Teacher could get 40 lashes.

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28 November 2007

I dont know about you but I am appalled at this story about the lady teacher in Sudan who has been arrested over allowing her classroom's teddy bear to be called Mohammed. Not only is she in jail and could be for a long time, but there is also the possibility she may get 40 lashes as well. The teacher is British and of course working abroad. The reality of this situation is that she was just exercising rights you and me have here everyday. For example nobody will put me in jail here in the UK if I have a teddy called Prince Charles or whatever. This again just highlights the massive differences between the cultures and I cannot imagine how we are ever going to live in harmony when what we see as trivial is almost a hanging offence eleswhere. And indeed the latest news is that her life may well be in danger from extremists.

Of course these different cultures and beliefs are all living here with us these days in the UK, but are we on a tinderbox of future chaos. There is currently no move as far as I can see to intermix cultures, every different belief strand and structure seem to keep world's apart, seem to keep to entirely to themselves, so what hope is there for future harmony.

As I said, what western eyes see as trivia, other cultures see as mortal offence, yet we are all in the UK family living under the one roof. I despair for the future unless there is deep tolerence of the other cultures viewpoint. In this case the european western viewpoint. It is extremely unlikely that this teacher of children meant any harm at all.

Guest 656 wrote:
I feel so sorry for this teacher, she obviously meant no harm. Surely the Sudanese authorities will conclude that it was genuinely an innocent mistake. Lets hope so.
keith, Dover wrote:
This teacher probably knew what she was doing

it is over the top

and hopefully they will see sense

but you do have to be careful working in other such contries that have such strong beliefs
howard mcsweeney1 wrote:
it was the children that named the teddy bear, not the teacher!!
Guest 641 wrote:
Let us hope that if it comes up for appeal that the authorities don't quadruple the sentence, as with the case in Saudi where the young girl was gang-raped and then she was charged for being in a car with a non-relative, the world's gone mad!
howard, Dove wrote:
It was the teacher that ALLOWED the children to name the teddy

I don't agree with the outcome of 15 days jail and hope she wins the appeal.
just shows how we, in this country should fight to keep our democracy
Guest 640 wrote:
Seperate to the above case but distantly related....I heard on the Radio 4 this morning that 135 of the Worlds Muslim religious leaders have asked the Pope for dialogue to improve understanding. Although this is just a tiny bit of news on the grand scale of things and slipped quietly into the news schedules, it nevertheless is a very encouraging gem and gives us some hope for a brighter future. The initiative came from the Muslims themselves and so again very encouraging.

Opening up to the Vatcian in this way should help to increase their undertanding of our western values and our understanding of theirs. It could be a promising start.

Lets face it what has this incident in Sudan acheived. Nothing at all. It badly damaged the image of Muslims everywhere and the upshot is that Sudans international reputation is seriously tarnished. On top of all that they will lose a good teacher when she is deported, and unlikely to have any others willing to risk taking up the role there.
Bernadette, Dover wrote:
On so many levels this has been an appalling incident - I can only conclude that many of the people baying for this teachers execution were doing so because of some pressure on themselves (as well as there being some poorly educated zealots, and that is not a value judgement, but an observation), which speaks volumes; Sudan is jockeying for global publicity and political attention and has now got it, albeit at a price; there was a book published some time ago referring to Mohamed in relation to a toy and this had no publicity whatsoever, which begs some questions about timing; The Sudanese government agreed a while back that Sharia Law would not apply to Westerners domiciled there and have clearly broken their word without any questions being raised; there have been other, positive steps recently to enable partnerships with other faiths, and these have gone unnoticed, as you say, which is a sad comment on the priorities of the media. Given that the Sudanese Government is happy for "justice" to be seen to be done there, I am wondering what public response the West will give in order not to be seen to be rolling over without provoking further incident.....a firm and reasonable response is clearly needed, but I am not confident it will be seen.
Guest 640 wrote:
Yes its all unpalatable...we have great freedoms here in the west but have you ever wondered...do we have too many? Is our way of life all that much better than theirs? The Sudanese and others of similar inclination, dont allow any other religions to practice on their soil. Imagine if it was like that here. Suppose we didnt allow, and never allowed, any other religions to practice here other than our very western Christianity, what would our society be like today, it would I suspect be far different than the one we have now.
keith, Dover wrote:
thankfully the teacher has now been released and the more sensible muslims where she comes from(liverpool)_have been quick to say they can now get back to building relationships.

the muslim leader in liverpool also said today they(ieSudan)have got it badly wrong.

keith
keith, Dover wrote:
nice to see heack in England
but i dont think it will be long before she's off over seas \again