Two British Muslim peers (Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi) are hoping to meet the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, in order to secure the release of Gillian Gibbons, the UK teacher jailed in Khartoum for insulting religion - by allowing her pupils to call a teddy bear Muhammad.
The Sudanese president is only person with the authority to pardon Mrs Gibbons, who was sentenced to 15 days in jail and then deportation from Sudan.
I hope Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi will stress how this apalling incident has damaged people's perception of Islam and Muslims - ALL Muslims. Already British author Kes Gray has stated the case of Gillian Gibbons influenced his decision to change the name of a character in his book, Who's Poorly Too. The character, Mohammed the Mole has been renamed Morgan so as not to offend Muslims. Gray's book which has sold 40,000 copies in Britain and overseas, was to be reprinted, but this has now been postponed.
It's hard to hold onto liberal and tolerant views when facing religious bigotry, that has no place in the 21st century.
No comments:
Post a Comment