Muhammed the bear

November 27th, 2007 - 00:02 | 9 comments

A teacher in Sudan is facing prison, or 40 lashes, for a terrible event she allowed to take place in her classroom. I can hardly believe it myself. I can’t bring myself to type the words, so will simply have to quote:

she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Isn’t that disgusting? What’s the problem, you ask? Clearly, it’s insulting to Islam. Here are the horrific details:

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, adding that she then had the children vote on a 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.”

Nothing about this is funny. The school has been closed until January. There are reports of men gathering outside the police station where she’s being held. The woman could get lashed. It’s completely obscene. Even the BBC don’t seem to know which particular bit of scripture she’s supposedly breached. Let’s look more closely at this.

It can’t be the name itself, as literally millions of people, all clearly not the original Muhammed, are named Muhammed.
Islam doesn’t permit images of their holy dude - it doesn’t seem like this was an image, just a name given to a bear. To say that the bear was meant to actually represent Muhammed is something of a stretch.
Most religions seem to have their own arbitrary animals that are great / awful. Cows, pigs, magical flying horses, dogs, whatever¹. But bears? Afaik, Islam has no problem with bears.
The children aren’t being punished. This is odd. They chose the name! They have insulted the prophet.

Hmmm, let me think. What about this female teacher could possibly have annoyed so many people? What about her could have annoyed so many misogynistic young men? I just can’t think what it could be.

Googling has found a few Muslim bloggers who think this is stupid. Good. It’s easy to get the the impression that Islam is millions and millions of people buying into arcane bigotry, and I really don’t want that to be true. Fewer women saying how great their burqa is and more saying how dumb Islamic states are would be, you know, nice.

It’ll never happen in a million years, but wouldn’t it be great if the UK government said “we fundamentally disagree with your law. Lay one finger on her and we will impose sanctions. Let her go, right now, or we’ll do it ourselves”. Sigh.

no exotic creatures in there. How curious [↩]

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9 Responses to “Muhammed the bear”

1 Lil Nov 28th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

They’ve now charged her - it’s completely unbelievable!!

“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 a statement.

???!!
2 Arthur Priest Nov 29th, 2007 at 1:11 pm

I’m not the world’s bravest person, but I think I could cope with having a cuddly toy named after me - so how come Mohammed needs protecting from such a miniscule event? More likely his mortal henchmen are projecting their own pitiful insecurities onto their hero. Not that it’s confined to Islam - ever wondered why our own deities seem to need praising on a regular basis?
3 Sultan Alki Nov 29th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

She should be put to death! Praise be to Allah! Allah Akbar!
4 John Nov 29th, 2007 at 10:58 pm

Sultan Alki, I hope you’re just joking. I mean thousands of Mexicans are running around using the name Jesus and you don’t see Christians wanting them put to death. Cartoons about Muhammad and now this, I can’t see how Islam is peaceful when the smallest of issues set Muslims off. I bet (or hope) this lady has a whole different view toward peaceful loving Islam now.
5 Sultan Alki Nov 29th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

You are typical stupid America Christian that live in world of fast food restaurants and the Las Vegas casinos. You wish to trash our religion by naming a bear after the great Muhammad. Paise be to Allah! I have no use for people like you or the Jew. Paise be to Allah! America will sooner or later become Islamic country. Women of the United States will learn that they will obey men like me. Women in the America will not drive and will become second class citizens. You watch by 2010 America will become Islamic country. I don’t care if you like it or not. Islam is the future of the world. Paise be to Allah! Allah Akbar!
6 Andrew Nov 30th, 2007 at 1:28 am

Yeah, whatever. Funny thing to say when using an IP address registered in California. FYI my website is not YouTube.
7 david Dec 3rd, 2007 at 9:43 am

Can someone please tell me why we are trying to help these idiots? Put to death because she used the name of your great god in vane? You truly are a waste of human beings. Please do us all a favor and kill yourselves. Dont kill anyone else. Just go outside, put a gun into your mouth and pull the trigger. Go meet your precious Allah and your 72 virgins. Ill take 2 Vegas whores over your dirty virgins anyday. Allah sucks little boys in hell.
8 Andrew Dec 4th, 2007 at 12:36 am

Dude, I’m with you in thinking it’s insane, but I don’t think being personal insults are the best way forward. We’re meant to be the ones with our heads on straight.
9 Sultan Alki Dec 9th, 2007 at 11:09 pm

Why do you insult the great Islam? May Allah have mercy on you for your mean statements. Islam is a religion of peace but we will not allow insults towards the Holy Muhammad. If it wasn’t for our oil the United States of the Americas would perish. You all should give us more of the respect that we deserve. Praise be to Allah! Allah Akbar!

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