It's a mistake to feed the Islam-haters

As a child growing up in the post-war early 50s I was lucky enough to own two Teddy bears - Young Ted and Old Ted. Ted the younger was more handsome than the bear I'd lavished affection upon since my toddler days when for some unfathomable reason I pulled out most of his fur.

But Old Ted was my best friend and constant companion until the day I forgot him on a South Wales beach. I mourned his loss for months afterwards and consigned Young Ted to a cupboard. And her point is, you may be asking.

I'm a similar age to the British teacher Gillian Gibbons imprisoned in Sudan for insulting Islam, and I would guess she owned a beloved Teddy bear too as a child for, in those days, the most sophisticated toy on the market was a chemistry set. I would, therefore, suspect that if she wanted to deliberately insult Islam she wouldn't have chosen dear Teddy to do so.

In any case, Gibbons wasn't the one who chose what the bear should be called. She allowed seven-year-old children to vote and by all accounts they named it after the most popular boy in the class.

At the time of the unfortunate incident she had only been in Sudan for a month or so and probably had no idea whatsoever what a storm her faux pas could elicit. If there is guilt, it is guilt by omission due to the school's failure to properly initiate their new employee into the culture.

Those of us who have lived in the region for years know that naming an inanimate object with the name of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) would be offensive and might be construed as idolatry or even as a depiction. For a novice, such as the teacher in question, the link between naming a bear and Islam would be tenuous at best.

Look, I'm the first one to stand against Islam-haters in my columns. I decry religious profiling at airports, and I condemn wholeheartedly the disrespect shown to the Quran by guards at Guantanamo. I have also slammed Islamo-phobics, such as tele-evangelist Pat Robertson and the right-wing columnist Anne Coulter, and feel nothing but contempt for the Danish publication that printed anti-Islamic filth and for Dutch filmmakers, who go out of their way to produce anti-Islamic propaganda.

Hurting people

No-one should be applauded for hurting people by ruthlessly attacking their religious beliefs, and if they do then they must expect a backlash.

But the way that Sudan has treated Gillian Gibbons - by all accounts a kind individual who wouldn't harm a fly - is shocking. She was naïve and for that she was hauled off to jail, made to face the court system and condemned to prison and deportation. It turns out that it wasn't the parents that lodged a complaint as originally thought but a school secretary who had a personal grudge against the British teacher.

Admittedly it could have been worse. There were predictions she would be lashed and thank goodness they didn't manifest. This is a case that should never have seen the light of day and, for that, the Sudanese authorities must be blamed. They were also wrong to initially refuse consular access and to prevent the teacher's own lawyer from entering the courtroom until the hearing was well underway.

Gibbons may have been made a scapegoat. Relations between Sudan and Britain have recently been cool over the UK's eagerness to send United Nations peacekeepers into the troubled region of Darfur. Perhaps the Sudanese government thought the British woman might serve as some kind of bargaining chip. If so, this is abhorrent.

In any event, Sudan's actions have been detrimental to global perceptions of Islam; attitudes that Gibbons herself has spoken out against. Her 25-year-old son John quoted his mum as saying "I don't want any resentment towards Muslim people".

Fox's Bill O'Reilly was practically salivating over televised scenes of Sudanese protesters baying for the teacher's blood and scaring off Western reporters by menacingly drawing their hands across their throats.

One of O'Reilly's guests described the mob's behaviour as "barbaric" and, for once, I could only agree. It's one thing for such a mob to be angry at the West over, say, Iraq, but hurling threats and invective at a middle-aged woman who made an innocent mistake is not only beneath contempt but cowardly.

Such extremism is self-defeating and I am sure that the vast majority of Muslims feel exactly the same way. Those whom I've spoken with here in Egypt are incensed at the Sudanese for wrongly portraying their religion as unforgiving.

In the end common sense has prevailed. It's reported that the Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir has given in to peer pressure and afforded Gibbons a pardon, thanks to two British Muslim peers Lord Nazir Ahmad and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi who travelled to Sudan to meet with government officials and press the case for an early release.

As for Gibbons she is said to be in good spirits but would like nothing more than to stay in Sudan and continue with her job. "I just feel so sad," she said. "It was my dream to come here so why should I have come and then insulted Islam?"

Why indeed?

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com.

The mistake could be major or minor; whatever it is, if it insults Islam, it should be punished. Otherwise, it is a sign of weakness.
Razzak
Hubli,India
Posted: December 04, 2007, 15:55