'I still cannot believe this is happening'

This is purely evil.  There's no other description:

Spitting hatred, thousands of hardline Islamists called for British teacher Gillian Gibbons to be shot yesterday.

They streamed out of mosques in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, shouting: "Kill her, kill her, kill her by firing squad."

One man brandished a giant sword, others carried axes, clubs, ceremonial swords and knives.

These are people we're supposed to negotiate with... we're supposed to understand... we're supposed to embrace as peace-loving people.

Pictures of the 54-year-old, who was sentenced to 15 days in jail for insulting Islam by letting her class call a teddy bear Mohammed, were set alight or trampled into the dirt.

The protests came as devastated Mrs Gibbons was allowed to phone her family in Liverpool for the first time since her ordeal began on Sunday.

Her son John, 25, said: "One of the things my mum said was 'I don't want any resentment towards Muslim people'. She's holding up quite well."

Oh no... no resentment... nothing but understanding, nothing but tolerance, nothing but love for the peace loving Muslims.

Earlier, during a visit from her lawyer, Mrs Gibbons described how her dream of working with children in Sudan had turned into a nightmare.

"I still cannot believe this," she said, "Never in my life would I have ever thought I would be accused of deliberately insulting someone or something. I am simply not like that.

No, of course you're not like that.  But it matters not.  You've insulted their prophet by giving a teddy bear the same name, and for that, your throat should be sliced.  You're also terribly naive, terribly naive, to think that these radical Islamo-nazis are anything but animals.

The divorced mother of two, who began working in Khartoum in August, added: "I just feel so sad. I came to Sudan looking forward to things going smoothly and safely. Now it's all over for me and I will be sent home. It has been a nightmare.

"It was my dream to come here so why should I have come and then insulted Islam?

"If I was that type of person I would have never come in the first place or I could have done that sort of thing in London or Liverpool."

If the West doesn't wake up, and soon, naming your teddy bear Muhammad in London or Liverpool or Paris or Detroit will garner the same reaction.

The teacher was said to have been in tears as she pleaded her innocence during an eight-hour trial behind closed doors on Thursday and to have been stunned by the jail sentence.

There had been hopes after her conviction that she would be freed early. But officials in Khartoum suggested last night that the outpouring of emotions on the streets had made this less likely.

Protesters, who had heard hardline sermons at Friday prayers, waved banners proclaiming "Punishment, punishment, punishment", and chanted: "Shame, shame on the UK" and "No tolerance - execution."

Others yelled: "No one lives who insults the prophet."

No one lives who insults the prophet.  Not even little old naive Brits exhibiting the sort of naivety that could lead to her own death if Sudanese officials allow it.  And they just might.

Hundreds of police looked on but did nothing to disrupt the protest, a clear indication, observers said, that it had been condoned by the fundamentalist government.

A government that ought to be destroyed in my less than humble opinion.  Yes, destroyed.  When a government condones the punishment for naming teddy bears Muhammad, that government loses the right of respect offered her by the rest of the world.  Way past time.

Western journalists and observers were told to leave after demonstrators headed towards them, moving their hands across their throats in a gesture of execution.

Estimates of the size of the crowd varied, with one report suggesting several thousand had joined the protest. Many had arrived in the city in crowded cars and trucks.

Police were also on guard outside the private Unity school where Mrs Gibbons worked.

The case began with a classroom project on animals in September. Mrs Gibbons asked one of her seven-year-old pupils to bring in a teddy bear, then called on the class to name it. They chose Mohammed, the name of one of the most popular boys.

But an office assistant complained to the Ministry of Education that Mrs Gibbons had insulted the prophet by putting his name to an animal or toy.

Hardline clerics, who hold considerable influence with the government, have sought to whip up public anger, calling her action part of a Western plot to damage Islam.

If this is indeed Islam, it ought to be damaged.  With extreme prejudice.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said Mrs Gibbons's conviction was "an absurdly disproportionate response to what is at worst a cultural faux pas".

At the Sudanese Embassy in London, spokesman Dr Khalid Al Mubarak said they had been bombarded with angry emails and phone calls.

But he added: "If a lesson can be learned, it's that anybody going abroad should learn about the culture and orientation before taking any job."

There are indeed lessons to be learned from this. 

But we're too... civilized... for our own damned good.

 

 

Comments

[Mommynator]

I'm hoping this profoundly affects the children. They seem to have had a great affection for her. I hope the out-or-proportion hatefulness they see will open their eyes to the true nature of this islam and they will flee when they have the chance.