Metropolis Reality Forums - British Teacher Faces Flogging

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 23^rd, 2024, 7:03pm

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť British Teacher Faces Flogging ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   British Teacher Faces Flogging

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: British Teacher Faces Flogging (Read 497 times)

Undecided.
ForumsNet Member

American Idol: Bring Mishavonna Henson back! =)

Gender:

Posts: 9677

British Teacher Faces Flogging
« on: Nov 28^th, 2007, 8:04pm »

Quote

Modify

A British teacher has been charged with inciting hatred, insulting religion and showing contempt of religious beliefs after her class named a teddy bear Muhammad, state media said on Wednesday.

"Khartoum north prosecution unit has completed its investigation and has charged the Briton Gillian (Gibbons) under Article 125 of the criminal code," SUNA said quoting a senior Justice Ministry official.

It added the file would go before court on Thursday.

In London, a British Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that Gibbons had been charged and officials said Foreign Secretary David Miliband was calling in the Sudanese ambassador over the affair.

"We are surprised and disappointed by this development and the foreign secretary will summon as a matter of urgency the Sudanese ambassador to discuss this matter further," Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said.

Earlier on Wednesday, three British embassy officials and a teaching colleague from the Unity High School where Gibbons worked were allowed to visit her for 90 minutes.

"I can confirm that we have met Ms. Gibbons and she said she is being treated well," said British consul Russell Phillips. "We remain in close contact with the Sudanese authorities on this case," he said, declining to give further details.

Gibbons was arrested Sunday and, if found guilty of insulting religion, could be punished with a whipping of up to 40 lashes, a fine or six months in prison.

On Tuesday, a Sudanese embassy spokesman in London had indicated Gibbons might soon be freed.

"The police is bound to investigate," embassy spokesman Khalid al-Mubarak told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "I am pretty certain that this minute incident will be clarified very quickly and this teacher who has been helping us with the teaching of children will be safe and will be cleared."

Gibbons was arrested after one of her pupils' parents complained, accusing her of naming the bear after Islam's prophet and founder. Muhammad is a common name among Muslim men, but giving the prophet's name to an animal would be seen as insulting by many Muslims.

School apologizes
Several Sudanese newspapers ran a statement Tuesday reportedly from Unity High School saying the administration "offers an official apology to the students and their families and all Muslims for what came from an individual initiative." It said Gibbons had been "removed from her work at the school."

In the first official comment on the case, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday played down the significance of the case, calling it "isolated despite our condemnation and rejection of it."

Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadeq said it was an incidence of a "teacher's misconduct against the Islamic faith" but noted the school's apology.

The statement from the school in newspapers called it a "misunderstanding." It underlined the school's "deep respect for the heavenly religions" and for the "beliefs of Muslims and their rituals," adding that "the misunderstanding that has been raised over this issue leads to divisions that are disadvantageous to the reputation of the tolerant Sudanese people."

The school has closed for at least the next week until the controversy eases. The Unity High School, a private English-language school with elementary to high school levels, was founded by Christian groups, but 90 percent of its students are Muslim, mostly from upper-class Sudanese families.

The school's director, Robert Boulos, told the BBC that the incident was "a completely innocent mistake. Miss Gibbons would have never wanted to insult Islam."

Children reportedly chose name
Gibbons, 54, was teaching her pupils, who are around age 7, about animals and asked one of them to bring in her teddy bear, Boulos said. She asked the students to pick names for it and they proposed Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad, and in the end the pupils voted to name it Muhammad, he said.

Each child was allowed to take the bear home on weekends and write a diary about what they did with it. The diary entries were collected in a book with the bear's picture on the cover, labeled, "My Name is Muhammad," he said. The bear itself was never labeled with the name, he added.

A former colleague of Gibbons, Jill Langworthy, told The Associated Press the diary lesson is a common one in Britain.

"She's a wonderful and inspirational teacher, and if she offended or insulted anybody she'd be dreadfully sorry," said Langworthy, who taught with Gibbons in Liverpool.

There were widespread calls in Britain for Gibbons' release. The Muslim Council of Britain calls upon the Sudanese government to intervene.

This is a very unfortunate incident and Ms. Gibbons should never have been arrested in the first place. It is obvious that no malice was intended," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the council's secretary-general.

British opposition Conservative party lawmaker William Hague called on the British government to "make it clear to the Sudanese authorities that she should be released immediately."

"To condemn Gillian Gibbons to such brutal and barbaric punishment for what appears to be an innocent mistake is clearly unacceptable," he said.

Follows cartoon incident
The case recalled the outrage that was sparked in the Islamic world when European newspapers ran cartoons deriding the Prophet Muhammad, prompting sometimes violent protests in many Muslim countries. The prophet is highly revered by Muslims, and most interpretations of the religion bar even favorable depictions of him, for fear of encouraging idolatry or misrepresenting him.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir earlier this month suggested he would ban Denmark, Sweden and Norway where newspapers ran the cartoons from contributing engineering personnel to a planned U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

Al-Bashir's government already has tense relations with the West, which has widely condemned his regime for alleged abuses in Darfur where more than 200,000 people have died in a conflict that began in early 2003.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22007049/

IP Logged

Genius
ForumsNet Member

Asian engineering!

Gender:

Posts: 13605

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #1 on: Nov 29^th, 2007, 3:27am »

Quote

Modify

Geez, she didn't do it on purpose. Roll Eyes

IP Logged

TAR14: Tammy and Victor
S18: Brendan, Taj, Spencer

Isle_be_back
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 2270

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #2 on: Nov 29^th, 2007, 3:38pm »

Quote

Modify

The teacher just went along with the most popular name voted on by the students. I think they should flog each of the students that voted on the name for the bear. Yeah. It may seem harsh now, but just think of the lesson they will learn. Wink

IP Logged

Joab
ForumsNet Member

Toni and Dallas FTW!

Gender:

Posts: 23296

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #3 on: Nov 29^th, 2007, 8:47pm »

Quote

Modify

What a joke. Shouldn't this be included in one of Britian's most stupid laws? This is atrocious.

« Last Edit: Nov 29^th, 2007, 8:47pm by Joab »

IP Logged

Vote in The Amazing Race Survival Battle -
http://www.forumsnet.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=tar5game;action=display;num=1229008287

Pocket
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 1437

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #4 on: Nov 29^th, 2007, 9:33pm »

Quote

Modify

Popo...this happened in Khartoum, not GB, so you should reference stupid Sudanese laws. This was a religious issue to them, or they turned it into a religious issue. I'm sure it was not the teacher's intent to insult Islam.

« Last Edit: Nov 29^th, 2007, 9:35pm by Pocket »

IP Logged

AmberJ
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 4030

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #5 on: Nov 30^th, 2007, 12:41pm »

Quote

Modify

Okay I don't necessarily agree with the crime/punishment, however, I think the teacher made a mistake by allowing the children to name the bear Mohammad. She is the adult and she (I'm sure) is aware of the laws in Sudan. I understand her argument that it was the children's choice, but she, as the adult, should have overruled their choice. She could have turned it into a lesson, religious tolerance/respect, explained how some may be offended by using the name of Mohammad as a bear. It's like how opponents of Christianity used to name donkey's "Jesus" (mind you in this situation, unlike the bear, the intent was to be offensive)...

IP Logged

Isle_be_back
ForumsNet Moderator
Moderator
ForumsNet Member

Posts: 2270

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #6 on: Nov 30^th, 2007, 3:36pm »

Quote

Modify

So you're saying that if we know a guy named Jesus that is acting like an ass, we should flog him?

IP Logged

AmberJ
ForumsNet Member

Gender:

Posts: 4030

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #7 on: Nov 30^th, 2007, 3:55pm »

Quote

Modify

uh no thats not what i'm saying at all

I said at the beginning of my post I didn't necessarily agree with the decision by the Sudanese government. For many Muslims having someone name an animal after their beloved "leader" is offensive and she as an adult should have thought about how some may interpret what was an unintential action. When you do things that involve religion you need to show religious sensitivity and wonder how others will interpret it based on their religous beliefs (and for some Muslims naming a teddy bear Mohammad goes against teachings)

« Last Edit: Nov 30^th, 2007, 5:22pm by AmberJ »

IP Logged

yesteach
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 10465

Re: British Teacher Faces Flogging
« Reply #8 on: Nov 30^th, 2007, 5:39pm »

Quote

Modify

While I'm sure it was not intentional, as a teacher, if I were teaching in a foreign country I'd do everything possible to learn about the laws, beliefs and culture BEFORE I took the job... not do something like this and then say "I didn't know."

IP Logged

There are only 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »