As if the previous farce over a teacher being jailed for 15 days and deported because she committed that most heinous of crimes – she allowed her class to name a teddy bear Mohammed – wasn’t stupid enough (Previous post and Nullifidian’s comments), we find out more today.
The BBC have reported:
Crowds of people have marched in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to call for a tougher sentence for a UK teacher jailed for insulting religion.
It is put slightly stronger on AFP:
KHARTOUM (AFP) — Thousands of angry Sudanese, some brandishing swords, marched Friday through the centre of Khartoum calling for the execution of a British woman teacher as she began a brief jail term for insulting Islam.
“Those who insult the Prophet of Islam should be punished with bullets,” a sea of white-clad demonstrators shouted after Gillian Gibbons, 54, was jailed for 15 days on charges stemming from naming a teddy bear Mohammed.
What absolute, stark-staring, raving, madness. As if the people of Sudan have nothing better to be outraged about than this trivial nonsense. More importantly, it drives home the problem of allowing religious beliefs to dominate rational thinking. The whole concept of actually shooting someone for this idiocy is truly mind boggling.
It strikes me that this is nothing but the effects of rabble rousing being carried out by those who are looking to accelerate the inevitable class between Islam and the “Christian” West. I can not for one second think that these people would really have been insensed by such nonsense without prompting – and Friday is the big prayer day… I suspect that some of the more fundie clerics have stirred their masses up and unleashed them. It is worrying that this effect is so pronounced and obvious. From AFP:
Sheikh Hussein Mubarak told thousands of faithful gathered for the Muslim day of prayer that the court’s “verdict was lenient out of fear of criticism from human rights organisations, America and the West.”
…
Earlier, Sheikh Mubarak railed at what he said was an attempt “to transform Sudan from an Islamic state into a Christian state,” adding that the British teacher had come to Sudan “as part of that design.”
“Why did this teacher come to Sudan? She surely didn’t need to emigrate from her country for the money? So she came for another reason…” he told the faithful at Al-Safa mosque in the city’s eastern Jarif district.
See, Hovind et al are not alone. Islam has more than its fair share of evil, lying, self serving, manipulative scum bags. AFP continues: (emphasis mine)
He [Sheikh Mubarak] denounced “those who try to defend democracy and human rights and insult the Prophet,” adding that he did not think the teacher would even serve out the 15-day sentence.
At the central Martyr’s Mosque, another imam, Sheikh Abdul Jalil Karuri, said Gibbons “did it with the intention of insulting Islam.”
The crowd responded with cries of “The army of Islam will prevail.”
Like I said yesterday, the real crime isn’t so much naming a toy Mohammed (although now I will name every inanimate object I come across after prominent Islamic figures), as it was allowing the class to participate in a democratic action. What an evil woman this teacher was…
Well it seems like we get another wonderful example from the religion of peace. All I can say is they are all mad. I am, however, a bit surprised by how tame a lot of the political / international reaction has been. I have even read US based blogs talking about how it was the teacher’s responsibility to have learned all about the culture before she went there. I found that quite ironic.
There’s also the crime that she has been persistently a woman for the duration of her teaching. What sort of example is that to set a young Islamic boy?
I’m wondering what’s going on in Darfur at the moment.
Very good point.
I am so sick and tired of Islam and its brand of peace. It is such a grand example of WTF is wrong with religion. Either there are a lot more Muslim extremists around than Muslims want to acknowledge, or the vast majority of its followers are easily manipulated and led like sheep. God, this shit depresses me to no end./
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I’m lost for words at the sheer lunacy of these “massed nutters”!It seems to me that these people are heading for one huge punch up..and if we try and pacify the situation by sucking up to their threats,then they just see that as weakness!It’s about time our political leaders lead from the front and deal with this sort of stuff quickly.
I can only imagine that this teacher was in fact trying to be a friend and a help to these kids and not go in there to “insult their religion”!What’s that all about..you can’t scratch your backside without causing offense to someone these days!Bah!
Im sick and tired of hearing these idiot Muslims saying the west ie “the Christian infidels” are trying to attack and destroy their beliefs and culture. Chanting about how the UK is “evil” for sending its “evil spys” ( thats the poor woman who went there to try and teach kids to read and write ) to corrupt its children. Well sry guys, it’s not our fault you are an obvious bunch of nutcases, you want to kill someone, anyone, because of something as ridiculous as what this woman did, and you expect us to treat you as intelligent rational human beings?, well im afraid not.
The truth is the West does NOT in anyway want to harm Muslims or anyone for that matter , we want to live in peace, you are welcome to live along side us, just keep your wacky ideas to yourself and practise them quietly and there is no problem.
If the West DID want to attack Muslim countries and start a religious war, why do you think it has’nt our military is vastly superior to all Islamic states and could crush them easily if not for one reason….there is no public backing for such attacks, so pls crazy Islamic morons, calm yourself down, stop attacking the people who go to help you, and stop trying to kill innocent people in our own countries, that way we can all live in peace.