the British Embassy in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, said it was unclear whether she had been charged.

Embassy officials are expected to visit Ms Gibbons in custody later.

"We are in contact with the authorities here and they have visited the teacher and she is in a good condition," an embassy spokesman said.

The spokesman said the naming of the teddy happened months ago and was chosen by the children because it is a common name in the country.

"This happened in September and the parents did not have a problem with it," he said.

The BBC's correspondent Amber Henshaw said Ms Gibbons' punishment could be up to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine.

The school has been closed until January for fear of reprisals.

'Very sensitive'

Fellow teachers at Khartoum's Unity High School told Reuters news agency they feared for Ms Gibbons' safety after receiving reports that men had started gathering outside the police station where she was being held.

The school's director, Robert Boulos, said: "This is a very sensitive issue. We are very worried about her safety.

"This was a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam."

Mr Boulos said Ms Gibbons was following a British national curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals and this year's topic was the bear.

So Ms Gibbons, who joined the school in August, asked a seven-year-old girl to bring in her teddy bear and asked the class to pick names for it, he said.

"They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad," Mr Boulos said.

"Then she explained what it meant to vote and asked them to choose the name."

Twenty out of the 23 children chose Muhammad as their favourite name.

Mr Boulos said each child was then allowed to take the bear home at weekends and told to write a diary about what they did with it.

He said the children's entries were collected in a book with a picture of the bear on the cover and a message which read, "My name is Muhammad."

The bear itself was not marked or labelled with the name in any way, he added.

It is seen as an insult to Islam to attempt to make an image of the Prophet Muhammad.

Book seized

Mr Boulos said Ms Gibbons was arrested on Sunday at her home inside the school premises after a number of parents complained to Sudan's Ministry of Education.

He said police had seized the book and asked to interview the girl who owned the bear.

The country's state-controlled Sudanese Media Centre reported that charges were being prepared "under article 125 of the criminal law" which covers insults against faith and religion.

No-one at the ministries of education or justice was available for comment.

One Muslim teacher at the school, who also has a child in Ms Gibbons' class, said she had not found the project offensive.

"I had no problem with it at all," the teacher said.

"I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote."

Unity is an independent school for Christian and Muslim children and is governed by a board representing major Christian denominations in Sudan.

Cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad printed in several European newspapers sparked violent protests around the world in 2006.

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | 'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested

Are these people so insecure in their beliefs they have to devote so much time to foolishness.

Pathetic.

sharia law.......always makes me wonder

if thats the law of sudan thats the law of sudan, question is....is the law being applied correctly and interpreted correctly

did the teacher not research anything about the sharia laws there and how they are applied.

i do think its stupid, surely they the police and parents can do something better with their time, surely sudan has more pressing issues such as the crisis in Darfur region

Dont ask me why but i found this part of the story amusing,

If found guilty, then she faces:

40 LASHES

Rofl.

Muslims tolerate all kinds of insults and abuse from non-believers all the time. In these various forums, we especially take a lot from from non-beleivers. The fact is, no matter at what level we take a stand and try to defend ourselves, our religion and our community, non-believeers and/or dis-believers almost always fail to get the point. And, the point is very, very simple: leave Islam alone.

Bleieve me, I try hard to avoid even so much as mentioning Christianity or even Judaism or any other religion. But, every one of these forums have a section IN it about "spirituality". And, every one of them have something negative to say about Islam. Just as annoying is the way Christians constantly preach to us vasrious lies based in some ridiculous Christain dogma or doctrine.

I think that stupid teacher is getting off rather lightly. She knew she was wrong form the start. It should not have taken Sudanese patriots to file complaints against her to get the authorities to take action and arrest her. And, let there be no mistake about it: believers had to file charges against this woman before the police could do anything. Sudan is a Muslim country with a very small Christian minority. Its laws are based to some degree in the traditional Sharia or Islamic Law. It reflects the values and ideas of ul-Ummah or Muslim Community. It would take a fool, and this woman is obviously such a fool, to go into a country like Sudan and deliberately insult any of the prophets (Peace and bBlessings be upon them all). It would have almost as bad had she named the animal Jesus or Moses or Abraham or any of the prophets. This is something that is never done in Islam. We do not insult Jesus (Peace and Belssings be upon him).

In a few word, I will say this: when in Rome do as the Romans would have you to do. When in Sudan, do as the Sudanese would have you to do. Sudan is Muslim country. LONG LIVE SUDAN!

edit

white woman....muslim country...aint shit to do with me

Vezz.
Although the Sudanese government may impose that kind of punishment to their people doesn't mean that every Muslim in their country have those same feelings,it's just that they have no real say so over what goes on in their part of the world especially when you have a dictator as your president. In countries like Saudi Arabia, and even North Sudan in this case.there are many of it's citizens are opposed to strict shari'a laws as we all seen with the Persian gulf was several years. Even this year they had a mini demonstration of it and not all of them in protest we're women , a great deal of them were men. As one, South Indian Imam told me during a class project for a religion project, just because the rules are imposed on the people doesn't necessarily mean that the people agree with them. He even said he didn't agree with the Strict rules in Saudi Arabia, where he once lived --and which was why he came to the US.

I have never felt that it belonged with the government. There are some people who have their interpretations of their faith and some of them use it for their own benefit. Far as that teacher, what she got wasn't right, but that is in the Sudan, if the laws say that she cannot name her bear Mohammed then it's something that she has to respect, but there are a lot of guys in the Sudan and all over the world and some who aren't even Muslim with that name, but it doesn't make their parent's blasphemous because of it. I guess maybe they mistook her naming the bear Mohammed as an insult , but I didn't think that she meant no harm in it. I think the government official have gone overboard with it.

Do you know anybody in a Christian society who would call a toy Jesus? No because the religion is respected.
I wonder what would've happened if it was a Muslim woman encouraging children to call teddy bears Jesus?
Some people always never mean to be insulting or offensive when caught doing so. We don't buy that anymore and sorry will not do! (Next she'll be saying she's got Muslim friends).

40 or more lashes are in order I'd say.