The Sudanese Teddy Bear Part II
December 11th, 2007So, I went around the web, reading newspaper accounts, editorials, and blogs about the incident. I’ve read from American, British, and Islamic sources.
Apparently, in the West, there was a lot of outcry among moderate Muslims because obviously, this makes Islam look bad. And I’m glad moderates are speaking out. For the sake of P.R., speak out more, by all means.
Here’s the full story of what happened. The school teacher asked her 7-year-old students what to name the class teddy bear. They decided on Mohammad. No biggie, right? Well, when the authorities found out what happened, she was sent to trial and sentenced to fifteen days in prison.
Protests erupted, and some of the protests led to riots. Many of the protesters, carrying swords and clubs, demanded death, as “that bitch” (words of the protesters, not mine) was intentionally mocking Islam and committing blasphemy.
The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir originally declared the sentence fair as is until a British delegation met with him and convinced him to pardon her.
It amazes me. Dead silence when 220,000 people are killed in Darfur, but a teacher allows some seven-year-olds to name the class teddy bear Mohammad and all hell breaks lose. Yeah, that will really boost the Sudanese tourism industry.
And to those who think I’m being unfair picking on a poor, backwards nation, pick up a history book, will ya? Sudan had a jumpstart on us American newbies by about 2600 years. The Kush once conquered Egypt and actually ruled for a dynasty. They built pyramids too, just not as neat-o as the Egyptian ones so they don’t get all that warm and fuzzy tourism money.
After the Kush came and went, the Nubian Christians were quite powerful for their time, before the nation converted to Islam over a period of many centuries. The whole country isn’t Islamic, as there is still a sizeable Christian minority, as well as pagans.
I won’t get into the whole British imperialism crap and the civil wars; I’m just saying Sudan wasn’t always ass backwards. Maybe this will be a wake-up call to get with the times. Or at least, we can hope.
I came here through Tweetey, your blanket and so on, I saw your name many times but never took the trouble to clic on your link, sorry about that,I just love what you wrote today, clear, clever and interesting, i agree with you 100%.
yo umake an excellent point that the outcry over one western teacher is disproportionate to the silence over the genocide in darfur and even prior to darfur, the violent persecution of the christian minority (in the south i believe). i believe the sudan is on the top ten list of places for religious persecution. why no outcry on those atrocities? apparently those folks aren’t strategically important enough to warrant outrage.
Its still disturbing to know that we can still name our children all these names like Jesus, Peter, Paul and so forth but they cant name a dang teddy bear Mohammed… I just dont get it. I mean come on here. I think the girls and I will go through there toys today naming each one of the prophets today… LOL… No not really but it still irks me. Stupid really.
I pretty much said what I wanted to say yesterday. Religion has no business whatsover dictating law.
If you want to find trouble you will find it any and everywhere - even in the innocent naming of a teddy bear.
What a pity they were not looking for the good - as in a teacher - late in life - trying to make a difference outside her own community in helping those more in need.
Thankfully the lady is safe.
Lets hope our 5 hostages are released in Iraq soon!
A wake up call? Sadly, I doubt it.
I find it appalling that on the front page of most American newspapers there is zero news on Iraq, the CIA destroying tapes of torture, even though they were specifically told not to, the fact that damn near every time Bush signs a bill into law he attaches a signing statement which essentially says he doesn’t have to follow said law, etc., but this story had major coverage. Just shows how pathetic we are, as a country, when we care more about a teddy bear and who won Dancing with the Stars.
The response to this incident totally baffles me. Mohammed is a ridiculously common name for Muslim men. This would be like Christians flaking out if a little girl in the Midwest named her doll “Mary”…
Check out Irshad Manji’s website too:
she has blog entries about the Teddy Bear incident.
and about the Canadian teenager killed by her father for not wearing hijab (head scarf)
I’m tellin ya, you’ll love her
Kitem - Cool.
Lime - I don’t think they have enough oil for us to be concerned about them.
Tweety - ‘Tis. Mountains out of molehills.
Scott - Agreed. I strongly believe in separation of church and state and this is one example of why.
Miladysa - The saddest thing is the big loser in this are the kids. So much for having a good quality teacher. Who knows who will replace her, if anyone. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go teach in Sudan, and that’s probably how a lot of good, quality teachers feel after hearing this crap.
JACC - Me too.
Kathleen - Good point. Well, keep in mind, we bloggers are media. Definitely write something up and I’ll read it.
SME - Goes to show there are different levels of religious tolerance, and some religions are more tolerant than others. Of course, that’s not politically correct to say.
Laura - Your comment appeared in my “possible spam” queue because of 2 links. I just found it and unspammed it.
Yeah, that site is where I found out about this story originally.