Gillian Gibbons pardoned

The BBC has just reported that Gillian Gibbons has been released from prison in Sudan. She was pardoned by President Omar al-Bashir after a meeting with two British Muslim peers, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi.

Ms Gibbons did nothing to offend Islam. She should never have been imprisoned in the first place. It's good to see some sense.in what has been a ridiculous case.

Jail for Gibbons

Gillian Gibbons has been found guilty in Sudan of insulting religion after she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear Muhammad and sentenced to 15 days in prison. She will then be deported.

She had been accused on three counts of insulting religion, inciting hatred and showing contempt for religious beliefs. Earlier, Foreign Secretary David Miliband had met the Sudanese ambassador to discuss the case, stressing it was an "innocent misunderstanding". The prime minister, Sudanese embassy officials in London and UK Muslim organisations also expressed the hope that Mrs Gibbons would be released. However it seems that Sudan's top clerics had called for the full measure of the law to be used against Mrs Gibbons and labelled her actions part of a Western plot against Islam.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones - who knows Mrs Gibbons – said ''Obviously relief that there won't be the public lashing which everybody feared, but deep disappointment because this was clearly a mistake and I know that the Muslim community here in Liverpool will be as disappointed as anybody.I think, too, a real anxiety that something like this so badly handled in this way [and] won't do anything to build up good relations between the faith communities.''

I
would have said that this verdict while a lot milder than feared won’t do the perception of Islam any good. Too many will simply see this idiocy as typical of all muslims when it is clearly not the case. Then again I can’t imagine Sudan’s clerics giving a damn about their religion’s image. I presume that many of them are like their Saudi counterparts and have their mindsets stuck in the 7^th century

The case of the blasphemous teddy bear

British diplomats are trying to secure the release of a British schoolteacher who has been arrested in Sudan.Gillian Gibbons may face blasphemy charges for insulting Islam's Prophet. A conviction could mean six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine. The crime – letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad.

The toy was named in September as part of the class's study of animals and their habitats. But several parents made complaints to the authorities which led to Ms Gibbons' arrest on Sunday. The school, the Khartoum Unity High School, has now been closed until January for fear of reprisals. Fellow teachers feared for her safety after receiving reports that men had started gathering outside the police station where she was being held.

Ms Gibbons, who had joined the school in August, was following a British national curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals. She had asked a pupil to bring in her teddy bear and asked the class to pick names for it. The children chose Muhammad as their favourite name. Each child was then allowed to take the bear home at weekends and told to write a diary about what they did with it. 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." The bear itself was not marked or labelled with the name in any way, he added.

One Muslim teacher at the independent school for Christian and Muslim children, who has a child in Ms Gibbons' class, said she "I know Gillian and she would never have meant it as an insult. I was just impressed that she got them to vote," the teacher said. The country's state-controlled Sudanese Media Centre reported that charges were being prepared "under article 125 of the criminal law" which covers insults against faith and religion.

Oh for pity's sake what a stupid charge. Presumably a photograph of a person with the name Mohammed would be equally blasphemous. I hope the Sudanese government sees sense and drops this stupid case forthwith