Teddy bears

[Scooby]

I'm not sure how many people have been following the story of the teacher jailed in Sudan for the inappropriate naming of the teddy bear?  As I don't know much about the politics and government of the country I googled to find out more and came across this:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26672 

In the contexts of atrocities like this she got off lightly. 

Whatever happened to tolerance, justice and compassion in this so called 'enlighted' 21st century?

[Frenchie]

Most horrible...............................................................................

[Suze01]

But she was being incrediably naive.  I did an on-line TEFL course and the issue of going to other countries to teach and knowing that country's customs etc were covered.  She should have known.  It's not as though she's very young and  un-worldly-wise.

[raindog]

I just posted this on another forum....

For the teddy bear thing, horrific though it is, I can't believe, if

you go to teach children in such a country, that you aren't coached

first in their customs and laws.

[Scooby]

I guess its difficult when the customs of the country are distorted by extreme Islamist views.  Certainly the opinion amongst the Muslim community in the UK is that it is a very extreme view and one that is not justified by mainstream Muslim interpretation of the Koran.  Add to this the fact that the children in her class (who chose the name and who presumably have been taught 'appropriate behaviour' by their religious instructors) thought it was acceptable to name the bear Muhammed...

The humanity (and sanity) of any government responsible for the atrocities in that report has to be questioned and challenged.  Religious and cultural sensitivity is one thing, genecide and barbarism is quite another

[Hoddy]

There’s something very peculiar going on here. Unity High School began as a Christian girl’s school and is still basically a Christian school. It is now co-educational for children from 4 to 18 and follows an English curriculum.The staff and the pupils are from a variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds. It is a fee paying school with an entrance exam.

From a British point of view, where new teachers are routinely taught how to approach pupils from ethnic minorities, it seems very odd that no-one advised Mrs Gibbons as to the advisability of calling a bear Mohammed.

I think there may be more political machinations here than we mere mortals understand.

Hoddy

[Scooby]

I agree Hoddy - when you look at the relatively recent political / religious background of Sudan and the way the current government have forced sharia law / islamist religion on the non muslim population of (predominantly Southern) Sudan alongside the history of the school and its current mix of christian / muslim teaching staff and pupils.... 

This is not about the actions of a teacher and/or her pupils but a statement to the West about the intent of the Sudanese government to irradicate non muslims and impose Sharia law throughout Sudan

[Tony F Dordogne]

The web link to the stories about Sudan is, as Frenchie said, horrible and like the Turkish/Armenian holocaust in the early 20th century should be reported if true.

What slightly concerns me is the source, the people are not independent reporters but a right-wing Christian couple, who seem to take a great deal of their funding from the US Jewish lobby - not at all mutually exclusive in their anti-Muslin stances.

As for the teacher, according to reports on the BBC from her friends over the past few days, she went out to teach as an independently recruited teacher, without the usual back up and training given if she had been recruited through an agency - niaive for sure. 

[Scooby]

The christian source of the information concerned me so I looked at other, potentially less biased sources -  and they all reported the same.  Genocide agaisnt non muslims in the South.  My conclusion was that regardless of the source the report was probably largely correct.

[Alan Zoff]

Few things have demonstrated to me more effectively the absurdity of supposedly intelligent creatures (humans) being driven by prescriptive dogma (religion - any religion) rather than using their own ability to think objectively. After millions of years of evolution, the naming by a teacher of a toy bear (or rather allowing local children to do so) with one of the most common names in the country lands a decent person in jail with thousands calling for her blood. And we are supposed to have respect for the views of those behind this because it is their religion. Why? Why does a system of control which relies purely on brain-washing deserve to be treated with respect?  

[Bugsy]

Alan, and this is a first, I think, I totally agree with you.

In a similar vein and relevant as today is worlds aids day, is the refusal by the catholic church to allow the use of condoms, by followers of that religion, in Africa. This has cost, and will continue to cost thousands of lives.

Shameful.........................

[Frederick]

What would have happened if it was a toy dog ?   The son of a Pakistani resturant owner told me after their next door neighbour was burgled his father was most concerned they would be.... as everybody knew the family worked at the resaurant up to 1am ...I advised him to get a big dog to guard their home ....I was then told they were not permitted to have one ...asking why .....I was told that "Dogs are Evil "..... When pressed to explain why I was told it was "In the book " so they cant have one ...and that was that ...the guy did not know why it was in the Koran  or why dogs had been classed as Evil ....he was told they were not permitted to own one and had to go with it .... 

[Ron Avery]

I did hear that someone E mailed a strong proteste about her sentence, not the 15 days in Jail, but getting deported to Liverpool.............. [Www] 

[Colonel Mustard]

Dogs aren't evil in Islam, but "unclean", a term that has a specific religious meaning for Muslims. The spokesman for the Sudanese embassy in London, who was given a very hard time by the BBC interviewer, made the same point as has been made by previous posters here - that this hapless lady should have been better briefed. Most Islamic countries are in tension between the pull of religious fundamentalism on the one hand, and Western-style secularism on the other - rather like Europe during the Enlightenment. Vilifying them won't help.

[Bugsy]

[quote user="Colonel Mustard"] Vilifying them won't help.[/quote]

edited by the mods as it upset someone.

[:@]

[Frederick]

The saying  "Biteing  the  hand that feeds you " comes to mind here ......I think if we are the big bad west in their eyes they need to be asked why if  they find us so dissagreable they continue to hold their hands out the way they do happy to accept the millions the UK and others in the west  lavish on them each year. They should be holding their hands out to their Islamic neighbours who have huge oil revenues if they need aid ....we should tell them the price of oil is so high now they can well afford to feed them .   

[Bugsy]

Unfortunately, stopping aid would not target the people responsible. This is quite a good article and very current.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7122007.stm

[Alan Zoff]

I fear we are heading for a showdown which will make Iraq and Afghanistan look insignificant. The idea that we must be tolerant to all religions simply allows them to gain in confidence and strength, conditioning the minds of yet more bombers, suicide pilots, mutilators, stoners of teachers.

Religious groups in the UK preach tolerance of others for their own ends - so that they themselves will be allowed to carry on with  their own particular brand of propaganda, protected by law. And all of them receiving favourable treatment with tax exemptions, grants for mosques, faith schools and so on. In other words, the very groups that pose the greatest (human) threat are actively encouraged and are supported financially by their victims! Not that I am in favour of subsidising any religious body, but I wonder how many non-Islamic churches receive government aid and tax benefits in, say, Iran.

[Thibault]

I read somewhere that the original complaint came not from parents but from a staff member in the school.  The report implied some sort of "history" between the teacher and this other member of staff.  If this report is true, it puts a rather different emphasis on the situation. 

[raindog]

I think she's going to be freed today anyway.

So now we've got to worry about the teddy bear. It'll probably be beheaded and it's stuffing pulled out and burned....

[Deimos]

When I see crowds of people protesting in the street demanding the death sentence for allowing a cloth toy to be given an "inappropriate" name I do start to wonder quite why we are donating them so much money.  I'm all for aid and certainly giving aid to a country does not buy the right to dictate anything to that country.  However, it might be nice were they to show just a little appreciation, maybe a tiny bit of tolerance.  Maybe this aid being given is just subsidising these people who then demand the death of these infidels who given them the money.

Or maybe I'm just getting less tolerant myself in my old age.  Maybe they are reasonable not giving an inch whilst we give a mile, bucket loads of money, food aid, etc., etc.

Ian

[Pierre ZFP]

Where's Gordon when you need him?

[Alan Zoff]

No doubt  (Oh My) Gord will soon be claiming the credit for having secured her release.

[Bugsy]

He did send her a couple of music CDs to help pass the time, but they got lost ..........................[:)]