Sunday, December 02, 2007


The "Peaceful Religion of Teddy Bear Lovers"
A British school teacher who is (was) a teacher in a Sudanese school is accused of "insulting Islam" for allowing her class of 7 year-olds name a teddy bear "Muhammad". Read the story here. Apparently to name an animal "Muhammad" is very disrespectful at best in the Islamic religion.
Okay, I understand that they could say naming an animal after their holiest prophet to be disrespectful, but we are dealing with a Teddy bear for Pete's sake. Also, it seems about every 1 in 4 guys in Islamic countries has the name "Muhammad" attached somewhere, which would explain why the kids would think of naming a teddy bear as such.
Additionally, the woman who permitted this "act" was a British woman who I believe is Episcopalian, and therefore cannot be expected to necessarily know that naming a teddy bear after the Islamic prophet would be disrespectful. If a group of little kids wanted to name their class teddy bear Jesus without meaning it as a joke, I would see this as innocence and not as an act of hatred of insult.
If this woman had been convicted of "inciting religious hatred" she would've received 40 "lashes" and would have to serve 6 months in prison if she received the maximum sentence. Now she only has to serve 15 days.
I'm glad I live in a country that isn't controlled by Muslims (yet). We can name our Teddy Bears without getting trouble!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ask yourself, how would you feel about a teddy bear named Jesus?

also, ignorance of the law is no excuse, even in the USA.

PBXVI said...

Did you read my whole article? I addressed what I would think of a Teddy bear being named after Jesus. Also, I'm sure naming Teddy bears is not in Sharia Law, so this is just addressing the "sprit of the law", which is not necessarily something this teacher would've thought of. Also, don't forget that the kids are the ones who voted on the name. The teacher seems to simply have allowed this decision.

God Bless!