British teacher charged with insulting Islam in teddy bear ‘Muhammad’ row

SCROOGE ALERT – INTERNATIONAL

Gillian Gibbons will face charges of insulting Islam after she allowed students in Sudan to name a teddy bear Mohammed.

I rarely name Scrooges outside the U.S., but This Week’s Top Scrooge just may go to the Sudanese officials “investigating” the British teacher with the heart-of-gold reputation.

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LATEST NEWS: Teddy “Muhammad” Bear Teacher Found Guilty, Sentenced to 15 Days in Jail 

Teddy Bear ‘Fierce and Dangerous Animal’ in Sudan

Sudanese authorities said teacher had insulted prophet Muhammad by allowing her 7-year-old pupils to give his name to a toy bear

In one of the worst spin jobs in international history, a spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in London told the BBC that, ”We don’t have any teddy bears over here…” 

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This from the Washington Post:

LONDON – British officials were working Tuesday evening to secure the release of a British schoolteacher arrested in Sudan on allegations of blasphemy after children in her class in Khartoum named a teddy bear “Muhammad.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that he felt “very sorry” for Gillian Gibbons, 54, of Liverpool, and that officials were working with the Sudanese government “so that she can be released soon.”

In a case echoing last year’s controversy over Danish newspaper cartoons lampooning Muhammad, Sudanese authorities said Gibbons had insulted the prophet by allowing her 7-year-old pupils to give his name to a toy bear.

“We don’t have any teddy bears over here, so in Sudan, for us, it is a fierce and dangerous animal,” Khalid al-Mubarak, a spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in London, told the BBC. “The cultural background is very different. That is a very important point.”

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UPDATE: Teddy Muhammad Bear Teacher Says Sudanese Jail Not Bad

LATEST NEWS: Teddy “Muhammad” Bear Teacher Found Guilty, Sentenced to 15 Days in Jail