A British schoolteacher is in a Sudanese jail tonight after being arrested for insulting Islam's Prophet, because she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Liverpudlian Gillian Gibbons, 54, who joined the school in August, was following a course designed to teach young pupils about animals and this year's topic was the bear.
Ms Gibbons then asked a seven-year-old girl to bring in her teddy bear and asked the class to pick a name for it.
According to the school's director, Robert Boulos, the class came up with several names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad, and the majority of 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."
Ms Gibbons was arrested after several parents made complaints and according to the BBC, the charge - insults against faith and religion - could lead to either six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine
Colleagues of Ms Gibbons said she made an "innocent mistake" by letting the class of six and seven-year-olds choose the name of the teddy bear and I agree. But one needs to wonder about the shortage of commonsense in this situation.
All rather sad, really....
(ps: the teddy bear pictured in this post is unconnected to this story)
'Muhammad' teddy teacher arrested
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