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A Teddy Bear Named Mohammed

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roland

roland

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SUDAN - A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed.


NEW YORK - Sudanese demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum after Friday prayers, demanding the execution of British teacher currently jailed for naming a teddy bear Mohammed.

Now, I am not racist in any way, and I don't really care about people's religion, but personally I have trouble understanding the intense passion that causes conflicts like this with seemingly innocent original intentions.

I wonder why the west continually tries to get involved with incompatible thinking. Now there is oil of course, and activists worried about human rights and .. well the list goes on.

Will this religious war ever stop?
What should the "West" do?
What solutions can you suggest to make the world a nicer place for everyone?
 
roland said:
SUDAN - A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam's Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed.


NEW YORK - Sudanese demonstrators took to the streets of Khartoum after Friday prayers, demanding the execution of British teacher currently jailed for naming a teddy bear Mohammed.

Now, I am not racist in any way, and I don't really care about people's religion, but personally I have trouble understanding the intense passion that causes conflicts like this with seemingly innocent original intentions.

I wonder why the west continually tries to get involved with incompatible thinking. Now there is oil of course, and activists worried about human rights and .. well the list goes on.

Will this religious war ever stop?
What should the "West" do?
What solutions can you suggest to make the world a nicer place for everyone?
Click to expand...
What can the West do?
Give the Muslims a teddy bear and tell them it's OK to call it Jesus.
Sorry.
:rolleyes:
 
roland said:
Interesting point Julia - in comparison to religions, would Christians react in the same violent manner?
Click to expand...
spot on - julia and roland -
and this is the problem with many religions. (imo)
they lose their sense of humour.

"thou shalt have no other gods but me...
no craven A images etc . "

There are many christians who would also get really annoyed with a teddy being called Jesus.... My guess is more than 50% of Christians would discourage the kids frmo calling the teddy "Jesus" (maybe short of annoyance, and certainly short of lashing them or their supervisor - and/ or jailing her etc - obviously super-extreme - as some Suadis are now admitting incidentally )

and they would go all thingy if yuo called it God - my guess is 90% of Christians would discourage the kids from calling the teddy "God"

Jesa Cry*! , some people don't even blaspheme without looking around to make sure there are no electrical stormclouds around !


(* not sure what the weather forecast is today - and maybe the mods would delete reference to a blasphemiliarisation anyways ;))
 
See this is where we should discuss religious extremism again ...

the whole Jesus / God / Mohammed / Allah thing is build on guesswork

yet these people are prepared to pass down judgment on all manner of things from Blasphemy to Sex to What you eat for breakfast (and the old Rabbi was right - sex is a lot better than pork)

Agreed that Sharia Law is "way out there"
but so is the Bible belt of USA "way out there" when it comes to their own version of extremism.

Someone murdered a doctor advocating prochoice over there.

I would charge the Pope as directly responsible for much of the AIDS around the world. - would Christians listen if I said that? probably not . :2twocents
 
incidentally, noone is posting the trend here..
at least they've wound back from lashing
and Brit pollies on their way to Sudan etc

(apologies my first draft of this post was done in a hurry)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/02/2107141.htm
UK Muslim peers in Sudan on rescue mission
Two British Muslim peers have arrived in Sudan on a personal mission to secure the early release of an English teacher convicted of insulting religion by letting her class name a teddy bear Mohammed.

Lord Ahmed, from the ruling Labour party, and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, an opposition Conservative, hope to meet Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to discuss the case of Gillian Gibbons.

Gibbons was sentenced to 15 days in jail and deportation.

"They have arrived and they have a series of meetings lined up, including with the president," said a source close to the Sudanese government.

"An appeal from a fellow Muslim could have an impact," the source said, adding that the peers also hoped to visit Gibbons, a 54-year-old from Liverpool who began her seventh day in detention on Saturday.... etc
Click to expand...
On the more alarming side :eek:...
Her lawyers and British embassy staff have refused to give details of her location after hundreds of Muslims took to the streets of the capital on Friday, many waving swords and green Islamic flags, calling for her death.
Click to expand...

nothing to do with religion of course ... religion is blameless in all this etc ....

religion so often starts with a guess - and ends with a mess ;)

but hey that sounds like something that Dawkins would say , so it's obviously wrong

Likewise the trend in that rape case is being questioned by Saudi rulers
https://www.aussiestockforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=230335&highlight=saud#post230335
 
roland said:
Interesting point Julia - in comparison to religions, would Christians react in the same violent manner?
Click to expand...

The answer is "Yes" and this applies not only to the religion in third world countries. Some people in Ireland believe in the strong powers of "Holy Water", and during my stay in Dublin I was careful to pretend that I was taking them seriously, when at times it seemed so silly, to me that is.
 
noirua said:
Some people in Ireland believe in the strong powers of "Holy Water", and during my stay in Dublin I was careful to pretend that I was taking them seriously, when at times it seemed so silly, to me that is.
Click to expand...

spot on noi
but no question "holy water" works for them - sometimes.

but should we discuss that here, or on the "powers of the mind" thread ? ;)
 
2020hindsight said:
There are many christians who would also get really annoyed with a teddy being called Jesus.... My guess is more than 50% of Christians would discourage the kids frmo calling the teddy "Jesus" (maybe short of annoyance, and certainly short of lashing them or their supervisor - and/ or jailing her etc - obviously super-extreme - as some Suadis are now admitting incidentally )

and they would go all thingy if yuo called it God - my guess is 90% of Christians would discourage the kids from calling the teddy "God"
))
Click to expand...
I doubt if they would stone you, give you 100 lashes of have you thrown in jail. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs but that doesnj't give them the right to FORCE them on others or punish them for not believing.
 
roland said:
Now, I am not racist in any way, and I don't really care about people's religion, but personally I have trouble understanding the intense passion that causes conflicts like this with seemingly innocent original intentions.

I wonder why the west continually tries to get involved with incompatible thinking. Now there is oil of course, and activists worried about human rights and .. well the list goes on.
Click to expand...
Yes
Invading countries with oil on the pretext of a possibility of them possessing weapons of mass destruction, or of them wanting to have a nuclear power industry would not be something I condone, either.
Yet not only we stand by and watch, we want to join in.
And then we find out about rendition practices, on top of Gitmo Bay, and statements from senior US officials who sanctions various levels of torture.
The list goes on and on....
 
roland said:
Interesting point Julia - in comparison to religions, would Christians react in the same violent manner?
Click to expand...
I'm a bit surprised at the reaction that some Christians would find naming a cute little Teddy Jesus upsetting.
My suggestion was obviously facetious and light hearted but I didn't really imagine that too many Christians would get all uptight if a kid wanted to call his Teddy Jesus. If they do, then that just demonstrates the absurdity of religion imo.
 
Julia said:
I'm a bit surprised at the reaction that some Christians would find naming a cute little Teddy Jesus upsetting.
My suggestion was obviously facetious and light hearted but I didn't really imagine that too many Christians would get all uptight if a kid wanted to call his Teddy Jesus. If they do, then that just demonstrates the absurdity of religion imo.
Click to expand...

Julia, I think individuals, christian or not, will have different ideas on that one so probably no generalized answer. "Christianity" is a very broad umbrella and covers many differening ideas. Some religions, christian or not, are based more on law and instilling of fear to gain control - whereas others are based more on grace and encouraging certain attributes such as:
... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Click to expand...

So, IMHO, any religion based on grace would not want the person naming the teddy put to death. I think the above quote from the good book is a petty good benchmark and helps sort out who's who in the various religious camps...

Cheers
 
The whole situation is ridiculous - You have to ask how can something this trivial impact on the so-called credibility of a religious belief. At my high school there was a guy called Mohammed, he was a complete d**khead, a bully and overtly prejudiced - not exactly a model representative of the Muslim faith! The problem with the islamic faith is that it was forged within a deeply mysogynistic culture and most of its followers throughout the world seek refuge in Islam to escape the physical realities of poverty, conflict and the interminable heat! Poor, uneducated people with nothing to lose are very easy to manipulate with extremist religious doctrine.
 
Dont forget the extremely important role the media plays in bringing these vitally important facts to our attention to discuss. Because there is a strong chance we are going to do something about it...maybe not this particular incident, since most of us dont have positions of influence within the muslim world, let alone where this happened. What we can do instead is generalise and invalidate everything from the act right through to the religion itself. I mean you have to wonder how something this trivial can represent the entire muslim faith and all of its millions of followers around the world. Then again how can the average westener expect to know any better...for many people the only time they are touched by this religion and the people who follow it is via the media...is it any wonder perceptions are the way they are?
 
Well i think what happened (the reaction, and the sentence) is a complete disgrace.

I think the teacher or the pupils or whoever it was just probably chose to name the teddy bear mohammed just because its a common name in Sudan.

For example, in Australia, maybe the teddy bear would have been called John or something.
 
We had a teddy at school - he was cross eyed - We called him "Gladly" ;)


(gladly the cross-eyed bear ... etc etc) anyone who hasn't heard that joke 25 times... outta get out more lol.
 
nizar said:
Well i think what happened (the reaction, and the sentence) is a complete disgrace.

I think the teacher or the pupils or whoever it was just probably chose to name the teddy bear mohammed just because its a common name in Sudan.

For example, in Australia, maybe the teddy bear would have been called John or something.
Click to expand...

The bear was named after one of the students who unfortunately for her was named Mohammed.
 
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