British teacher, Gillian Gibbons, faces a year's jail or 40 lashes in Sudan. Her crime? Naming a teddy bear "Mohammed". Saira Khan, a British Muslim and author, speaks out....
Why we Muslims must stop the flogging of the Teddy Bear teacher
By SAIRA KHAN
29th November 2007
Daily Mail
Saira Khan: "I call upon all of us who are proud to be British and Muslim to voice our protest"
Sudan, Africa's largest country by land area, gained independence from Britain in 1956. With a teacher threatened with 40 lashes for naming a teddy bear "Mohammed" it seems that the British were unsuccessful in civilising the Sudanese
At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking the story was some sort of joke.
A nice, middle-aged British teacher locked up in a primitive North African prison, facing the prospect of 40 lashes simply because she called her class's teddy bear Mohammed.
But this is far from funny; it's deadly serious.
Gillian Gibbons is discovering, to her cost, that the Islamic state of Sudan is one of the most primitive and repressive countries in the world.
It's a country where brutal Sharia law is the norm, where no Sudanese woman would dare leave the house with her head uncovered and where the barbaric rite of female circumcision is still routinely practised.
Mrs Gibbons, in short, is in terrible danger - she has now been charged with insulting religion - and desperately needs our help.
By "our" help, I don't just mean that of the Government and diplomatic service.
I mean Britain's Muslim community, who must now unite in condemnation of this shocking and shameful persecution of an innocent woman.
I call upon all of us who are proud to be British and Muslim to voice our protest. We should demonstrate outside the Sudanese Embassy in London. We should make our voices heard in the street and the media. We must say, loud and clear, that we find this case despicable.
This is the perfect opportunity for us to show that Islam is not the faith of hatred and intolerance that many imagine it to be.
But sad to say, I'm not holding my breath. For there is a real danger that, within the British Muslim community, the extremists are winning the ideological battle - making it difficult, dangerous or downright impossible for moderate Muslims to stand up and be counted.
As a moderate Muslim who is outraged at the creeping tentacles of extremism, I will not be silenced.
I believe the treatment of Mrs Gibbons brings shame upon the peace-loving faith that I practise. If this woman is guilty of anything, it is only of naivety.
After all, it was not she who chose the bear's name in the first place. It was the children in her class, who selected it simply because it is the most popular boy's name in Sudan - just as it is in many parts of Britain's cities with large Muslim populations.
Venture into a playground in certain parts of Birmingham or East London and shout "Mohammed" and I'll wager that half the boys in the playground will turn round.
It's a name we love and respect and, as such, it's a name we give to many of our male offspring.
If I was six or seven years old and growing up in an Islamic state - as the children in Mrs Gibbons's class are - and thinking up a name for a class mascot, Mohammed would be the first one I'd settle on, too.
Not out of mockery, but from pride and tradition.
Dress: Sharia law insists women cover up
But the increasingly powerful Islamic thought police claim that calling a teddy bear Mohammed is disrespectful of the Prophet and must be punished. This is absurd on so many levels that it beggars belief.
For a start, if we are searching for people who have truly disrespected the faith, how about men like Mohammed Siddique Khan, the July 7 suicide bomber, or Mohammed Atta, the leader of the attack on the World Trade Centre?
It is Mohammeds like these, with their barbaric acts of murderous violence, who have brought the greatest shame on the name of our beloved Prophet, not some child's teddy bear.
So where are the protests about these men's offence again Islam? Where are the Muslims calling for the fanatics to be rooted out and punished?
The answer, all too often, is that they are concealing their outrage for fear of being targeted by extremists or branded "un-Islamic".
That is not only cowardly, it is dangerous. For if we moderates stay silent, then all the wider British public hears is the angry voices of the fanatics.
Take, for example, the reaction to a series of crass cartoons depicting the Prophet that were published in a Danish magazine two years ago.
Now, as a Muslim, I share the belief that neither Allah nor Mohammed should be represented visually (it is based on the compelling principle that no human hand could ever do their image justice).
As such, the cartoons were certainly crude and insensitive. But the sheer viciousness of the backlash from fanatical Muslims advocating jihad was out of all proportion to the perceived offence.
Around the world, Muslims-rose up in violent protests that led to more than 100 deaths. Is it any wonder, then, that so many of my non-Muslim friends now see Islam as a cruel, violent and unforgiving faith, totally at odds with the kind, tolerant religion that my father taught me about as a child?
I know I am not alone in pleading for moderation and understanding. But so many of us would rather withdraw into the safety of our own families than confront the hatred that is carried out in our name.
We cannot allow this to continue. And right now we have the perfect opportunity to seize back the agenda. We must speak up for Mrs Gibbons - a thoroughly decent woman who never meant to cause offence.
This is the moment for the Council of British Muslims, the unelected body (of men) who claim to speak for Muslims in this country, to step up and condemn in the strongest possible terms what is going on in Sudan - and indeed in Saudi Arabia, where a young women faces being publicly lashed 200 times for the "crime" of being raped.
dailymail.co.uk
Why we Muslims must stop the flogging of the Teddy Bear teacher
By SAIRA KHAN
29th November 2007
Daily Mail
Saira Khan: "I call upon all of us who are proud to be British and Muslim to voice our protest"
Sudan, Africa's largest country by land area, gained independence from Britain in 1956. With a teacher threatened with 40 lashes for naming a teddy bear "Mohammed" it seems that the British were unsuccessful in civilising the Sudanese
At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking the story was some sort of joke.
A nice, middle-aged British teacher locked up in a primitive North African prison, facing the prospect of 40 lashes simply because she called her class's teddy bear Mohammed.
But this is far from funny; it's deadly serious.
Gillian Gibbons is discovering, to her cost, that the Islamic state of Sudan is one of the most primitive and repressive countries in the world.
It's a country where brutal Sharia law is the norm, where no Sudanese woman would dare leave the house with her head uncovered and where the barbaric rite of female circumcision is still routinely practised.
Mrs Gibbons, in short, is in terrible danger - she has now been charged with insulting religion - and desperately needs our help.
By "our" help, I don't just mean that of the Government and diplomatic service.
I mean Britain's Muslim community, who must now unite in condemnation of this shocking and shameful persecution of an innocent woman.
I call upon all of us who are proud to be British and Muslim to voice our protest. We should demonstrate outside the Sudanese Embassy in London. We should make our voices heard in the street and the media. We must say, loud and clear, that we find this case despicable.
This is the perfect opportunity for us to show that Islam is not the faith of hatred and intolerance that many imagine it to be.
But sad to say, I'm not holding my breath. For there is a real danger that, within the British Muslim community, the extremists are winning the ideological battle - making it difficult, dangerous or downright impossible for moderate Muslims to stand up and be counted.
As a moderate Muslim who is outraged at the creeping tentacles of extremism, I will not be silenced.
I believe the treatment of Mrs Gibbons brings shame upon the peace-loving faith that I practise. If this woman is guilty of anything, it is only of naivety.
After all, it was not she who chose the bear's name in the first place. It was the children in her class, who selected it simply because it is the most popular boy's name in Sudan - just as it is in many parts of Britain's cities with large Muslim populations.
Venture into a playground in certain parts of Birmingham or East London and shout "Mohammed" and I'll wager that half the boys in the playground will turn round.
It's a name we love and respect and, as such, it's a name we give to many of our male offspring.
If I was six or seven years old and growing up in an Islamic state - as the children in Mrs Gibbons's class are - and thinking up a name for a class mascot, Mohammed would be the first one I'd settle on, too.
Not out of mockery, but from pride and tradition.
Dress: Sharia law insists women cover up
But the increasingly powerful Islamic thought police claim that calling a teddy bear Mohammed is disrespectful of the Prophet and must be punished. This is absurd on so many levels that it beggars belief.
For a start, if we are searching for people who have truly disrespected the faith, how about men like Mohammed Siddique Khan, the July 7 suicide bomber, or Mohammed Atta, the leader of the attack on the World Trade Centre?
It is Mohammeds like these, with their barbaric acts of murderous violence, who have brought the greatest shame on the name of our beloved Prophet, not some child's teddy bear.
So where are the protests about these men's offence again Islam? Where are the Muslims calling for the fanatics to be rooted out and punished?
The answer, all too often, is that they are concealing their outrage for fear of being targeted by extremists or branded "un-Islamic".
That is not only cowardly, it is dangerous. For if we moderates stay silent, then all the wider British public hears is the angry voices of the fanatics.
Take, for example, the reaction to a series of crass cartoons depicting the Prophet that were published in a Danish magazine two years ago.
Now, as a Muslim, I share the belief that neither Allah nor Mohammed should be represented visually (it is based on the compelling principle that no human hand could ever do their image justice).
As such, the cartoons were certainly crude and insensitive. But the sheer viciousness of the backlash from fanatical Muslims advocating jihad was out of all proportion to the perceived offence.
Around the world, Muslims-rose up in violent protests that led to more than 100 deaths. Is it any wonder, then, that so many of my non-Muslim friends now see Islam as a cruel, violent and unforgiving faith, totally at odds with the kind, tolerant religion that my father taught me about as a child?
I know I am not alone in pleading for moderation and understanding. But so many of us would rather withdraw into the safety of our own families than confront the hatred that is carried out in our name.
We cannot allow this to continue. And right now we have the perfect opportunity to seize back the agenda. We must speak up for Mrs Gibbons - a thoroughly decent woman who never meant to cause offence.
This is the moment for the Council of British Muslims, the unelected body (of men) who claim to speak for Muslims in this country, to step up and condemn in the strongest possible terms what is going on in Sudan - and indeed in Saudi Arabia, where a young women faces being publicly lashed 200 times for the "crime" of being raped.
dailymail.co.uk
