Apparently anxious to defy the stereotypes, some Sudanese protesters are now calling for Mrs Gillian Gibbons, the 54 year old teacher whose students chose the name ‘Muhammad’ for their class mascot, to be killed.
Hundreds of Sudanese Muslims have taken to the streets of Khartoum demanding death for the British school teacher convicted of insulting Islam after her class named a teddy bear Mohammad.
It’s no wonder then that Latin phrases such as civis Romanus sum and its more modern equivalent civis Britannicus sum are experiencing a revival; or that calls are being made for a cessation of aid to Sudan in retaliation for their treatment of a British citizen.
Needless to say, the circumstances seem so bizarre, it is hard to believe that this is really all about the teacher and the teddy bear. As one former student of the school writes of the current Sudanese government, it is “prickly, obstreperous and wont to childish displays of inferiority complexes” so maybe Mrs Gibbons is just a pawn in all this.
What is clear, however, is that much of the discussion around it being completely and utterly forbidden for teddy bears to be given the same name as Prophets is somewhat misinformed. There is a reason, for example, why we haven’t seen the hordes calling for the people selling Adam the Muslim Prayer Bear or Adam’s World to be decapitated.
Sheikh Salman al-’Awdah’s Islam Today provides a timely answer to the question:
Ever since this issue about the teddy bear named Muhammad has surfaced, I have grown concerned. I never thought about the issue like that before. I want to know what the ruling is. I have videos of “Adam’s World” with a very fanciful looking puppet named Adam who teaches children about Islam. Is it right or wrong to name plush toys and puppets with the names of prophets? If not, should I dispose of these videos? Also, my daughter has named her plush toys with different names. She has a toy horse named Ahmed, a toy cat named Aisha, and a toy rabbit named Muhammad – these are the names of her uncles and her aunt. Is this alright? Am I sinning by letting her keep these names for her toys?
Here is the answer.
Other Muslim blogs on the issue: Indigo Jo, Osama Saeed.
37 comments ↓
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Needless to say, the circumstances seem so bizarre, it is hard to believe that this is really all about the teacher and the teddy bear.
It is now. Regardless of what the government’s original motives were, the fact is there are now citizens (presumably not government employees), protesting for her to be put to death for what she named a teddy bear.
Civis Britannicus sum, indeed.
Enough is enough.
The British government needs to send in the soldiers and rescue poor Mrs Gibbons. And while they are there, they should take out a few of these sword-waving picannines.
It appears there might be more to this story than at first meets the eye.
The BBC news website has analysis that the whole situation might have more to do with politics and sticking two fingers up at western sensibilities rather than anything else:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7122007.stm
I don’t have any problems making sense of the Sudanese perspective, even though my sympathies are 100% with poor Gillian Gibbons. But I have at least a passing knowledge of colonial and postcolonial history as seen from those who were/are recipients of the Imperium’s political/economic/cultural attentions. Of course, if academics writing in postcolonial studies actually published something comprehensible to folks other than those with a built in Spivakometer, this kind of knowledge might be a little more widespread.
[...] (Cross-posted at Austrolabe) [...]
who cares?
its a personal tragedy for the woman, spending 2 weeks in jail for nothing, but isn’t that what haneef had to do?
There are western armies in two muslim lands, Australian and american soldiers kill afghans with impunity. Americans are looting our oil, and you people are talking in this non-issue.
She is going to get out in two weeks, which is less time than she takes to do her hair, she will get a lucrative book-deal, lecture tour and be famous.
Thats got to be worth a few stokes of a lash.
I’ll bet that if you put up this as an adventure package on ebay, you would get scrubbers from all over the north of England lining up.
Headline: Wanted for exotic first class tour.
the candidate: we are looking for a self motivated female who can pass time alone in exotic foreign location. exposed tattoos and body piercing need not apply.
the challenge: spend 2 weeks in private furnished accommodation with private loo(better than anything north of the m25). Ideal for personal reflection. Then be wisked away in private Murdoch or British FO jet for an unending series of media appearances and book signings.
Hector, given the performance of your “royal” Navy in a small territorial dispute with Iran, I’m not sure that sending a battalion of girly mans into this situation will help, except that more ipods will be confiscated and more unfortunate Mr Bean jokes will be made.
Liberty is safe in the hands of the brave
OM Batchelor said:
Let’s not forget that this lady went to Sudan to treat these people how to read and write. Instead of showing her gratitude the pack of monkeys running the country decide to charge her with the crime of naming a teddy bear Mohammad.
Sure the Sudanese can walk and chew gum too but don’t they have enough to do in Darfur with that genocide stuff? They should stick to killing each other and leave the foreigners alone.
“There are western armies in two muslim lands”
There are no such thing as “muslim lands”. If there are muslim lands then there are also Christian lands, which you are currently living in one of them.
Is that the kind of world you want?
If not, cease with the medievel “muslim lands” bullshit for start.
BTW they are Muslim lands
even the western puppet Karzi’s title is “president of the Islamic republic of Afghanistan”
http://www.president.gov.af/
Iraq is the same, infact if anything Australia is doing its best to turn it into a shia theocracy.
Australia may have decided to become secular, but that does not mean we have done so.
Sam, take your head out of your arse, and see the world as it is not as you would like it to be.
both are muslim lands, even if you dont wish it to be so.
Who is “we” T Cell?
Is Spain a Muslim land, T Cell? What is your definition?
Someone needs to take the leaders of Sudan to the side and give them a stern dressing down. This whole affair is seriously damaging Sudan’s reputation which was not so great in the first place. Plus this incident is harming the good name of Islam.
T Cell, time to switch to decaf you are way too irritable. Calm down, your anger is overheated and misdirected. Remember Allah is merciful and delights in us being merciful too. Instead of beating up a teacher or killing her can we please forgive her for an unintentional mistake? Can we please, for once, be a reflection of Allah’s compassion?
Let’s call a spade a spade. It’s an outrage and there’s no two ways about it. T Cell is disgusting. If you want to kill school teachers you should go to Sudan!!!!!
Given what we know of the case (and what hasn’t been disputed even by her Sudanese captors) there is absolutely no justification for Mrs Gibbons to be treated in this way — let alone for her to be murdered as some of these protesters evidently wish.
This isn’t just an issue for the Sudanese people but all Muslims because it provides — yet again — more fuel for the argument that we are somehow less capable of calm and rational behaviour than the rest of humanity. The slightest perceived slight and we have angry crowds waving swords, calling for people to be killed and so on. It’s the sort of behaviour you expect to see on Supernanny not from grown and supposedly religious adults.
Whilst this lady should not have been arrested (a gross overreaction by the Sudanese government), it seems that she is not suffering in the least.
Apparently she is not in the womens prison but a private house and her Sudanese guards are waiting on her hand and foot and treating her with the utmost courtesy.
I wonder if the prisoners in Guantanamo were treated this nicely? At least Gillian Gibbons had a trial.
And Abdullah – Spain stopped being a Muslim land when the Catholic church forcibly converted (if not murdered) its Muslims.
James – I think that T Cell is trying to demostrate the difference in the media reaction to Gillian Gibbons as compared with Dr Haneef. I think that we can engage in debates that are a bit more sophisticated than ‘Lets all be nice to each other’.
Amir – I agree with you that there is no justification for Mrs Gibbons to be treated like this, but please don’t fall into the trap of self-loathing when some Muslims act stupidly. Yes, we all cringed at the photos of the demonstration but I really can’t stand it when we are made to feel somehow less human, and told by the likes of Boris Johnson that we must ‘publically show our dislike of these actions’.
Amir I notice that you really take it personally when Muslims don’t behave themselves when demostrating (I refer to your disappointing post on ‘Angry Man’), I have been to a number of demos and can say that over reacting when demonstrating is par for the course regardless of ones religion.
Unless one believes the behaviour of these people is Islamic behaviour or their arguments are grounded in fiqh, I don’t see how disliking it can possibly be a case of self-loathing. Rather, it’s loathing something that really has little to do with our religious beliefs or practices.
If you go back to the “Angry Man” post, I honestly don’t know how anyone could claim that I have taken this issue personally. Firstly, it was classified under “humour” and, secondly, the obvious point of the post was that, contrary to what people might think from the media footage, the Muslim world is NOT a seething mass of angry people but rather many of these ‘angry protests’ have very few people attending. So few, in fact, that the same faces keep appearing over and over and over.
That is true but, at the same time, shouldn’t we expect more from Muslims?
Sheikh Hood Bradford has some thoughtful comments at Muslim Matters..
The only thing that events like these accentuate is the small-mindedness of those acting out, the dismal state of the educational systems in these countries, and the inability of their gov’ts to deal with crisis as it arises. I am in no way putting blame on the Sudanese government, but instead on Sudanese society as whole, indeed on Muslim societies as a whole for their inability to deal with such “insults” with the maturity at least on par if not greater than the grade level that this teacher was instructing in Sudan.
The inability of many in these societies to see past their very 3rd world and archaic view points not only causes embarrassment to Muslims as a whole, but make defending legitimate cases of offense even harder.
The roots causes of this anger are much deeper and much more nuanced than many in these parts of the world (and in the islamic west) are willing to admit. However there is no immediate solution for such problems, as they are grounded in broader topics of education, world view, and religious dogma.
What I don’t get is that her students named the teddy Muhammad, so why is she punished? The kids are taught to love the Prophet Muhammad by their families and the class voted for this name.
Hood nails it.
T Bone and Umm Amara
Guantanamo Bay has nothing to do with what is happening in Sudan. Allah says do not like hatred of a people lead you to injustice and aggression. Just because they were unjust to us doesn’t mean we can behave unjustly too.
The Sudanese are wrong.
Amir – I think we are arguing the same point.
I disagree with the behaviour of the protesters in Sudan.
There is no justification for their behaviour. However here in the UK there is a concerted effort by several commentators in the right wing rags – especially The Telegraph and The Spectator to link the behaviour of the Sudanese to the wider Muslim community and then comb through the reaction of British Muslims and criticise them for not being ‘outraged enough’.
In your initial comment you said that this was an issue for the wider Muslim community – I disagree. This sort of reaction can lead western Muslims to feel that they have to turn out on the streets with ‘Not in my name’ Tshirts on whenever a Muslim anywhere in the world does something wrong.
With reference to your Angry Man post – or should I use the correct name of ‘Islamic Rage Boy.’
This man is called Shakeel Ahmad Bhat and he has been ridiculed all over the web for the grevious sin of appearing at demonstrations. Website like jihadwatch have joined in the lampooning and I feel annoyed that you joined that bandwagon. On rereading your original post I concede that you were not ridiculing him but still most of the comments after your post were poking fun at him – rather rich coming from us here in the west making fun of poor disadvantaged Muslims trying to live in Indian occupied Kashmir.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/indi.....98,00.html
I also concede that my original comment may have been ever so slighly tetchy -for that I am sorry.
Isa – of course no one says that Muslims ‘have’ to act unjustly because of Guantanamo. I was merely trying to make a comparison between the way people treat their foreign prisioners that are held unjustly.
I can understand Western Muslims not wanting to explain or apologize for every outrage that occurs in the Muslim world. But you guys promote the idea of a global umma so that the issue of Palestine or Iraq becomes an issue for all Muslims (even in the UK or USA).
You can’t have it both ways. If you are going to say that what happens TO a Muslim somewhere in the world is a major issue for Muslims in the West that Western politicians must address or apologize for then you also must accept that Western politicians are going to hold you to this when your fellow Muslims do crazy stuff abroad.
At approximately the same time as “teddy bear gate” the great shame of the Muslim world for which we must all offer grovelling apologies,
No Muslim leader offered a “grovelling apology” for what happened. You are lying. Here is a dictionary definition of the word.
Is there any example of a Muslim leader in the West admitting responsibility for the Sudanese problem and then saying sorry for it? Not that I can find.
Is there any example of a Muslim leader in the West justifying or trying to excuse the behaviour of the Sudanese? Nope not that I can find either.
[...] “On Naming Teddy Bears” at Muslim Matters and Austrolabe [...]
Cooler heads finally prevailed in Khartoum and in the UK. Once again I am reminded of the genius of the founders in separating church and state. The Sudan government shows what happens when fundamentalist religion is allowed to run a state. The toxic mix here is one part religious extremism mixed with one part anti-colonialism and garnish with political instability.
The Sudan is a creation of the British Colonial past. It is an afterthought of British goals in the East. The UK occupied the Sudan to protect it’s investment in Egypt which protected its interest in the Arabian sea which was vital to the defense of India. Plus there was the little matter of slaughtering a few uppity Wogs that had the unmitigated gaul to kill off a British Garrison. Like much of the UK’s empire Sudan was acquired as an afterthought, for no really good reason other than accident.
The borders of the Sudan having been drawn higgeldy-piggeldy by clueless imperialists, the post colonial government has had trouble keeping the ship of state from breaking up into dozens of pieces. It Islamic principles have rubbed raw the feelings of the Christian and Animist south. Plus there is the conflict between Arabs and Blacks and the not totally separate conflict between agriculturalists and pastoralists that adds fuel to the fire. Sudan is always a crisis waiting to happen.
Fortunately, a way was found to cut losses all around and bury this matter in a deep grave. To the unsung heroes who did the spade work we must give them our thanks.
T-Cell, Wrong is wrong.
We can go round and round with pots and kettles arguing the relative merits of their carbon coating and totally avoid the real matter of the need for a good washing-up for all participants.
Iraq was, is and will continue to be a disaster, I refuse to defend the Bushite thugs lawlessness in the land between the two rivers. The case for war was a lie, the manner in which the war was carried out was a travesty, and the occupation is an unmitigated disaster. I would gladly hand over George W. Bush to the Hague for trail if it were in my power to do so.
Afghanistan is a totally different kettle of fish. OSBL used that nation as a base to carry out a illegal and immoral terrorist attack. Every serious Islamic authority and scholar has condemned the 9/11 attacks. They have rejected OSBL’s fatwa for its source (that is OSBL has no right to issue a fatwas) and for its content.
The U.S. actually had a good cause or at least justification to attack the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Bush being Bush, he made a total hash of it. I believe he did so because his main goal was attacking Iraq. He had to attack and defeat the Taliban before he could go after Saddam. That is why he used bombing and warlords, because it was the easiest way to “liberate” the country. That way he could then move his assets into Iraq in the shortest possible time. That is why he abandoned Hamid Karsi to his own devices after the loya jirga. That is why there are STILL not enough boots on the ground to clear out the fighters. The coalition in Afghanistan is using air power as a substitutes for troopers, with predictable results.
The tragedy of Afghanistan is not Western involvement in the nations affairs, it is Western Involvement as way to further geo-strategic goals that have nothing to do with improving the lot of average Afghans.
At best the Taliban administration was a very mixed lot. They imposed law and order but at a very heavy price. It was a rule that gave pause, most of all to serious students of Islamic governance. Maybe if left to its own devices it would have learned compassion, hard to say. It lost that opportunity when it let a stone-cold killer commit an act that violated the precepts of the religion he was supposedly defending. Again two wrongs don’t make a right.
‘I got more of an adventure than I bargained for’
No word on the two dead Afghani women and their infant, I wonder if they got an upgrade too.
T Cell – Inshallah, Allah will make sure they have the best of upgrades.
Yet another reason to fear a Caliphate.
Umm Ammara,
Well put, May those innocents finally find peace in the loving arms of their creator.
Again to all those behind the scenes who ended this tempest in a tea cup:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9)
Sorry T-cell, the wrongs of America in Afghanistan and Iraq do not justify the wrongs of the Sudan Government. American barbarism does not justify barbarism by other governments.
One of the reasons that Gods Final Messenger was so successful was that he showed mercy and compassion to his opponents. He did not slaughter the Meccans, he embraced and forgave them. He protected non-combatants, he was merciful to those who offended him and to those who tried to kill him.
It was this mercy and compassion that helped spread his message much more than the sword. That was part of his wisdom, knowing when to defend the faith with the sword and when to put down the sword to make new converts to the faith.
James,
Correct (IMHO) – the reputation of the Muslim armies for respect and fair dealing with the subject peoples, only imposing a small additional tax on them, meant that quite frequently during the period of conquest the Muslim armies found the doors opened to them, particularly by minority groups. The Nestorian Christians in Syria and Persia and the Jews of the Holy Land being notable examples.
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