Muslim rage erupts over a bear called Mohammed

WE’VE had the Motoons protests, followed by an eruption of fury over the Modogs illustrations, and now followers of the Religious of Perpetual Outrage in the Sudan are making death threats over a teddy bear called Mohammed.

The object of their lastest bout of fury is Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old mother of two from Liverpool, who was arrested at her lodgings at Khartoum’s Unity High School yesterday, accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam. She faces a jail sentence, or up to 40 lashes for blasphemy after letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Mohammed.

According to a report in today’s Times, her colleagues feared for her safety after reports that groups of young men had gathered outside the Khartoum police station where she was taken and were shouting death threats.

The Unity school is a Christian-run co-educational private school that teaches both Christians and Muslims and is popular with Sudanese professionals and expatriate workers.

Teachers at the school, in central Khartoum said that Ms Gibbons had made an innocent mistake by letting her pupils choose their favourite name for the toy as part of a school project.

Robert Boulos, the Unity director, said that Mrs Gibbons was following a British National Curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals and their habitats. This year’s animal was the bear.

In September, she asked a girl to bring in her teddy bear to help the Year 2 class to focus and then asked the class to name the toy.

Mr Boulos said:

They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad. Then she explained what it meant to vote and asked them to choose the name.

Twenty out of the 23 children chose Mohammed – the world’s most popular Christian name (thanks to mediawatchwatch for pointing that out). Each child was allowed to take the bear home at weekends and asked to write a diary about what they did with the toy. Each entry was collected in a book with a picture of the bear on the cover, next to the message “My name is Mohammed”.

As a result of the incident, the school has now been closed until January for fear of reprisals in Sudan’s predominantly Muslim capital.

Said Mr Boulos:

This is a very sensitive issue. We are very worried about her safety. This was a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam.