Teddybear name diplomatic incident

E

Elphaba

Guest
Anyone incensed about teacher in Sudan who permitted her students to name
a teddybear Mohammed, part of a school project where kids kept a diary about teddybear, an innocent lesson for them in repsonsibility, and now she has been charged with blasphemey and is in jail. Where is the logic behind this, all I can see is an evil madness, that is unsettling and appearing far too frequently. I wish the foreign office in U.K. would challenge this charge at the highest level.
 
Two things struck me about this;

1. The teacher didn't name the bear, the kids did.
2. If a teacher in and Irish school, in Ireland, named a teddy bear 'This post will be deleted if not edited immediately' and asked kids to take This post will be deleted if not edited immediately home and write stories etc... One or two eyebrows may have been raised.
 
This post will be deleted if not edited immediately isn't a popular name here though. I'd hazard a guess that one or two of those kids are named Mohammad.

While I can understand sensitivities surrounding the issue - no images or idolatory - when I see quotes like this one below I find it hard to keep the cultural relativism going:

"What has happened was not haphazard or carried out of ignorance, but rather a calculated action and another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam," the Sudanese Assembly of the Ulemas said in a statement.
Click to expand...
Hopefully common sense will prevail and she'll just get a small fine, the law allows this.
 
The most popular boy in the class was actually called Mohammed... The kids voted on the best name and picked this one, maybe because of the boy in the class or maybe just because its a very common name and obviously means something to them at such a young age

Either way its using religion as a platform to punish somebody and its taken way to far in my opinion (the authorities that is and not the teacher)
 
diarmuidc said:
Maybe, but she would not have been arrested, charged and potentially whipped with a lash as a result.
Click to expand...

You haven't met my Step-Father in law, who has come out with such gems as

People should be shot for calling a child This post will be deleted if not edited immediately

Madonna should be whipped for blaspheming the holy mother


(basically any one who isn't a white catholic gets this treatment from him):(
 
I feel when you go to countries like this, this is the sort of madness imho that you can expect. The cultures, beliefs, value systems, crime and punishment are polar opposites from our own. It seems they are trying to make an example of her, I wonder if she was from their culture would the issue have been such a problem especially in the light of the children choosing the name.
 
While I do have sympathy with this individual I can't help thinking that she has been a little naive.

There are certain things that you shouldn't do in certain countries...

In Germany - make jokes about the holocaust
In Ireland - name a racehorse The Virgin Mary
In USA - dress up as Bin Laden in a Texan bar

She must have known the sensitivities of the country that she had chosen to live/work in. Her punishment does seem mad to us - but I'm sure there are plenty of areas of Irish culture that seem mad to the Sudanese...
 
shanegl said:
"What has happened was not haphazard or carried out of ignorance, but rather a calculated action and another ring in the circles of plotting against Islam," the Sudanese Assembly of the Ulemas said in a statement.
Click to expand...

Yet another example of fundamentalist religious zealots in insecure, paranoid hyper-sensitivity mode. :rolleyes:
 
JP1234 said:
You haven't met my Step-Father in law, who has come out with such gems as

People should be shot for calling a child This post will be deleted if not edited immediately

Madonna should be whipped for blaspheming the holy mother


(basically any one who isn't a white catholic gets this treatment from him):(
Click to expand...

From what I remember reading years ago, in a lot of Latin countries This post will be deleted if not edited immediately is a very popular boys name.
 
Sometimes it feels that western values are under threat by so called religous people. Alot of religious stuff is superstition anyways.
 
Unfortunately she should have been more atuned to the sensibilities of the country she was in - perhaps warned by the school head of the religous sensibilities of the Suadanese.
I'm not condoning their actions - completely wrong imho - but she should have been more atuned to where she was.

Having said that its a bit rich that we've to fall in line with local traditions when we travel to such countries whereas they expect us to accept their traditions when coming here.
EG Certain muslim women wear full head dress here but if western women wore shorts there they'd most likely be locked up or flogged.
 
FredBloggs said:
Unfortunately she should have been more atuned to the sensibilities of the country she was in - perhaps warned by the school head of the religous sensibilities of the Suadanese.
Click to expand...

I wonder what would have happened if after the children had voted to call the teddy Mohammed, she refused to allow it - would this also have been an insult?

Sudan is the country that has given the world Darfur by the way, so focusing on this particular case which involves a single westerner seems a little rich to me.

There are some good articles and discussions over on the Richard Dawkins website about this incident - here are some:
link

[broken link removed]

[broken link removed]
 
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FredBloggs said:
its a bit rich that we've to fall in line with local traditions when we travel to such countries whereas they expect us to accept their traditions when coming here.
EG Certain muslim women wear full head dress here but if western women wore shorts there they'd most likely be locked up or flogged.
Click to expand...


Well said. With almost 1 % of the Irish population now muslim, and rising, we are following countries like England , France + Germany, which have much bigger muslim minorities.....these people are generally allowed - and rightfully so - full rights. But I believe that even in places like most of Saudi Arabia no Christian churches are allowed to be built.
 
gianni said:
There are certain things that you shouldn't do in certain countries...

In Germany - make jokes about the holocaust
In Ireland - name a racehorse The Virgin Mary
In USA - dress up as Bin Laden in a Texan bar
...
but I'm sure there are plenty of areas of Irish culture that seem mad to the Sudanese...
Click to expand...

Like calling a high-profile Dublin City Centre Chinese restaurant after Mao, a despot responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of innocents?

Superman said:
Sudan is the country that has given the world Darfur by the way, so focusing on this particular case which involves a single westerner seems a little rich to me.
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So if a country is responsible for a major human rights catastrophe, you think that they should be immune from criticism for relatively minor human rights breaches?
 
redstar said:
Yet another example of fundamentalist religious zealots in insecure, paranoid hyper-sensitivity mode. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Precisely, they draw uneccessary negative attention to themselves,
and mainstream muslims. Another case in saudi where a woman is been charged with adultery after being gang raped. (Her husband is standing by her, and it is being challenged in court, the decision is being reviewed, which is very unusual, but good) Honour killings on the rise in U.K. If a daughter/wife shames her husband, his religion allows him to kill her, so he can redeem family honour. What man in their right mind, after washing his hands of it, can breathe a sigh of relief and continue life normally..it defies an explanation. What is clearly obvious is the gross injustices been suffered by women in these countries.
 
I see Gillian Gibbons has been sentenced to 15 days in prison, to be followed by deportation.
Well hey, isn't she "lucky". After all, according to Sudan's "top clerics", this was part of a Western plot against Islam.


Unreal :(
 
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