The President of Sudan has pardoned the British teacher convicted last week of blasphemy for letting her students name a classroom teddy bear “Mohammed”:
LONDON, Dec. 3 — A British school teacher jailed in Sudan for two weeks after allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad was freed Monday following a pardon by the Sudanese president.
President Omar al-Bashir’s pardon of Gillian Gibbons allowed her to leave prison before the end of her 15-day sentence, and ended a diplomatic tangle, resulting in what British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called a victory for common sense.
Well, it was a victory for sanity. Common sense ? That went out the window when they prosecuted her to begin with.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:25 am
It is all petty politics set off by one person’s grudge.
The school secretary wanted to get rid of the teacher.
She was the one who complained. She succeeded in getting rid of the teacher.
The clerics got their 5 min of fame.
When the facts were explained to the president, he realised that the clerics had distorted the truth about this.
He granted the teacher full pardon.
The president is also smart enough to know that this stupidity almost cost him 215 million dollars worth of aid from Britain for next year.
All this stupidity caused by one person and her selfish petty grudge.
BTW - the children and their parents were not aware there was anything illegal. The parents themselves had been issued a letter about the project - which had been ongoing for a number of months - and they had agreed with it.
It seems to be a law that even the vast majority of Sudanese are not aware of.
And they do sell teddy bears in Sudan.
How many children in Sudan are now renaming their teddies out of fear? Very sad indeed when you consider the impact of it on the children.
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:25 pm
I’m off to bed - Common sense 1-0 bigoted idiot islamic morons.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
JOIN THE REVOLUTION AND BUY A MOHAMMED TEDDY BEAR!