This is the same country and government that is guilty of the...

This is the same country and government that is guilty of the most heinous genocide in Darfur, having slaughtered some 200,000 innocent people and driven millions from their homes, land and country.
Obviously religion is the most evil meme possessing human minds and humanity will never progress as long as religion is allowed to poison feeble minds.



Briton faces lashes in Sudan over teddy named Mohammed





A British primary school teacher in Sudan is facing 40 lashes and up to six months in prison after allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear after the prophet Mohammed.

Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, claim she made an "innocent mistake" by allowing the class of seven year-olds to choose the name. But she has been accused of insulting Islam’s holiest prophet, arrested and imprisoned.

If charged and found guilty of blasphemy she faces punishment under Sharia law.

Her actions have sparked protests in Sudan and have forced the school to close until January for fear of reprisals.

The divorced mother-of-two from Liverpool is being held at a police station in the Sudanese capital city of Khartoum, and there were reports that an angry mob had gathered.

As the Foreign Office tried to resolve the situation, Miss Gibbons was visited by consular staff who described her as well, despite her ordeal.

Miss Gibbons had been working at Unity High School - popular with wealthy Sudanese and expatriates - since August, after leaving her position as deputy headteacher at Dovecot Primary School in Liverpool this summer.

advertisementHowever, trouble flared after she let her class choose a name for the stuffed bear as part of a school project.

She was teaching her Year 2 class about animals and their habitats as part of the school’s British-style national curriculum.

She asked one of the female pupils to bring in a teddy bear and asked the students to name it. "They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Mohammed," said the school’s director, Robert Boulos

Twenty of the 23 children opted for Mohammed and the toy was taken home by a different pupil each weekend to record a diary of the bear’s "activities".

Mr Boulos said the diary entries were written in a book which bore a picture of the bear and the words "My Name is Mohammed".

It is seen as an insult to Islam to attempt to make an image of the Prophet Mohammed, but Mr Boulos said nothing was written on the bear itself.

Several Muslim parents complained to the Ministry of Education and on Sunday, Sudanese police arrested her at her home on the school premises.

Mr Boulos insisted Miss Gibbons had not meant to offend anyone but said the school would remain closed until January for fear of reprisals.

"She has done nothing wrong but now we are very concerned that there’s a risk to the school and the students from the men in the street," Mr Boulos said.

The police have confiscated the diary and plan to interview the little girl who owned the bear.

A friend of Ms Gibbons today told how the teacher had been living her dream of working abroad - a dream that now threatens to turn into a nightmare.

"She always said she fancied teaching abroad. She was just fascinated by Sudan and wanted to learn more about their culture and experience life there - which is just Gillian down to a T," said Gill Langworthy, who has been exchanging weekly emails with her former colleage since she herself left Sudan in July.

"I think this will knock her confidence horrendously. I am really worried about how it will affect her.

"This was supposed to be a fresh start for her but it's just ended like this."